JOHN CAFFERY
Professor, Researcher, DJ, Artist
Cover Photo By Alejandro Santiago
John Caffery is a professor, researcher, DJ, and multidisciplinary artist who engages art in social change and works on creative responses to oppression. Currently, John is a Professor at George Brown College (Community Worker Program and Transitions to Post Secondary Education Program) and Centennial College (Child and Community Studies Foundations Program).
John has been DJ'ing for over 25 years specializing in disco and house music in Toronto. John Caffery's career began on the stages of Vaseline, the legendary party thrown by Will Munro where he performed as a dancer. As a founding member of artist collective Kids on TV, he toured internationally, produced film and video, as well as published recordings. John has done project based work with the Art Gallery of York University, Art Gallery of Ontario, National Arts Centre, and Harbourfront Centre. In 2016, John was selected to be part of the Cultural Leaders Lab, created by Toronto Arts Council and The Banff Centre to enhance leadership capacity in Toronto’s arts and culture sectors.
John is a graduate from the Community Worker program at George Brown College (2010) as well as the Community Arts Practice Certificate program (2015) and the Master's in Environmental Studies program (2017) at York University. As part of the requirements for completion, he coordinated a community based project with youth to create an activist poster series titled Hall of Justice. His research is focused on arts-based social justice education.
John has twenty years of community based work experience including Supporting Our Youth (SOY) based out of Sherbourne Health where he designed and coordinated the program HEAT (Human Rights Equity Access Team) to engage LGBTQ2+ youth leaders and coordinated a drop-in program for homeless youth. In 2017, John began as a professor at GBC teaching in the Community Worker program. In 2019, he also started to work within the Transitions to Post Secondary Education (TPE) program for individuals who identify mental health and/or addictions challenges as barriers to education and/or employment. The Research and Innovation department at GBC funded a proposal by John to build on the community-based research initiative Hall of Justice and work with students to create new educational posters celebrating LGBTQ2+ activists. Currently he is the Principal Investigator for a WIMTACH funded initiative partnered with the City of Toronto developing culturally relevant climate emergency preparedness materials.
John has been DJ'ing for over 25 years specializing in disco and house music in Toronto. John Caffery's career began on the stages of Vaseline, the legendary party thrown by Will Munro where he performed as a dancer. As a founding member of artist collective Kids on TV, he toured internationally, produced film and video, as well as published recordings. John has done project based work with the Art Gallery of York University, Art Gallery of Ontario, National Arts Centre, and Harbourfront Centre. In 2016, John was selected to be part of the Cultural Leaders Lab, created by Toronto Arts Council and The Banff Centre to enhance leadership capacity in Toronto’s arts and culture sectors.
John is a graduate from the Community Worker program at George Brown College (2010) as well as the Community Arts Practice Certificate program (2015) and the Master's in Environmental Studies program (2017) at York University. As part of the requirements for completion, he coordinated a community based project with youth to create an activist poster series titled Hall of Justice. His research is focused on arts-based social justice education.
John has twenty years of community based work experience including Supporting Our Youth (SOY) based out of Sherbourne Health where he designed and coordinated the program HEAT (Human Rights Equity Access Team) to engage LGBTQ2+ youth leaders and coordinated a drop-in program for homeless youth. In 2017, John began as a professor at GBC teaching in the Community Worker program. In 2019, he also started to work within the Transitions to Post Secondary Education (TPE) program for individuals who identify mental health and/or addictions challenges as barriers to education and/or employment. The Research and Innovation department at GBC funded a proposal by John to build on the community-based research initiative Hall of Justice and work with students to create new educational posters celebrating LGBTQ2+ activists. Currently he is the Principal Investigator for a WIMTACH funded initiative partnered with the City of Toronto developing culturally relevant climate emergency preparedness materials.
