Tom Smart Stepping Down from Beaverbrook

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Tom Smart (photo courtesy of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery)

After seven years in the role, Tom Smart, director of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, is retiring.

His last day in the role will be April 26.

Smart started as a curator at the Beaverbrook in 1989 and, with the help of the gallery team, developed exhibitions and tours of the work of Mary Pratt, Alex Colville, Suzanne Hill, Sarah Petite, John Hooper, Yvon Gallant, Fred Ross, Nancy Morin, Guy Duguay and others. 

He then worked at other galleries throughout Canada and the U.S., including the Winnipeg Art Gallery, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection and the Frick in Pittsburgh, before taking on the director role at the Beaverbrook in 2017. 

His mandate during his time at the Beaverbrook was to create a sustainable future for the gallery. Under his guidance, the team launched a brand update and new website, and updated the name — Musée des Beaux Arts Beaverbrook/Beaverbrook Art Gallery. The team expanded its outreach programming and exhibition scopes. It also created the Marion McCain Institute of Atlantic Canadian Art as well as a renewed Art Education Centre.

“The Beaverbrook Art Gallery has been honoured to have Tom Smart as its leader for the last seven years,” said Jamie Irving, chair of the Beaverbrook’s Board of Governors, in a news release. 

“The Beaverbrook has thrived as an institution under Tom’s strategic and creative leadership, which led to the creation of a community and cultural hub for the province.”

An international search for a new director is currently underway.

Source: Beaverbrook Art Gallery

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