AGGV welcomes new curator

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Haema Sivanesan

Jon Tupper, director of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria is pleased to announce that Haema Sivanesan is bringing her exceptional curatorial and arts experience to the Gallery. She will assume the newly created curator position on June 1, 2015.

Sivanesan brings more than 20 years’ of experience from various positions in public galleries and artist-run centres in Canada and Australia, and she has significant experience in Asian art.

Hailing from Australia, Sivanesan first worked with the Art Gallery of New South Wales, in Sydney, as assistant curator of the Asian Art department. She was also a curator of the Commonwealth Games Cultural Festival in Melbourne. The post of executive director of SAVAC (South Asian Visual Arts Centre) brought Sivanesan to Toronto in 2006 where she strengthened community and institutional partnerships and outreach, and curated several key projects. In 2011 she took the helm of Centre A (Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art) and led the organization through a move and restructuring. Most recently, Sivanesan worked with the Mendel Art Gallery, where she co-organized a major Indigenous arts conference in partnership with the Alberta College of Art and Design, the University of Saskatchewan and Wanuskewin Heritage Park.

“Haema brings a wealth of experience, and is a creative and resourceful individual,” said Tupper. “She is a terrific addition to the curatorial team at the AGGV.”

Sivanesan’s curatorial essays have been widely published in journals and catalogues in Canada and abroad. She is currently guest editing the summer issue of BlackFlash magazine.

She also advises the Bengal Foundation on the artistic direction and collections development of a new museum being built in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Sivanesan received a B.Arch. (Honours) from The University of New South Wales.

Report courtesy Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.