News Roundup: Indigenous and Chinese Canadian Archives Join UNESCO Memory of the World Register

It’s been a couple of weeks since we did a news roundup, and there’s lots to catch up on, including thoughts on the impact of Hurricane Dorian on Nova Scotia arts and culture facilities and the surfacing of a rarely seen Gordon Matta-Clark archive in Montreal. There have also been some remembrances of late of Bruce Ferguson, Robert Frank and Fred Herzog. Here’s more to keep in mind.

The Archives of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, the Chung Collection at the University of British Columbia Library, and the McCord Stewart Museum’s Notman Photographic Archives have been added to the UNESCO Canada Memory of the World Register. These are all “collections of unique, authentic and irreplaceable documents detailing significant portions of Canada’s history,” says a release. The Centre for Truth and Reconciliation archive includes recordings of statements, documents, photographs and objects in this collection recount the story of the residential school system, which was designed to annihilate Indigenous cultural identities. The Chung Collection is made up of 25,000 pieces, including texts, books, cards, posters, portraits, photos and artefacts documenting three areas of our history: the exploration of British Columbia, immigration and colonization—particularly the settling of Chinese communities—and the history of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The Notman archives include 400,000 photographs from a Montréal studio founded by William Notman in 1856 and run by his sons until 1935. (Canada Newswire, CBC Indigenous)

The Canada Council’s newly released annual report shows some important gains. Investments in international activities more than doubled, as did investments supporting Indigenous artists and organizations more than doubled. Support to both culturally diverse and Official Language Minority Communities increased by at least 24%, and support to Deaf and disability artists, groups and arts organizations grew by 48%. (press release)

Big Shows

An exhibition of Picasso’s Blue Period art is coming to Toronto in 2020. From June 27 to Sept. 20, 2020, the Art Gallery of Ontario will host “Picasso: Painting the Blue Period,” containing approximately 70 works by the artist. The gallery calls it the first exhibition on Picasso’s blue period in Canada. The show is organized with the Phillips Collection in Washington. (AGO, CBC Toronto)

The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival has announced its exhibitions for 2019. They include Lisa Reihana’s in Pursuit of Venus [infected] at the Art Gallery of Ontario, “ᐊᕙᑖᓂᑦ ᑕᒪᐃᓐᓂᑦ ᓄᓇᑐᐃᓐᓇᓂᑦ AMONG ALL THESE TUNDRAS” at Onsite Gallery, “gathering across moana” at Trinity Square Video, A Space Gallery and Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre, Hannah Claus’s “spatial codifications” at YYZ and more. The festival runs October 22 to 27 in Toronto. (press release)

“It’s taken the Canadian visual arts community a long time to recognize that one of the giants of Iranian modernism lives in West Vancouver.” That’s one of the main messages in a Vancouver Sun story about Parviz Tanavoli’s current show at the West Vancouver Museum. The article also traces Tanavoli’s path to Canada decades ago, and how he has been better known for decades outside of Canada than within it. (Vancouver Sun)

Gallery Renos & Expansions

Fredericton’s Beaverbrook Art Gallery has announced a new expansion. Construction of the new wing is anticipated to start in the fall of 2019 and will continue in 2020. The new wing is being named in honour of Harrison McCain and is being designed by Shirley Blumberg of the Toronto firm KPMB. (press release)

BMO Financial Group announces $500,000 commitment to Art Gallery of Greater Victoria’s NEXT Gallery. The gallery now has $15 million committed to the project, which has an entire budget of $30 million. The gallery says more funding announcements are anticipated in the months to come. (emailed press release, Times-Colonist)

SNAP (Society of Northern Alberta Print Artists) in Edmonton is moving from its current location on 121 Street and Jasper Avenue to an expanded 6,000 square foot location. The move in spring 2020 is to serve a higher capacity of artists and patrons. The move is a partnership with Edmonton real estate developer Gather + Co. and will bring the SNAP Gallery and Printshop under one roof; provide expanded exhibition and programming space for print artists; introduce new multi-use spaces including a classroom, a meeting room, expanded artist studios, increased parking, transit accessibility and more. SNAP hopes to raise $100,000 by Spring 2020 to redevelop the new space. (emailed press release)

Residencies & Awards

The 2019 Sobey Art Award Residencies Program has announced its artists for this year. Erdem Taşdelen will spend three months at the Delfina Foundation in London, Marie-Michelle Deschamps will be in residence for three months at the International Studio & Curatorial Program in New York, and Logan MacDonald will take part in a six-month residency at Künstlerhaus Bethanien. These artists were selected from the Sobey Art Award longlist. (press release)

Sherry Park has been chosen as the artist in residence in Cape Breton Highlands National Park this fall. The announcement was made by Parks Canada and Cape Breton Centre for Craft & Design. Park, a painter based in Ontario, will be spending six weeks in Cape Breton Highlands National Park. (emailed press release)

Public Art

Public art installations have been revealed along a new transit line in Ottawa. “The city invested $7 million to bestow a unique character on each of the new LRT line’s 13 stations, and 22 artists from the area and across the country answered the call,” CBC reports, posting image highlights of many of them. Among the artists involved are Jyhling Lee, Jim Verburg, Douglas Coupland, Adrian Göllner, Andrew Morrow and Simon Brascoupé. (CBC Ottawa)

There’s a monumental new commission by Deanna Bowen at CBC Plaza in Downtown Vancouver. “Night Prowl captures part of a film frame from a CBC news story that aired in October 1959, reporting on the dramatic purging and forced closures of many nightclubs in Vancouver’s ethnically diverse east end,” says a release. The work will be up until 2020. (Watch for a longer story on this artwork in Canadian Art online next week.) (press release)

Appointments & Staffing

Mirko Zardini is stepping down as director of the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal. Giovanna Borasi, chief curator of the CCA since 2014, will assume the directorship in January 2020. Zardini had led the CCA for 15 years, and will wrap up there in December 2019. (emailed press release)

Lisa Qiluqqi Koperqualuk is joining the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts as curator and mediator of Inuit art. She will collaborate on all the museum’s projects to enrich its collection of Inuit art and enhance initiatives in Montreal, in Canada and in Northern communities, says a release. She will also reorganize of the museum’s collection of Inuit art. Lisa Qiluqqi Koperqualuk is a trained anthropologist who holds a master’s from Université Laval and a certificate in financial management from Cornell University. She has been vice president of international affairs at the Inuit Circumpolar Council and taught Inuktitut at John Abbott College, among other commitments. (press release)

Melina Mehr has been appointed to the newly created role of TD assistant curatorial fellow at Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto. Prior to assuming this new position, Mehr was an educational research assistant at the Textile Museum of Canada, a docent programmer and public programs assistant at the Art Museum, University of Toronto. She holds a master of museum studies from the University of Toronto. (press release)

Commercial Updates

Corkin Gallery in Toronto is celebrating 40 years. The gallery’s new exhibition, “When the sun departs for a new horizon,” celebrates the occasion with works by Constantin Brancusi, Barbara Astman, Gerhard Richter and David Urban, among others. (emailed announcement)

Patel Division Projects has launched in Toronto. This is a partnered project between Galerie Division Toronto and Patel Gallery located at 45 Ernest Avenue in Toronto that hosts exhibitions and inventory by artists from both galleries’ rosters. The first exhibition is with Patel artist Rajni Perera, opening September 19. This joint venture is under the direction of Devan Patel. (emailed announcement)

International Connections

There are several Canada-connected artists on the Biennale of Sydney list. They include Adrift Lab, Anna Boghiguian, Randy Lee Cutler, Jes Fan, Taqralik Partridge, Adrian Stimson, and Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers. The biennale runs at multiple Sydney venues from March 14 to June 8, 2020. (e-flux)

The Art Basel Miami Beach exhibitor list is out, and some Canadians are on it. Cooper Cole of Toronto will be in the fair for the first time with a solo booth of work by Tau Lewis. Catriona Jeffries of Vancouver will be returning to the fair as well. Among the Canadian artists showing at other booths is Elaine Cameron-Weir, represented by JTT of New York. (press release)

10 Years Ago of Toronto is pleased to partnering with Art Labor of Shanghai in presenting John Monteith’s installation “Resonances” as part of Photofairs Shanghai. The event runs from September 20 to 22, and Monteith’s work is in the Staged section. (emailed release)

The Chicago art fairs this week include some Canadian galleries. Galerie Division Montreal is at Expo Chicago featuring work by Tammi Campbell, Simon Hughes, Wanda Koop, Maskull Lasserre, Scott McFarland, Caroline Monnet and David Spriggs. Montreal’s Parisian Laundry is at the Chicago Invitational featuring work by David Armstrong Six, Simon Belleau, Michelle Bui, James English Leary, Karen Kraven, Veronika Pausova and Celia Perrin Sidarous. Zalucky Contemporary of Toronto is presenting work by Abby McGuane and Jacob Robert Whibley at Expo Chicago. (emailed releases)

There are a passel of Canadian exhibitors at the New York Art Book Fair this week. They include Alicia’s Klassic Kool Shoppe, Art Metropole, Bywater Bros. Editions / Polygon Gallery, Colour Code, Fillip, Halifax INK, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Robin N. and Sternthal Books. The fair runs September 20 to 22. (NYABF)