Nicholas Bell is the new president and CEO of the Glenbow Museum in Calgary.
Nicholas Bell is the new president and CEO of the Glenbow Museum in Calgary.
Originally from Vancouver, Bell has worked for several years in the United States. Currently, he is senior vice president for curatorial affairs at Mystic Seaport Museum, where he partnered with Tate London this year to present “J.M.W. Turner: Watercolors,” and edited Conversations with Turner: The Watercolors.
Prior to his current role, Bell worked as curator-in-charge of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery, where he helped increase attendance from 150,000 annually to one million, says a Glenbow release. There, he brought in artists including Maya Lin, Theaster Gates, Tara Donovan and Leo Villareal.
Bell is a graduate of the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture, University of Delaware, and of Simon Fraser University.
“Our focus will be to share stories and collections in ways that provide inspiration to Calgarians and visitors from around the world,” said Bell in a Glenbow release. “We are also committed to reintroducing Glenbow to Canada, with the caliber of building worthy of this city’s potential on the national arts and culture scene.”
Bell will begin his new job at the Glenbow on November 1, 2019. He fills a post left vacant by Donna Livingstone, who in April announced she would be departing to lead the Whyte Museum in Banff. Livingstone had been in the Glenbow leadership role since 2013 and, during her time there, the Glenbow moved from a recurring deficit position to a balanced budget and increased attendance.
