Daniel Hughes's Shayne and Jessie Babin's Selfportrait are finalists for the 2015 Kingston Prize; a rendering of the Polygon Gallery building, slated to open in 2017; Pierre Lassonde, new chair of the Canada Council for the Arts' board of directors.
Our editors’ weekly roundup of Canadian art news.
This morning, Presentation House Gallery in Vancouver announced that construction will officially begin on the new Polygon Gallery after the campaign secured a $2.5 million investment from the Government of Canada. Funding has also been promised from provincial, municipal and private sources, bringing the total raised to $14 million. Construction will begin in early 2016, with the gallery slated to open in 2017.
Yesterday, Pierre Lassonde was named as a new chair of the Canada Council for the Arts’ board of directors. Lassonde, who is based in Toronto, co-founded the Franco-Nevada Mining Corporation in 1982, which later merged with Newmont Mining Corp, becoming the world’s largest mining company. He will serve a serve a five-year term beginning immediately.
Thirty finalists have been selected for the Kingston Prize, a $20,000 Canada-wide portrait-painting competition. An exhibition of work by the finalists will travel to Firehall Theatre in Gananoque, the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton and Galerie d’art Desjardins in Drummondville. The winners will be announced at Beaverbrook Art Gallery on November 14.
Dr. Stephen Borys, director and CEO of the Winnipeg Art Gallery, has been appointed as the only Canadian member of the Association of Art Museum Directors’ board of trustees. Founded in 1916, the AAMC aims to “support its members in increasing the contribution of art museums to society…by establishing and maintaining the highest standards of professional practice.” Its membership includes 242 art-museum directors from the US, Canada and Mexico.
