A past exhibition, Sophie Jodoin’s "une certaine instabilité émotionnelle" (2015) installed at Battat Contemporary, which will be closing at the end of the year. Photo: Paul Litherland.
Our editors’ weekly roundup of Canadian art news.
Montreal gallery Battat Contemporary has announced that it will close at the end of year after almost nine years of operation. In an interview with La Presse, gallery founder Joe Battat explained that he decided to wind down operations due, in part, to the departure of gallery director Daisy Desrosiers, who has led the gallery for seven years. The gallery currently represents Jen Aitken, Patrick Bernatchez, Marie-Michelle Deschamps, Grier Edmundson, Julie Favreau, Sophie Jodoin, Beth Stuart and Marion Wagschal.
The Vancouver Art Gallery announced in a press release yesterday that curator and writer cheyanne turions will be joining the gallery on June 7 as the director of education and public programs. In this role, turions will be “unite curatorial content, educational objectives and audience development goals to provide integrated and meaningful ways to engage the Gallery’s diverse audiences.” turions was recently based in Toronto, where she worked as the acting artistic director for Trinity Square Video. She is involved the Wood Land School project facilitated by Montreal’s SBC Gallery of Contemporary Art, and has worked with other institutions including Audain Gallery, Jackman Humanities Institute and the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art.
The Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity announced on Thursday that Reneltta Arluk has been hired as the director of Indigenous arts. Arluk will begin at the Banff Centre on November 1, 2017. Arluk has a theatre focus, and will be directing a production at the Stratford Festival, The Breathing Hole, this summer. Originally from the Northwest Territories, Arluk was the first Indigenous woman to earn a BFA from the University of Alberta. In her position at the Banff Centre, Arluk will “be responsible for ensuring the programs meet the needs of Canadian Indigenous artists, providing them with a creative environment to facilitate growth and development.”
The board of governors of Emily Carr University of Art and Design announced that the school’s president and vice-chancellor, Dr. Ron Burnett, will be stepping down in 2018. Dr. Burnett has led the school since 1996, and his final year at the institution will be ECU’s first at its new location campus on Great Northern Way. A consultation process will begin at the school in September before a campaign to find Dr. Burnett’s replacement is found.
