Shawn is the the the Editor-in-Chief of ArtsEverywhere and Executive Director of Musagetes, a philanthropic foundation that experiments in small Canadian and European cities with ways to connect communities more deeply with the arts and creativity. The foundation’s mandate is to make the arts more central and meaningful in people’s lives, in their communities and societies. He joined Musagetes as its first Executive Director in January 2009.

Prior to that, he was the first Executive Director of the Canadian Art Museum Directors’ Organization, a national arts-service organization that represents 85 museum directors. Shawn studied art history at the University of Lethbridge. He is the President of the Guelph Jazz Festival and on the board of the Ammirato Culture House in Lecce, Italy. He is a member of the Executive Team of the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI) at the University of Guelph.