Images clockwise from left: Christine Blais; visitors at the launch of the Gardiner’s new Community Arts Space project; rendering of the Kenojuak Cultural Centre and Print Shop. Courtesy Panaq Design.
Our editors’ weekly roundup of Canadian art news.
Construction of the new Kenojuak Cultural Centre and Print Shop in Cape Dorset, Nunavut, got a big boost this week from the federal government, which announced $4.5 million in Canadian Heritage funding for the Inuit arts and culture centre. This amount is in addition to the $2 million already provided by Infrastructure Canada. Total budget of the project is $10 million. The centre, created in partnership with the Municipality of Cape Dorset and the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative, will be a multi-purpose facility that includes permanent and temporary exhibition galleries; purpose-built artist studios with facilities for lithography, etching, drawing and stone cutting; and a space where the community can gather to preserve and share its stories, traditions and culture. “Our Elders have been waiting a long time for this Centre, and the whole community is very enthusiastic about seeing this project built,” said Cape Dorset Mayor Padlaya Qiatsuk in a release.
Inuit sculptor Abraham Anghik Ruben is now an Officer of the Order of Canada, an honour announced alongside 112 other appointments to the order this week. Also named as Members of the Order of Canada were Toronto art collector and patron Salah Bachir and Quebec art historian Laurier Lacroix. Lacroix is known in particular for his research into the work of Ozias Leduc and Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté.
Toronto’s Gardiner Museum has announced it will now offer free admission to visitors aged 18 and under as part of a public accessibility program. The initiative joins the museum’s new Community Arts Space, which will be handled this summer by community groups including Akin Projects, South Riverdale Community Health Centre, Crazy Dames, UnSpun Theatre and VIBE Arts.
The Contemporary Art Galleries Association (AGAC), which groups 43 galleries across Montreal, Quebec, Ottawa, Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver and runs the annual Papier art fair, announced this week that Christine Blais is the new director of the organization. She has been interim director since May 2015. Previously, Blais worked for the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Foundation, where, among other roles, she launched the Museum’s Young Philanthropists’ Circle. The role of director was previously held by Julie Lacroix, who took a position at the CHU Ste-Justine in March 2016.
Four new faces have joined the board of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, having been elected at the gallery’s annual general meeting. Lynda Gammon is associate professor emeritus in the Visual Arts Department at the University of Victoria, and is a former chair of the department. Paul Barron has a background in marketing and design, and is a portfolio manager with Odlum Brown Ltd., as well as assistant branch manager at the Victoria office. Lawrence Graham is currently vice president of the Union Club of British Columbia and president and a founder of the Victoria Whisky Festival, which has raises funds for local children’s charities. Christopher Jones was appointed senior legal counsel at the Attourney General’s office in 2012, and he is currently president of the AGGV Foundation.
An Inuit art collection with a unique history is moving to the Art Gallery of Hamilton. The 132-piece collection, previously sited at Hamilton Health Sciences, includes sculptures and prints made by Inuit patients from the north who were treated for TB at what was once called the Hamilton Mountain Sanatorium during the 1950s and 1960s. That hospital claims to be the principal one treating tuberculosis in Inuit populations during that time period. The move was prompted when Hamilton Health Sciences was slated to exit the Chedoke Hospital site, where the collection is kept. An anonymous donor bought the collection at an appraised price, then donated it to the AGH. An exhibition based on the collection is expected in 2017.
Confederation Centre Art Gallery recently accepted a large 1887 portrait, painted by Charlottetown-raised artist Robert Harris, for the gallery’s extensive Harris Collection. Harris is best known for being commissioned to paint the Fathers of Confederation in 1883. The oil painting was gifted to the centre in memory of Linda Tweel, an early member of the Woman’s Committee of Confederation Centre of the Arts, and chair of the Friends of Confederation Centre for several years.
Also make sure to check out our longer news stories from earlier this week: Finally: An Artist Fee Calculator for Canada, Arts Reps Decry Exclusion from Cultural Advisory Group, and The Art of Power: What Obama Saw at our National Gallery.
