Nilou Afshar
Lead, Art and Social Connections
Nilou Afshar was born in Iran and migrated to Canada in 1993. Being born in a family of different ethnic backgrounds gave her the opportunity to understand the importance of diversity from early years of her life. This opportunity gave her the passion for resolving migration and ethnic challenges.
Back in Iran, Nilou studied painting and drawing. She is fluent in English, Farsi, and Turkish, has a conversational knowledge of French, and a passive knowledge of Kurdish.
She holds a Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies from York University with her thesis on Arts, Community, and Belonging. She completed her Bachelor of Arts in Printmaking at OCAD University, where she also received a Printmaking Award.
Nilou’s migration to Canada was a turning point in her life. Before coming to Canada, she has lived in Greece and France for a few years. She has more than thirty years of experience in arts education that goes back to the time she was teaching Kurdish dance in Greece. During and after her university degrees, Nilou worked in different various and positions, most notably she worked as Montessori school teacher. Later, she established an art school named Art Cave where, together with her business partner, she taught art to young kids. Art Cave became a great success and received numerous recognitions from the media as well as the local community.
Nilou started her career with the Catholic Community Services of York Region in 2019, coordinating engineering, nursing, and ECC groups. Since joining us, Nilou has helped us organize a multitude of events for our charity providing us with great opportunities to expand our horizons.
Currently, Nilou is the Art and Social Connections Lead. She aims to use the arts to create a welcoming ambience for newcomers to help them integrate comfortably in the Canadian society. Nilou believes that by creating a conversation with art, she will be able to help newcomers build their confidence, be able to network and learn from each other.