Jaume Plensa, Wonderland, 2008–12. Installation view in Calgary. Painted stainless steel, 12 m high. Collection Encana Corporation, Calgary. Courtesy Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago/New York. Photo: Thomas Porostoky.
City Council rejects motion to freeze Calgary Arts Development Agency funding, and moves ahead to nearly double it. The 10–5 vote on Wednesday rejected a motion from Councillor Sean Chu to freeze the funding. Instead, City Council will proceed to lift agency funding from $6.4 million to $11.4 million annually. CADA CEO Patti Pon told the CBC that “A minimum of 75 per cent will go directly into the hands of artists and arts organizations.” (CBC Calgary)
A new study shows that an art program can improve well-being, quality of life and health for seniors. The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the RUIS McGill Centre of Excellence on Longevity and the Jewish General Hospital released the findings together. The study was based on art workshops offered at the MMFA as part of its “Thursdays at the Museum” program, and had a total of 150 participants. (McGill University)
Shortlists have been released for the Prix Pierre-Ayot and Prix Louis-Comtois. Cynthia Girard-Renard, Yann Pocreau and Chih-Chien Wang are shortlisted for the $7,500 Prix Louis-Comtois for mid-career artists in Montreal. Adam Basanta, Jinyoung Kim and Léna Mill-Reuillard have been shortlisted for the $5,000 Prix Pierre-Ayot for emerging artists in Montreal. The winners will be announced December 4 at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. (press release)
A Canadian is one of the ambassadors for the 2019 Art + Feminism program. Montreal curator Amber Berson has been announced as one of 13 regional ambassadors for the international Art + Feminism project in 2019. Art + Feminism “is an international activism platform intended to improve coverage of gender, feminism, and the arts on Wikipedia.” (press release)
Montreal artist Pierre Allard has died. Allard, one half of the art and activism duo ATSA, died on November 25 due to complications from lung cancer. With his partner in art and life, Annie Roy, Allard organized large-scale public events including Cuisine ta Ville and État d’Urgence, among others. (Facebook)
The Ottawa Art Gallery is celebrating the 45th anniversary of Firestone Collection of Canadian Art. To celebrate, the gallery is giving away 45 OAG memberships. (press release)
Sky Hopinka has been appointed assistant professor in film production at Simon Fraser University. The acclaimed Ho-Chunk filmmaker is currently based in Massachusetts where he is a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. He will begin his SFU post in September 2019. He is also a recipient of the 2019 Sundance Art of Nonfiction Fellowship. (press release)
Pierre-François Ouellette is closing his Toronto gallery. That gallery, dubbed Centre Space and opened seven years ago, will host its final exhibition in December. That show is “Chih-Chien Wang: What you found exists only in another world,” and it opens December 1. Ouellette will continue to operate his longtime eponymous gallery space in Montreal. (PFOAC)
Julie Dring is the new executive director at Hamilton Artists Inc. Dring began this week. Previously, Dring has worked at the Art Institute of Chicago. She holds a Master of Arts in Photographic Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University. (emailed release)
There soon will be a new public artwork in Kamloops. Local artist Donald Lawrence, leader of the Camera Obscura Project and a professor at Thompson Rivers University, will install Comet MMXVIII on the entrance to the Kamloops civic building, library and art gallery in early 2019. The light sculpture was originally created for the 2018 Luminocity festival. (press release)
In case you missed it: SFU is building a new art museum in Burnaby. It’s worth reflecting on fall auction misses as well as the hits. FIFA and Momenta are teaming up in Montreal. A bit of the High Line is coming to Toronto. And four Canadian galleries are headed to the Armory Show—two of them newbies to the fair. (Canadian Art)
