Images clockwise from left: the McLuhan House in Edmonton; artist Nicotye Samayualie.
Our editors’ weekly roundup of Canadian art news.
New Brunswick’s Department of Tourism, Heritage and Culture announced on Wednesday that all New Brunswick Arts Board (artsnb) employees would be laid off in a $400,000 cut to the organization’s operation budget. Rather than maintaining the independent, arms-length organization, which administers arts funding and advocates for the arts, the department will hire internal employees to take over artsnb’s duties.
Arts Habitat Edmonton has turned media theorist Marshall McLuhan’s Edmonton house into a museum and gallery space. The building, which was McLuhan’s childhood home, now features a selection of photographs of McLuhan taken by his son, a video installation of McLuhan’s media appearances, a community space for artists and a converted garage that will facilitate an artist-in-residence program.
Montreal artist Nelson Henricks will be awarded the Prix Giverny Capital on February 18 in Montreal. The biannual award, valued at $10,000 and offered by François Rochon’s wealth-management firm, recognizes excellence within the Quebec visual-arts scene. Henricks is the fifth recipient. Past winners include Jean-Pierre Aubé, L’ATSA, Mathieu Beauséjour and Diane Landry.
The TD North South Residency exchange is under way. This year, Canadian Art, in partnership with TD Bank Group, selected Cape Dorset artist Nicotye Samayualie and Montreal-based Luanne Martineau. Samayualie is currently participating in the Banff Centre’s five-week Indigenous Visual + Digital Artist Residency, which concludes on February 12. In March, Martineau will travel to Cape Dorset where she will be the artist-in-residence at Kinngait Studios.
On Tuesday, the Toronto Arts Council announced the 2016 fellows for the TAC Cultural Leaders Lab, a program with the Banff Centre that offers a one-week intensive leadership retreat in Banff and programmed activities in Toronto for arts professionals. This year’s participants include Jutta Brendemühl, curator at the Goethe-Institut; Sally Lee, director of CARFAC Ontario; and Su-Ying Lee, independent curator.
