Karen Carter

Karen Carter is a cultural sector executive who enjoys working in creative and educational environments. She has over 25 years of experience working and volunteering in a range of arts, culture, and heritage settings.

She is the former Executive Director of Heritage Toronto, a City of Toronto agency responsible for the education and promotion of Toronto’s heritage. She is the founding Executive Director of Myseum of Toronto and co-founder of Black Artists’ Network and Dialogue (BAND), an organization dedicated to the promotion of Black arts and culture in Canada and abroad.

She is also the founder of C-Art, a Caribbean Art Experience launched in January 2020 in Mandeville, Jamaica, which connects artists and cultural workers from the Caribbean to the international art world. Currently, Karen is the Director of Museum and Heritage Services at the City of Toronto.

Karen Carter will be speaking at the Museums & Public Programs Summit 2026 :

Rekindling Museum Foodways

The Chef-in-Residence program provided Toronto History Museums (THM) with a unique opportunity to bring foodways to life by exploring food as an expression of culture, history, and identity through the lens of Chef Jean Régis Raynaud. Through cooking classes, activations, tastings, and co-created menus for long-table dinners, the Chef shared the stories behind ingredients, recipes, and his community’s traditions. This program highlighted how food connects communities across generations and cultures. It reactivated the City’s museum foodways as spaces where food is not only preserved but practiced, tasted, and celebrated.