Our team

Tau S. Bui has 20 years of administrative experience, ten of which were spent in business enterprises (AbitibiBowater, Bell Canada, SITQ/Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and KPMG). Bui joined the cultural milieu in 2012. She joined the team at the Festival TransAmériques where her development led her to become Director of Finance and Operations. In 2018, she became Director of Administration at Tangente Danse. Through her passion for human resources, the organization decided to establish an HR department. During this mandate, she also discovers strong skills in business strategy, and joins several boards of directors over the years. From 2021 to 2023, Tau S. Bui takes over the executive direction of Diversité Artistique Montréal. She will take this opportunity to develop numerous projects to serve the community, as well as programs in partnership with other Canadian provinces. Faithful to her commitments, she continues to support the DAM in its current succession planning.

She is passionate about arts management in Montreal and Quebec, pays particular attention to the building of strong human ties, believes profoundly in the collective and the pooling of resources, as well as in the role of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in business practices. Today, as Executive Director of the Machinerie, Tau S. Bui hopes to make the most of this new role to convey her values of inclusion and support artists in structuring their most ambitious projects.

tau@machineriedesarts.ca
(514) 907-4783 #204

Ariel Lefebvre is an opera singer and a graduate of McGill University’s Schulich School of Music. Since his start at the Machinerie in 2019, Ariel has developed an expertise in cultural management, specializing in grant applications and the analysis of the needs of both organizations and individual artists in the performing arts. His ability to communicate, combined with his knowledge of good management practices, has allowed him to help and support dozens of creators and companies over the years.

Parallel to his role as cultural manager, which he has fully taken on since his first experience as administrative coordinator for the vocal ensemble Les Rugissants, Ariel develops his own artistic projects as a creator and producer. He is mainly interested in applying a multidisciplinary approach to lyric arts in which the performer is not limited to singing on stage. To this end, he is a founding member of the new Canadian-Italian collective Corifea, whose mission is to present vocal arts in an alternative way.

ariel@machineriedesarts.ca
(514) 907-4783 #203

José Lara Menéndez is a visual artist with a Bachelors of Fine Arts from Concordia University, specializing in drawing and painting.  

Active as an artist in the visual arts community for over five years, José is now involved as a team member of the Machinerie as a project coordinator and assistant to the directors. Eager to support the development of the artistic community, José offers support in project coordination, graphic design and communications, assistance in the development of an artistic practice and the consolidation of professional skills in the field. 

José participated in the planning of exhibitions, grant writing and is currently part of the Art Volt 2022 mentorship program. They exhibit their work in Montreal, Québec and Canada.

jose@machineriedesarts.ca

Michael Toppings is a writer, artist and cultural worker having worked as a curator, programmer and managing director for some 25 years. He has developed a practice within the non-profit cultural sector working for various performing and visual arts organizations located in the provinces of Saskatchewan, British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec. Having developed expertise in the areas of project conception and programming, administration, production, tour development, project management, etc., Toppings now focuses on sharing and transmitting his knowledge and experience to future generations of artists in all disciplines.

michael@machineriedesarts.ca
(514) 907-4783 #208

Marie Ayotte is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, director and cultural worker who has been working in the field for over 15 years now. As an artist, she regularly explores documentary formats, ethical audience engagement, new theatrical scenes and the possibilities of technological innovations in the performing arts. But above all, she is passionate about accessibility in the arts and ensuring that diverse marginalized communities are welcomed into the theatre and on stage.

Alongside her artistic work, she has worked as a coordinator and production manager for cultural festivals, in cinema, theatre, dance and multidisciplinary arts. Through her profound love for accompanying artists and organizations in the development of their projects, budgets and grant applications, she has helped dozens of arts practitioners in their endeavors. 

Since 2019, she also acts as the artistic and executive director of Théâtre Déchaînés, a company that researches, produces and presents accessible theatre.

marie@machineriedesarts.ca
(514) 907-4783 #205

Yvonne Patel is a multidisciplinary artist who is inspired by various forms of transitions found in nature, identity and culture. She constructs from her perceptions and lived experiences, and expresses them through poetry, performance, writing, textiles, painting, and drawing. 

She has a degree in business administration and her professional experience spans the fields of technology, education, hospitality and event management. Passionate about languages from an early age and after much reflection during the pandemic, Yvonne decided to move to Montreal in 2021 and began learning French. 

Through her role as Assistant to the community, she seeks to develop her understanding of the arts sector, while applying her skillset to support the team towards enriching relationships with its community of artists and cultural workers.

yvonne@machineriedesarts.ca
(514) 907-4783 #207

Interested in poetry and the possibility of playing with words from a very young age, Brice Noeser became attached to languages and the invention of languages to create his own worlds. He then crossed paths with dance and made it his discipline in Quebec. After graduating from the École de danse de Québec (2006), he developed a gestural writing that makes sense in his body and in abstract universes. The duet with Karina Iraola, Ruminant Ruminant (2014) marked a turning point in his practice, digging into the notion of mental overload and the obsession of discourse. 

While pursuing various creation and production projects with collaborators in Quebec and internationally, his career is enriched by different professional experiences that connect him to his interest in language, notably in translation, after a year-long program at the University of Montreal in 2016, and in teaching French in private classes. At the same time, while developing new customer service skills, he held a role at the reception for Place des arts for 4 years. Since 2020, he has been perfecting his management and governance skills through his role as assistant to the director at Créations Estelle Clareton.

brice@machineriedesarts.ca
(514) 907-4783 #206