The B.C. Museums Association has announced recipients of its awards for outstanding achievement. Adrienne Silver and the team at St ó:L ō Aboriginal Skills & Employment Training received the award of merit in social action, for their work with museums and First Nations youth. The Reach Gallery Museum in Abbotsford, and contributors, received the award of merit in community engagement for SEM Á:TH XO:TSA: Great-Gramma’s Lake, an exhibition and storybook about the drainage of Sumas Lake in 1924. The University of Victoria and many partner organizations, such as the Canadian Museum of Immigration and the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre, received the award of merit in innovative practice for Landscapes of Injustice, an exhibition that shed light on the history of racism in Canada. The Bateman Foundation received the people’s choice award for its wellness program, which is providing free therapeutic art programming during the pandemic. Read more here.
The Audain Art Museum in Whistler, B.C., has unveiled a monumental collaborative work by James Hart, Xwalacktun and Levi Nelson. The Three Watchmen is a 20-foot tall cast bronze sculpture by Hart (7idansuu) that sits on a concrete base with a carved aluminum band titled The Great Flood (Ti A7xa7 St’ak’), a collaboration by Xwalacktun and Nelson (Svpyan). The sculpture is a permanent installation. It stands outside of the museum, on the unceded territory of the Lil’wat (Lil̓wat7úl) Nation and the Squamish (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh) Nation.
Frederick Banting – the Canadian doctor and scientist who co-invented insulin 100 years ago – was also a painter. The Art Gallery of Ontario celebrated Banting’s artistic life and scientific legacy this month by partnering with Diabetes Canada to put on an art competition called Art of the Matter. They asked the diabetic community to answer the question, “How do you want people to perceive diabetes?” in their art. Find the three finalists’ works here.
Window Gallery in Winnipeg has a new co-curator, Jennifer Smith. Smith is a Métis curator, writer and arts administrator from Treaty 1 territory, who most recently co-curated Sovereign Intimacies with Nasrin Himada for Gallery 1C03.
The Winnipeg Art Gallery has reopened renovated studio space for art classes, residencies and community programming. The studio was designed by Michael Maltzan, the architect for Qaumajuq, the new Inuit art centre. To celebrate, Manitoba Education and the gallery are signing a memorandum of understanding that renews their educational partnership. The gallery says it is committed to providing programs that boost artistic literacy and critical thinking.
Starting Dec. 1, the National Gallery of Canada will require all visitors over 12 to present proof of vaccination for COVID-19. A similar policy is being implemented at other national museums, including the Canadian Museum of History, the Canadian War Museum, the Canadian Museum of Nature, and the Ingenium – Canada’s Museums of Science and Innovation. The national museums will also require all staff to be fully vaccinated.
The Textile Museum of Canada in Toronto is working with Honeywell to improve indoor air quality with high efficiency filters and ultraviolet lights installed in the museum’s HVAC equipment. The museum says this system will aid in the avoidance of damage from light exposure. Many Canadian organizations are working to improve indoor air quality due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
