About The Préville FINE ARTS CENTRE
About The Préville FINE ARTS CENTRE
About préville
The Préville Fine Arts Centre is a not-for-profit organization and charity that has been a leader in bilingual, arts-based education ever since 1974, when it was founded by musician and visionary, Belva Thomas. Préville is led by General Director, Veronica Thomas, and is overseen by a dedicated board of directors.
Located on Montreal’s south shore, Préville provides group and private lessons in all artistic disciplines, from music, dance, visual arts and theatre, to Indigenous arts, songwriting, sound recording and much more.
In the Fall of 2020 Préville launched The Préville Dance Academy, followed soon after by a unique virtual platform, Préville Online, which has allowed Préville to expand its community far beyond its geographical region. Préville’s latest venture, Préville In Schools, offers workshops that range from interactive performance-based experiences to hands-on sessions where students, whether local or remote, can create alongside phenomenal presenters.
The staff at Préville believe that sharing through the arts is the best way to bring people together and to promote cultural understanding and respect.Whether learning in person or online, Préville is committed to offering its growing community accessible, inclusive, high-quality programming at the lowest possible cost.
600+
Students each year
1200+
Camp registrations each summer
100+
Bursaries awarded annually
The Belva Thomas Charity Bursary
Discover our Day Camp
MEET THE TEAM
Veronica accepted the position of General Director in September 2019. Being the daughter of Préville’s founding director, Belva Thomas, means that the Centre has been a huge part of her life ever since its earliest days. Under Veronica’s guidance, Préville has experienced remarkable growth and now boasts many new initiatives, including The Préville Dance Academy, Préville Online, Préville in Schools, community outreach programs and Indigenous partnerships, to name just a few!
Using the knowledge and connections made in her years of experience as an artist and teacher, she is guiding this institution in a new direction, while remaining true to the values that have been at the heart of the Centre–such as offering excellence in private lessons and group classes in all artistic disciplines.
Through her personal and professional connections in the arts, she has been able to build a team of the best creators and educators. By encouraging their creativity and innovation, she believes that Préville will become one of Canada’s leading arts schools, ensuring that it survives and thrives for generations to come. Veronica strives to create the most rewarding work environment for her staff and the most welcoming learning environment for the Centre’s clientele.
More about Veronica
Veronica has had a long career as a professional violinist, sharing the stage with some of the world’s greatest talents, while also maintaining her love of education. She has given masterclasses and has been invited to judge many events, including the Canadian Music Competition, where she traveled across the country listening to and encouraging many of this country’s most talented young musicians.
Maria is the General Manager of the Préville Fine Arts Centre where she participates in many aspects of the Centre’s day to day operations, including communications, marketing, outreach, program management and blog writing.
More about Maria
Maria joined the Préville Fine Arts Centre staff in 2020, just in time to be part of the early days of Préville Online. As a musician and writer, Maria brings with her a history of professional artistic collaboration, as well as not-for-profit volunteering that dates back 25 years.
Heather is the Outreach Director at Préville, where she works with artists to help them share their inspiring work with schools, and other community groups, both online and in person. Heather has connected artists from all over Canada to eager participants in urban and remote communities in Quebec and Ontario.
More about Heather
Heather joined the Préville Arts Centre team in 2020. She is a professional violinist, teacher, and recording artist who has enjoyed a robust career touring and performing with musicians like Oscar Peterson, Barbara Streisand and Celine Dion, to name a few! Heather brings access to an immense network of fellow artists with whom she has worked and taught over the last 25 years.
Heather and her family are no strangers to arts advocacy and outreach–they are the creators and directors behind The Kincardine Summer Music Festival, which has been a fixture in the cultural landscape of Bruce County, Ontario since 1991.
Heather currently teaches at École Secondaire Publique De La Salle in Ottawa and performs regularly with the National Arts Centre Orchestra.
Alcina Chiu loves to share her passion for the arts and is excited to be joining the Préville team this year as its Summer Day Camp Director!
More about Alcina
Alcina Chiu is an educator, musician, and dancer. She started young, playing piano and flute, singing, acting, and dancing throughout her childhood. After graduating with a Bachelor of Music in Classical Voice from Queen’s University, she founded her own studio, Scherzo School of Music and Movement, while continuing with graduate studies in Dalcroze Eurhythmics at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA.
As a director, she has led the Montreal division of Jeunes musiciens du monde, a music school helping at-risk youth. She is also a co-founder of Tutoiemoi, a non-profit that helps other non-profits with their strategic development, communications and organization.
Kristen is the director of Marketing for the Préville Fine Arts Centre and is responsible for the planning and direction of the centre’s marketing efforts. She also manages the centre’s website.
More about Kristen
Kristen brings over 25 years of marketing and communication experience to the team. She graduated from McGill University with a Bachelor of Commerce, and also holds a graphic design certificate. Earlier in her career she worked primarily in the high tech industry, but over the last 10 years her focus has shifted to working as a consultant, primarily to small non-profit organizations.
Karen is the payroll administrator and bookkeeper for PFAC. She keeps the numbers organized and balanced, which gives us a clear picture of our current situation, and allows us to see opportunities for advancement in the future.
Alexander is a passionate entrepreneur and technology educator. First starting with Préville three decades ago as a bursary student, he now sits on the Board of Directors. He acts as a technical advisor to Préville and other organizations.
More about Alex
Alex is a co-founder of Robot in a Can and other EdTech initiatives that focus on creative programming, web application development, 3d design, expressive arts and many other forms of innovative emergent technology. His curriculum is taught online and in-person to children, teenagers, adults, and seniors worldwide.
Katherine joined the Préville team in early 2025 taking on the role of administrative assistant and the assistant direction of our summer camp. You will be able to see Katherin at the welcome desk on Saturdays, at our shows and at the front desk at camp! Katherine loves to help and bring people together.
More About Katherine:
Prior to working for Préville Katherine was a band instrument and print music specialist for a Canadian music company and has been performing as a freelance musician for over fifteen years. Katherine majored in Jazz performance at Vanier College and Concordia University, studying saxophone.
After university she worked as a woodwind instrument repair technician in the heart of Montreal. At this time Katherine is a band leader working on personal projects with her jazz quartet playing a variety of saxophones (4) and singing jazz voice. Katherine loves inspiring people to follow what draws them to any form of artistic expression!
Josh’s passion for the arts extends to all areas, having grown up singing, dancing and acting. He pursued post-secondary education, attending The Young Americans College of Performing Arts in 2014, which gave him the opportunity to perform and teach around the world from California to Japan.
More about Josh
Once he returned to his hometown of London, Ontario, he was accepted into the Music Industry Arts program at Fanshawe College. Before completing the program he was awarded Best Male Vocalist while also receiving the award for best pop song of the year. After establishing himself in Montreal he was offered the chance to join The Préville Fine Arts Centre, helping to continue their legacy of arts education and further cementing their importance in our communities. He cannot wait to see what the future holds for Préville!
Craig is a teacher at Préville as well as the coordinator of Préville’s Indigenous Arts program.
More about Craig
Craig has participated in many international artist residencies including Re(Claim) and Diverse As This Land, at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity; and cultural exchange residencies in Aoteara / New Zealand, as well as in Haïti, in collaboration with LOJIQ (Les Offices jeunesse internationaux du Québec). His work has been screened in festivals including Asinabka (unceded Algonquin territory – Ottawa, Canada); ImagiNATIVE (Toronto, Canada); Kurzfilmtage (Winterthur, Switzerland); Maoriland (Otaki, New Zealand); and the Wairoa Maori Film Festival (Nuhqkq, New Zealand).
Philippe is the creative and talented mind behind our Préville Fine Arts Centre promotional and educational videos.
More about Philippe
Philippe has been experimenting with video for fifteen years and has been creating documentaries for the last five. Philippe has two feature films to his credit; the first won the prize for best documentary at the Montreal World Film Festival in 2016 and the second was acquired by Bell Media in 2019.
Manuel has been documenting the activities and people who make up the Préville Fine Arts Centre since 2019. You’ll see his stunning images all over our website, marketing and social media campaigns. He is also responsible for documenting our special projects, like dance intensive workshops, and summer camps.
More about Manuel
Manuel is a Montreal-based photographer with more than 7 years of experience in Professional photography. His main interests are portraits, lifestyle, documentary and fashion photography. He completed his studies in photography and contemporary arts at IDEP Barcelona, Spain from 2014-2016. He is well versed in photography processes, content creation, film photography and aesthetics.
Manuel’s other interests include farming, agriculture, permaculture, landscaping, holistic practices and sports. He is a very passionate person, a good listener and is always willing to volunteer to help others.
Policies
To offer the best possible environment to our staff, teachers, students and parents, the Préville Fine Arts Centre complies with the following policies:
Zero-Tolerance Harassment Policy
The Préville Fine Arts Centre is committed to maintaining a safe and respectful environment for ALL. As part of this commitment, we enforce a zero-tolerance policy for any form of violence. This includes, but is not limited to, physical assault, verbal threats, intimidation, and harassment.
- Pay Equity Act (in French)
- Harassment prevention policy (in French)
- Sustainable development policy (in French)
Our Other Policies
Activity Report
The Préville Fine Art Centre’s mission is to offer enriching programs in the field of music (its main activity), and the fine arts, to young people and their families.
The Board of Directors is made up of dynamic individuals with backgrounds in the arts and not-for-profit administration. We are a team of visionaries, artists, and art-lovers with a common vision and passion for arts-based education.
Personal INformation Privacy
For all issues related to personal information privacy, please contact Melissa Thomas (Vice-President, Préville Fine Arts Centre).