Fiya's work focuses on artistic community initiatives by putting an emphasis on education and empowerment.
Her lectures, community projects and educational workshops look to question and raise awareness about
value systems, empowerment, expression, Mother Earth and love.
Gilda Monreal, also known as Fiya, is an arts coordinator, facilitator and teacher
who has experience working in various communities for over 15 years.
Her inclusive community work engages with all ages and genders, including women’s shelters, LGBTQI initiatives,
marginalised communities, prison inmates, schools, First Nations communities, and various conferences.
This work has been completed internationally in Canada, the US, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Sweden and Senegal,
either as an independent artist or along with the Essencia Art Collective of which she is Co-Director & Co-Founder.
In her home city of Toronto, she has run workshops with the following:
Art of the Americas
Proyecto Latino
First Nations’ Reztore Pride
Beloved Movement (dedicated to end gender based violence)
Driftwood Community Centre
Finch Ardwick Mural Project
Oakwood Collegiate
If I Ruled TO Scarborough Youth
Lost Lyrics
ExpresArte Toronto
AWA (Agriculture Workers Alliance)
UFCW (United Food and Commercial Workers Canada)
OCAD University (Ontario College of Art and Design)
She also ran art and theatre workshops for over 4 years at Montreal’s Maison des Jeunes de Côte des Neiges,
and was the lead training coordinator of the Crisis Intervention branch at the Sexual Assault Centre of McGill's Student Society.
Fiya has been invited to give lectures or to speak on panels in various countries around the world to up to 400 audience members. Some events include:
Artscape (Victoria Teatern, Malmö, Sweden)
Manifesto (Toronto, Canada)
Beyond Our Roots (Toronto, Canada)
Emergence Symposium with Toronto Arts Foundation (Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, Canada)
EducArte - Chilean Society for Art Education (Santiago, Chile)
Gilda Monreal (Fiya Bruxa), Co-Founder & Co-Director
"The Awakening"
Canada's largest collective mural created by Essencia Art Collective members: Fiya Bruxa, Shalak Attack, Bruno Smoky.