The National Gallery of Canada has announced an internship program to increase diversity in art conservation. Four internships, each with a $25,000 bursary, will be given to BIPOC students entering a Master's degree in art conservation at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont. – the only school in Canada that offers training in art conservation at this level. Over three to five months, interns will be paired with experts from the gallery’s restoration and conservation laboratory. The first internship took place this summer. Students interested in the program can contact interncons@gallery.ca.
The Winnipeg Art Gallery and Treaty One Nation have signed an agreement that commits them to working together. Gallery director Stephen Borys was joined by Treaty One Nation representative chief Glenn Hudson to make the three-year agreement official. “Building relationships with community organizations in Treaty One territory is a significant step towards reconciliation,” says Hudson. The agreement outlines partnerships and collaborations, like offering regular gallery tours in Anishinaabemowin and working to further awareness of Anishinaabe culture. This year marks the 150th anniversary of the signing of Treaty One in at Lower Fort Garry, just north of Winnipeg.
The estate of Armenian-Canadian photographer Yousuf Karsh – one of the great portrait photographers of the 20th century – has donated 111 silver gelatin prints to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The photographs, printed by Karsh himself, will be on display in the exhibition The World of Yousuf Karsh: A Private Essence, until Jan. 30. They feature political figures like Fidel Castro, Nelson Mandela, Eleanor Roosevelt and Pierre Elliott Trudeau, as well as actors like Humphrey Bogart, writers like Vladimir Nabokov, and artists like Georgia O'Keeffe and Jean-Paul Riopelle.
Maud Lewis: Life and Work by Ray Cronin has been released by the Art Canada Institute. Lewis was featured in a travelling exhibition that came to the Glenbow in Calgary last summer. The online book is available for free here.
The Saskatchewan Arts Alliance has announced the appointment of Em Ironstar as its new director. Marnie Gladwell, the alliance's director for the past 23 years, will retire at the end of 2021.
The E.J. Hughes Book of Boats has won a B.C. book prize – the Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award. Written by Robert Amos, and published by Victoria's TouchWood Editions, the book features Hughes’ beloved paintings of the B.C. coast. Amos has written two other books on Hughes, E.J. Hughes Paints British Columbia and E.J. Hughes Paints Vancouver Island.
Borderlands – a book of prairie photography by Calgary-based artist Mark Vitaris – has won the Alberta Publishers Association's Regional Book of the Year award. The book was published by Frontenac House in Okotoks, Alta. Borderlands was featured in Galleries West's 2020 art books roundup.