Dr. Janne Sirén joined the Buffalo AKG Art Museum as the Peggy Pierce Elfvin Director in April 2013. Over the course of a decade of his leadership, the museum has embarked upon the most significant campus expansion and development project in its 160-year history, which will culminate in the opening in spring 2023 of the new Buffalo AKG Art Museum, designed by OMA/Shohei Shigematsu. Under Sirén’s stewardship, the museum has raised nearly $230 million to fund the construction of the renewed and expanded campus, the largest cultural fundraising campaign in the history of Western New York.

A passionate advocate for the active role of the museum and the arts in shaping and supporting diverse communities, Sirén launched the museum’s pioneering Public Art Initiative in 2013. This innovative partnership between the museum, local government bodies, and private individuals and businesses has been hailed as a national model for museums and their communities to sustainably create and install public art and has generated more than forty public artworks across Western New York.

A passionate advocate for the active role of the museum and the arts in shaping and supporting diverse communities, Sirén launched the museum’s pioneering Public Art Initiative in 2013. This innovative partnership between the museum, local government bodies, and private individuals and businesses has been hailed as a national model for museums and their communities to sustainably create and install public art and has generated more than forty public artworks across Western New York.

Over the course of his tenure, Sirén has initiated several major exhibitions at the museum, including We the People: New Art from the Collection (2018–19); Out of Sight! Art of the Senses (2017–18); Picasso: The Artist and His Models (2016–17); Monet and the Impressionist Revolution, 1860–1910 (2015–16); and Anselm Kiefer: Beyond Landscape (2013–14). In 2022, along with Gabriella Belli, Director of the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, Sirén co-organized Anselm Kiefer: Questi scritti, quando verrano bruciati, daranno finalmente un po’ di luce, a new exhibition of Kiefer’s work in Venice’s Palazzo Ducale.

Prior to joining the Buffalo AKG, Sirén served as Director of Finland’s Helsinki Art Museum—one of the largest cultural institutions in the Nordic region—overseeing an active program of exhibitions, acquisitions, and museum development. In this role, he was a member of Helsinki’s Tourism Advancement Group, representing the cultural and museum field and helping to strengthen the tourism industry in Helsinki while identifying strategic principles for future development. Sirén served as Director of the Tampere Art Museum in southern Finland from 2004 to 2007. He has worked in the Department of Art History at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, teaching courses in modern and contemporary art, aesthetics, museology, and critical theory. Sirén received his PhD from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University in 2001.

Shohei Shigematsu, Partner at OMA North America, has led the firm’s diverse portfolio in the Americas for the past decade. Shigematsu’s designs for cultural venues include a new building for the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, a multi-purpose venue for Faena’s Miami Beach district, and an event space for the Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles. He has collaborated with multiple artists, including Cai Guo-Qiang, Marina Abramović, Kanye West, and Taryn Simon. Shigematsu has also designed exhibitions for Prada, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Park Avenue Armory in New York. His urban and public space designs around the world include a new civic center in Bogota, Colombia, and a post–Hurricane Sandy urban water strategy for New Jersey, as well as a food hub in Louisville, Kentucky, and a mixed-use development in Los Angeles. As a design critic at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, he is conducting a research studio titled Alimentary Design, investigating the intersection of food, architecture, and urbanism. 

Ismaila Alfa is the host of Fresh Air, heard every Saturday and Sunday from 6 to 9 am across Ontario on CBC Radio One and CBC Listen. Alfa's warm personality and passion for music, art, and community makes Fresh Air the show to wake up to every weekend. 

Alfa was born in Zaria, Nigeria and moved with his family to Winnipeg where he studied civil engineering at the University of Manitoba. A playwright and musical artist, he toured Canada and the United States as a hip-hop musician for nearly a decade. To Alfa, music has always been his way to connect with various communities and to hear their concerns. 

He joined CBC Radio in Winnipeg in 2008, working as both an audio technician and traffic reporter for the city’s morning show, Information Radio. 

Alfa served as the host of CBC Radio One's Up to Speed, Winnipeg's afternoon news and current affairs program, from 2013 to 2020. He took the show to #1 in the Winnipeg afternoon radio market. From 2020 to 2023, he was the host of CBC Toronto’s Metro Morning, Toronto's morning radio program.

Alex Bozikovic is the Architecture Critic for The Globe and Mail, where he covers a wide beat including landscape architecture, planning and housing politics. He’s written for journals including Architectural Record and Dwell. His books include Toronto Architecture: A City Guide; House Divided; and the bestseller 305 Lost Buildings of Canada. He also teaches in the urban design program at the Daniels Faculty at the University of Toronto.