A view of the entrance to OCAD University. Photo: Facebook.
OCADU, in a new open call for Indigenous applicants, is prioritizing hiring individuals who self-identify as Indigenous, First Nations (status, non-status, treaty or non-treaty), Métis, Inuit or Alaskan Native, Native American and Native Hawaiian Peoples regardless of academic speciality. The prioritization will apply to its hiring process for five tenure and tenure-track positions at any rank within all disciplines of the Faculties of Art, Design and Liberal Arts and Sciences and School of Interdisciplinary Studies, as well as Graduate Studies. “This initiative is a special program under the Ontario Human Rights Code,” a job posting said, adding that the art and design university was one of the first in the country to launch a degree in Indigenous visual culture, and that it will work in tandem with its Aboriginal Education Council and its Indigenous Student Association to “decolonize the institution and to recognize, acknowledge, implement and vitalize Indigenous visual culture.” (website)
The Toronto Sculpture Garden is due to reopen for the first time since 2014. The plan is to commission two public art projects for the spring and fall of 2018. Since opening in 1981 on King Street in between two of the city’s oldest buildings, the park has commissioned temporary artworks by over 80 artists. The City of Toronto’s Arts and Culture Services (part of Economic Development and Culture) has put out a call for submissions, and will determine the winners in February 2018. (website)
Photographer and installation artist Celia Perrin Sidarous wins the 2017 Prix Pierre-Ayot, while Sophie Jodoin wins the Prix Louis-Comptois. Along with receiving a $5,000 grant for new artists, Perrin Sidarous will also have a work of art purchased by Montreal’s municipal collection, in addition to a $2,500 stipend towards organizing an exhibition, all offered by the Contemporary Art Galleries Association and the Ville de Montréal. The other two finalists were Simon Belleau and Andréanne Godin. Jodoin’s prize, which honours creators with more than 15 years of experience, includes a $7,500 grant. Other finalists for the Prix Louis-Comptois were Dominique Pétrin and Karen Tam. (press release)
Vancouver-based artist Vanessa Lam is the first Canadian artist to win the grand prize of Bombay Sapphire’s Artisan Series. Selected from 16 finalists, the mixed-media painter will collaborate with Artsy on an immersive public arts installation in New York City next spring. The award was presented at SCOPE Miami Beach last week by the star and producer of HBO’s Insecure, Issa Rae, and was juried by curator of Artsy Projects Elena Soboleva, SCOPE vice president Daria Brit Greene and Artisan Series international curator Andre Guichard. (press release)
Photographer Maryse Goudreau wins the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec’s first Prix Lynne-Cohen. The biennial $10,000 prize seeks to support Quebec photographers. Goudreau completed her MFA in studio arts at Concordia University in 2016, and her photography, video and installation are concerned with history, memory, identity and social commitment. (Art and Education)
Matthew Hills is the new director of the Grenfell Art Gallery. Hills joins Grenfell Campus and Memorial University of Newfoundland from the University of Alberta Museums, where he managed and curated the University of Alberta Art Collection for the past five years. Hills earned a Master of Arts in critical and curatorial studies from the University of British Columbia. He has curated projects at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Modern Fuel, and Belkin Satellite, among other spaces. Hills replaces Charlotte Jones, Grenfell Art Gallery director since 2009, who retired from her position. (press release)
Winnipeg animator and filmmaker Grant Munro dies at age of 94. Munro was born in 1923 in Winnipeg, where he attended the Musgrove School of Art and the Winnipeg School of Art,” CBC Manitoba reports. “He earned a diploma at the Ontario College of Art where his teacher Franklin Carmichael, one of the Group of Seven painters, helped him get a job at the NFB.” Among other films, he was involved with the Oscar-award-winning 1952 short Neighbours. He also worked with Norman McLaren on other projects and with George Dunning, who later directed Yellow Submarine. (CBC Manitoba)
Vancouver artist Al Neil dies at 93. Known as a multivalent talent in art, music and writing, Al Neil died at St. Paul’s Hospital on November 16, the Vancouver Sun reports. “Neil became part of the artist collective Intermedia in the ‘60s, and did numerous gigs/performance art pieces at art galleries,” the Sun also notes. A small cabin where Neil and his partner Carole Itter have lived is currently being developed into a floating residence for artists to be maintained by Grunt Gallery. (Vancouver Sun)
And in case you missed it: We also posted this week about Inuit art collective Isuma being named Canada’s 2019 Venice Biennale representatives, about Frida Kahlo’s photo collection coming to Canada, about assault allegations in the Halifax arts scene and about massive first-day ticketing problems with the AGO’s Yayoi Kusama show.
