The Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Photo: Paul Zizka.
COVID-19-related news. Papier Art Fair in Montreal has shifted its dates. Previously due to take place in April, the fair will now run June 18 to 21, 2020. The Banff Centre has laid off 400 staff temporarily due to the pandemic, and the Glenbow Museum in Calgary announced temporary layoffs of more than 80 per cent of its staff. Mexican-Canadian artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, who recently received international attention for his installations at the US–Mexico border, has tested positive for coronavirus. Across Canada, most galleries remain closed to the public, with some moving programming online. The Inside Out Film Festival, previously scheduled for May, has been moved to October. (Akimbo, Globe and Mail, CBC Calgary, El Heraldo, Galleries West, Canadian Press)
Canadian artists contribute to Time’s 100 Women of the Year project. Blackfoot Dene artist Lauren Crazybull, who is based in Edmonton, created a portrait of Wilma Mankiller, the first female principal chief of the Cherokee Nation; artist Shana Wilson, also based in Edmonton, created a portrait of US Chief Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and another of former US First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy; Brooklyn-based Canadian artist Tim Okamura painted an image of author Toni Morrison; and Canadian illustrator Anita Kunz made a rendering of screenwriter Irna Phillips. (Edmonton Journal, Time, Time)
Is a National accessArts Centre in Canada’s—and Calgary’s—future? Indefinite Arts Centre in Calgary, which serves artists living with disabilities, is continuing to push ahead with a proposal for a “a completely accessible, purpose-built artist hub that would be the first of its kind in North America.” (Indefinite Arts Centre release, Global News, Indefinite Arts Centre Facebook)
An international design competition is underway for a new building for the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. In a March 11 presentation before Halifax City Council, the AGNS’s CEO Nancy Noble said they hope to have waterfront gallery design complete by spring 2021. “The province has already committed $68 million and Ottawa has agreed to contribute $30 million. The art gallery plans to fundraise $25 million,” CBC reports, and the gallery has asked the city for $7 million. (CBC Nova Scotia, Daily Commercial News)
