Kathleen Bartels awarded the 2017 YWCA Women of Distinction Award for Arts, Culture & Design

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Kathleen S. Bartels

The Vancouver Art Gallery’s Director Kathleen S. Bartels has been awarded this year’s YWCA Women of Distinction Award in the category of Arts, Culture & Design, which honours extraordinary woman leaders who are driving positive change.

This prestigious distinction recognizes Kathleen’s role in enriching the community through her talents and her commitment to the visual arts, and is bestowed to an individual who has made a significant and sustained difference in Metro Vancouver, excels at facilitating the artistic efforts of others and who has broadened community engagement in the arts.

“This is an extraordinary honour, I am very touched and grateful to be recognized among such a distinguished group of colleagues,” says Kathleen S. Bartels. “For the past sixteen years, I have had the privilege to work with an outstanding group of people at the Vancouver Art Gallery including our talented staff, committed Board of Trustees and extraordinary artists from British Columbia and around the world. They are my inspiration.”

The awards ceremony for this year’s 34th annual YWCA Women of Distinction Awards was held at the Vancouver Convention Centre on Monday, May 29, 2017.

About Kathleen S. Bartels

Kathleen has been the Director of the Vancouver Art Gallery, the largest public art museum in Western Canada, for over fifteen years. Under her energetic, incisive leadership the iconic institution has experienced a period of unprecedented growth and a significant transformation of its programs, and has tripled its attendance and increased its membership eight-fold over the last fifteen years. Among her many important initiatives are the establishment of the Gallery’s Institute of Asian Art, unique in Canada for its scope and breadth; and the planning for a much needed new Gallery building that will support the work of artists from Vancouver, throughout British Columbia and across the world, provide permanent space for the presentation of the Gallery’s expanding collection, and engage growing and diversified audiences while advancing Vancouver’s reputation as an international centre for art.

Source: Vancouver Art Gallery