THE TEAM

We are the researchers, artists and designers committed to helping you unlock the full creative and economic potential of your city’s nightlife.

SHEENA JARDINE-OLADE, MPLAN

Planning + Design

With a background in community planning, arts and culture, stakeholder engagement and research, Sheena channels her experience into finding innovative strategies, results and fostering new engagement platforms.

Projects Sheena has worked on include Sustainable Calgary’s, State of our City Report, Active Neighbourhoods’ Participatory Planning Toolkit, ground-breaking Indigenous speaker series Redx Talks and ArtsDance, a symposium that brought Indigenous and non-Indigenous creators and educators together for a day of cultural exchange.

During her Master’s in Urban Planning, Sheena started Freq. magazine, a print publication about arts, culture and issues in urban environments. Her experience as a planner, performer, and previous engagement and placemaking work, has led people to seek her expertise on various committees regarding music cities and cultural policy strategies since 2014.

When she isn’t championing great design and urban vibrancy, you can find her playing music inspired by her Trinidadian/ Nigerian heritage.

NIK IVES-ALLISON, PHD

Research + Strategy

Nik Ives-Allison is an interdisciplinary researcher with a knack for bringing together quantitative, qualitative and geospatial data in unique ways to help cities, organisations and artists tackle complex business + development challenges, assess + mitigate risk, and supercharge growth. 

Nik was the first full-time Executive Director for the Ottawa Music Industry Coalition where she played a leading role in the development and implementation of Ottawa’s first official music strategy through an innovative and highly public-private partnership between OMIC and the City of Ottawa. She also co-created the OMIC’s flagship From Emerging to Export program and introduced business coaching to the organisation’s member services offering. 

This was made possible through her work to rapidly increase OMIC’s operating and programming resources. Over her 2.5 year tenure, Nik and her team increased provincial funding by 221%, oversaw a 184% in municipal funding, secured first time federal funding and developed OMIC’s fee-for-service revenues, creating a strong base for OMIC’s future. 

Nik co-founded the first social enterprise record label, Matchless Minds, based in Belfast, Northern Ireland, wrapping up label operations in 2013 to finish her PhD at the prestigious Handa Centre for the Study of Terrorism & Political Violence at the University of St Andrews (awarded 2015). 

MARTYNA TURCZYNOWICZ

Engagement + Communications

Martyna Turczynowicz is a project manager and engagement specialist with experience cutting across the arts + culture sector including music, the visual arts, and fashion. She’s passionate about helping cities recognize + develop their artistic communities and giving artists the tools they need to build sustainable careers. Currently, in addition to heading up Engagement + Communications for Night Lab, she’s part of the management team for hip-hop/Afrobeat fusion artist Asuquomo. 

Martyna has previously served as the Programs Manager with the Ottawa Music Industry Coalition where she co-developed the flagship From Emerging to Export program, provided extensive business coaching to Ottawa’s fast rising hip-hop community, and led the development of the LOVE LOCAL Stage on Sparks, partnering with Sparks St BIA to present the best new music the capital had to offer to tourists visiting Canada’s oldest outdoor pedestrian mall. Outside of music she’s been active with Apathy is Boring’s RISE program first as a participant (cohort 2) and most recently as a mentor (cohort 4).

Martyna has previously worked with La Maison des artistes visuels francophones (Winnipeg), Nuit Blanche Winnipeg, Lennard Taylor and Indie Montreal in a variety of roles. She holds a BA in Interdisciplinary Linguistics from the University of Winnipeg.