Ken Lum on the steps of Weightman Hall at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, September 2015. Photo: Stephanie Noritz.
Our editors’ weekly roundup of Canadian art news.
Ken Lum has voiced concern over the potential closure of East Vancouver’s Gladstone secondary school, from which Lum graduated. The province has drafted a list of 12 schools that could be closed because their “enrollment ratio falls below a mandated requirement of 95 percent to qualify for provincial funding for seismic upgrades.” Eleven of these schools are on the city’s east side, which Lum describes as a “collective punishment towards people who choose to disagree with the government and who feel the government takes no interest in them.”
Montreal-born curator and writer on photography William A. Ewing will receive the Outstanding Service to Photography Award from the Royal Photographic Society on September 15 in a ceremony in London, England. The award recognized Ewing’s contributions to the advancement of photography, and also awards him with an Honorary Fellowship of The Society. Ewing has worked as the director of exhibitions at the International Center of Photography, New York, and as the director of the Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne.
The Vancouver Art Gallery announced on Thursday that Ann Webb has been hired as associate director, director of engagement and strategic initiatives. In this role, Webb will oversee the marketing, education and public-program departments. Webb comes to the position from the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, where she was the managing director of ROM Contemporary Culture, and presented exhibitions including Douglas Coupland’s “everywhere is anywhere is anything is everything.” She was also previously the executive director and publisher at the Canadian Art Foundation.
Museum London has begun a new capital campaign, which they announced on Wednesday and began with a $300,000 gift from Great-West Life, London Life and Canada Life. The fundraising will help create a new learning centre, called the Centre at the Forks, which will be a newly designed space within the existing museum. The museum aims to raise $3.5 million from businesses, foundations, individuals and the community to create a building fund and an endowment fund for programming.
Nathalie Bondil, director and chief curator of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, announced on Wednesday that Thomas Bastien has been appointed the head of education and community programmes at the gallery. Bastien will be responsible for family and school-group activities, art therapy and wellness initiatives and the programme for inclusion. Bastien joined the museum in 2012, and most recently worked as the assistant director of partnerships at the MMFA Foundation, where he led fundraising efforts for a number of wellness initiatives.
