Vancouver Art Gallery Names Sirish Rao as New Head of Public Engagement

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Sirish Rao (photo by Kristine Cofsky)

The Vancouver Art Gallery has hired writer, arts leader and cultural innovator Sirish Rao as its director of public engagement and learning, effective Jan. 16.

Rao spent a decade at Tara Books, one of India’s prominent publishing houses, and has other international connections through his work with the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Frankfurt Book Fair, Kunsthal in Rotterdam, the Museum of London and the Jaipur Literature Festival.

He co-founded the Indian Summer Arts Society in Vancouver with his partner, Laura Byspalko, and has emerged as an important presenter of South Asian art and thought in Canada. 

"Sirish's wide-ranging interests and experience in a diversity of cultural forms coalesce in the art of storytelling," says gallery director Anthony Kiendl. "As a storyteller, writer, educator and public intellectual, we eagerly anticipate Sirish adding his voice to the gallery's team of thinkers, innovators and advocates as we collectively re-imagine what an art museum can be in a global context in the 21st century."  

Rao, noting the gallery will have a new home in five years, said he is excited by "the work of inner building that will give the new space a heart and soul and make it a cultural hub."  

He serves on the boards and advisory councils of several major organizations on the Lower Mainland, including the Vancouver Foundation, the Vancouver International Film Festival, Simon Fraser University’s India Advisory Council and the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at UBC.

Source: Vancouver Art Gallery