Nathalie Bondil, Executive Director and Chief Curator, MMFA, and Dr. James D. Fleck, C.C., Chairman of Business / Arts. (photo courtesy of Business / Arts)
Nathalie Bondil, the executive director of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, has received the prestigious Peter Herrndorf Award, which honours an outstanding leader in Canadian culture.
She is the first francophone to receive the award.
Bondil notes the two Canadian languages are an exceptional asset for understanding the complexity of democracy at a time when some politicians are fanning division.
"Whether francophone or anglophone, we all speak the same language when we support the same values: the language of a shared culture," she says.
Past winners have included Piers Handling, president of the Toronto International Film Festival, and Karen Kain, artistic director of the National Ballet of Canada.
Bondil has been chief curator at the museum since 2000 and was appointed executive director in 2007.
With 1.3 million visitors in 2017, the museum ranks second among the most visited art museums in Canada. It is eighth in North America and 49th worldwide.
Source: Montreal Museum of Fine Arts