Rebecca Belmore, Ayumee-aawach Oomama-mowan: Speaking to Their Mother, 1991–96/2008. Courtesy Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff Centre. Photo: Sarah Ciurysek. Belmore is one of the artists participating in LandMarks2017.
Our editors’ weekly roundup of Canadian art news.
Partners in Art has received $2 million in funding from the Government of Canada for its collaborative art project, LandMarks2017, which is one of the Canada 150 Fund pan-Canadian Signature projects. The yearlong, cross-country project will see teams of curators working with Canadian artists and groups of students to create works of art situated in Parks Canada locations from June 10 to 25, 2017. The curators involved in the project are David Diviney, Natalia Lebedinskaia, Veronique Leblanc, Ariella Pahlke, Kathleen Ritter, Melinda Spooner and Tania Willard. The selected artists include Michael Belmore, Rebecca Belmore, Raphaëlle de Groot, Ursula Johnson, Cheryl L’Hirondelle, Jeneen Frei Njootli, Douglas Scholes, Camille Turner and Jin-me Yoon.
Shaun Dacey, curator of the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver, has been hired as the new director of the Richmond Art Gallery, effective October 24, 2016. Dacey has worked at the CAG since 2013, and has prior experience in public programming at the Burnaby Art Gallery and at Oakville Galleries. He holds a master’s degree in critical and curatorial studies from the University of British Columbia. Dacey will replace Rachel Rosenfield Lafo, who is returning to live in Portland, Oregon.
The Ottawa Art Gallery announced two major gifts towards their capital campaign from accounting firm KPMG and artist Max Dean. Grant McDonald, regional managing partner at KPMG, announced a gift of $50,000, which will be dedicated to the creation of the KPMG North Courtyard in the new OAG building, which is scheduled to open in late 2017. Dean has donated a selection of artworks, which include photography, performance and installation work, and are valued at $500,000, to the gallery. The OAG’s overall fundraising goal was $3.5 million, and they have now achieved over $3 million in donations.
eBay Canada has collaborated with artists Jordan Bennett and Patrick Hunter to create four limited-edition scarves, from which all proceeds go to charities of the artists’ choice. Discussing his decision to donate the proceeds to St. John’s Native Friendship Centre, Bennett, an artist of Mi’kmaq heritage who recently represented Newfoundland and Labrador in the 2015 Venice Biennale, said, “In Newfoundland, we just got a lot of funding cuts to our arts and a lot of different programs have been cut in the province, so I thought it would be a great opportunity to give back to our Indigenous community.”
