Antonella Pagano has been a volunteer at St James since 2007, and a staff member since 2010. Antonella‘s relationship with art started at the tender age of eight when her mother enrolled her at the Académie des Beaux Arts at the request of her elementary school teacher. As an entrepreneur, her affinity for aesthetics continued as she coordinated the art department of Tye-Sil, the largest greeting card, gift-wrap, and gift bag company in Canada. She then took on the role of creative marketing director for the well-known Angelo Luzio Dance Footwear Company. After a year of applied arts in design and furniture making as well as a stage with a top Montreal interior designer, Antonella coordinated design projects, researched environmentally friendly materials, and ran the retail store for The Bamboo Warehouse, where she discovered and fell in love with bamboo cloth. Antonella became inspired to design and oversee the production of a bamboo yoga and sports clothing line, and she has now paired up with a top shoe designer, and a top clothing designer, to promote the dressing of the theatre, opera, circus, cinema, and the dance world. Antonella has recently raised $12,000 for a Mental Health Intervention Study which will prove that dance is a legitimate therapy through combined neuro-scientific and social scientific research to evaluate creative arts therapies. Her favourite day of the week is Wednesdays, when she spends her day at the St-James Drop-in Centre with the members and shares art, friendship, and great conversation.
