The National Gallery of Canada is hosting a conversation about building a home for Black history. It features Calinda Lee, formerly of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, in conversation with the gallery's interim director, Angela Cassie. Their conversation, on Sept. 20, centres on "the importance and methods of creating and supporting museums and cultural spaces that honour, preserve and celebrate BIPOC and other diverse communities." Look here for more information.
The Portrait Gallery of Canada is hosting an online exhibition of Max Dean’s performances, installations, videos and photographs. The show, Portrait of the Artist as an Artist, is on view until March 8. Dean was born in Britain in 1949 and moved to Canada with his parents in 1952. He earned a degree in art history at the University of British Columbia in 1971, and began making work that questions the relationship between artist, art and viewer. His work has been featured in international exhibitions in Britain and Germany, as well as at the Venice Biennale. Dean won the Gershon Iskowitz Prize in 2005 and the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts in 2014.
The Alberta Museums Association recently announced awards to three provincial institutions. The Red Deer Museum and Art Gallery receives the Leadership Award for Engagement, in recognition of its work with regional Indigenous communities. The Galt Museum receives the Robert R. Janes Award for Social Responsibility for its work to integrate social responsibility into all aspects of museum practice. The TELUS World of Science in Edmonton receives the Leadership Award for Education for its Health Zone exhibition, which looks at various determinants of individual health. For more information, go here.
A mural series about living with mental health challenges by Calgary artist Katie Green will not be installed in Vernon, B.C., after all. City council in the North Okanagan city initially approved the project, but some residents complained the work was "creepy," and the city backtracked, CBC News reports. Green, who has installed similar murals in Calgary's East Village, was approached by the Vernon Public Art Gallery to partner with local residents to co-create the murals. An online petition against the project had 4,100 signatures, while a petition supporting it had some 1,700 signatures.
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts retrospective on the late French fashion icon, Thierry Mugler, will be on view at the Brooklyn Museum from Nov. 18 to May 7 as part of its international tour. First shown in Montreal in 2019, Couturissime corrals scents, photographs and garments from the futuristic visionary. Read more here.
Chloe M. Pelletier has been named curator of European art at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The collection she will oversee spans the Middle Ages to the 18th century and includes landmark paintings from the Dutch and Flemish Golden Age. Pelletier has worked at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Art Institute of Chicago. Learn more here.
Simone Elizabeth Saunders, a recent graduate at the Alberta University of the Arts in Calgary, continues her rapid career growth with her exhibition, u.n.i.t.y., opening at the Textile Museum of Canada in Toronto on Oct. 12. Drawing on an emerging body of work, Saunders engages with her Jamaican heritage, African diaspora and Black solidarity in tufted works that reimagine ideologies of oppression and victimhood.
The short list of emerging artists for the $6,000 Portfolio Prize has been announced. Six winning artists will be announced in October. The prize is offered by the 85/5 Foundation, created in 2000 by five artist friends who graduated from what is now Emily Carr University in 1985 – Douglas Coupland, Graham Gillmore, Angela Grossmann, Attila Richard Lukacs, and Derek Root. Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun joined the board in 2015. The shortlisted artists are: Durrah Alsaif, Simranpreet Anand, Mathew Andreatta, Rebecca Bair, Matthew Ballantyne, Rain Cabana-Boucher, Roxanne Charles, Soloman Chiniquay, Nevada Christianson, Krystle Coughlin Silverfox, Kimberly Edgar, Lucas Glenn, Gloria Han, Bracken Hanuse Corlett, Elly Heise, Nadya Isabella, Jaymie Johnson, Hue Nguyen, Fegor Obuwoma, Ryley O'Byrne, Cole Pauls, Dana Qaddah, Ashley Renee Seward, Dion Smith- Dokkie, Manuel Axel Strain, Tyler Toews, Chad Wong and Gloria Wong. Learn more here.
The Reach Gallery Museum in Abbotsford, B.C., has launched a limited-edition orange shirt in support of Fraser Valley residential school Survivors. Designed by acclaimed Stó:lō artist Xémontélót Carrielynn Victor, the shirt features the Halq'eméylem phrase "éy kws hákw’eleschet ye stá:xwelh," which translates to "we remember our children." The design honours children who attended Fraser Valley residential schools, including St. Mary's Residential School, which operated in Mission, B.C., from 1861 to 1984 at the site of what is now Mission's Fraser River Heritage Park. The Stó:lō Nation is working to locate unmarked graves of Indigenous children who died at Fraser Valley residential schools, starting with St. Mary's. The practice of wearing an orange shirt on Sept. 30 – now the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation – began in 2013 to acknowledge the dark history and ongoing legacy of the residential school system.
The Nature Trust of B.C. recently selected Gibsons artist Elizabeth Evans as its Artist of the Year at an exhibition at the Federation Gallery on Granville Island in Vancouver. Her painting, The Intruder, shows a mated pair of geese fending off another goose. Evans, an artist for nearly 60 years, was taught by Arthur Lismer, a founder of Canada’s Group of Seven. The trust has built a treasury of natural areas to help conserve species at risk. The Federation Gallery is the home of the Federation of Canadian Artists, which works to advance appreciation of art and culture.
The Gabriola Arts Council is launching a new program to help local residents manage their anxiety through art. "Teens and adults are finding the demands of today's world, and the issues they are facing personally, more than they can manage," says the council on Gabriola Island, near Nanaimo, B.C. "Over the past two-and-a-half years, we have all experienced mild to severe anxiety." The council worked with an artist, a counsellor and a facilitator to create the program. It features 90-minute group sessions for 12 people in eight-week cycles, one for teens and one for adults, to help them build community and manage mental health challenges. The inaugural cycle starts Oct. 5 and is by donation. For information, go here.