JAO DANTES (HE/HIM)

Practice Name: Jao Dantes

Role: Cultural Planning, Community Planning and Engagement Consultant

Bio: Jao Dantes (he/him) is an urban and cultural planner, strategist, and engagement wizard at the intersection of art, culture, urbanism, design, and equity. At the centre of his work is the pursuit to improve places, spaces, and services to better celebrate and support all people.

As a generalist, Jao has an interdisciplinary skillset in cultural planning, social planning, community planning, creative placemaking, engagement, communications, and graphic design to meet the needs of today’s complex challenges. With over 5 years of experience, Jao has delivered several culture-related projects including municipal plans, organizational strategic plans, creative place-making concept development, and engagement processes for cultural and community development projects across Alberta, British, Columbia, and Ontario.

Areas of Interest:

• Cultural planning

• Social planning

• Community planning

• Creative place-making

Things you want to learn:

• Building a network of diverse and skilled colleagues to be ready to tackle any challenge

• Innovating on how to provide equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility lenses to cultural and community work

• Bridging disciplines to provide holistic and innovative approaches to working and doing

Things you want to see changed in our sector:

• Innovative approaches to supporting cultural development in the suburbs

• Capacity building for young professional and youth