Jeff Morton to Head Yorkton Gallery in Saskatchewan

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Jeff Morton

The Godfrey Dean Art Gallery in Yorkton has appointed Jeff Morton as its new director and curator, starting Oct. 1.

Morton is a composer, media artist, and arts administrator from rural southeast Saskatchewan, whose work explores themes of sound-making, communication and transcription.

Drawing on traditional instruments, found musical objects, natural materials and technology, his performances and installations have been presented in galleries and festivals in Canada and internationally over the last 20 years.

Morton has worked for the Canada Council for the Arts, the Saskatchewan Arts Board, the MacKenzie Art Gallery, the Dunlop Art Gallery and numerous other organizations in roles that include curator, preparatory, technician, producer and project leader.

By coincidence, Morton will be showing his work at the gallery next month in a show organized by former director, Don Stein. It was originally scheduled for earlier this year, but was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“The timing is a bit funny in a sense, but the exhibition has nothing to do with me as director of the gallery," Morton told Yorkton This Week. "But it will be a fun way to introduce myself.”

The work, developed during a residency with the Conseil culturel fransaskois, the province's French-language arts council, uses sound and images from vintage stereoscopic slides.  

“It’s very much an improvisatory kind of artistic practice, where abstract images are coming together in a playful way," he says. 

Source: Godfrey Dean Art Gallery, Yorkton This Week