Last year, the gallery had problems with its staff and was criticized by the public
The National Gallery of Canada announced Wednesday that it has chosen a new director and CEO.
Starting July 17, Jean-Francois Bélisle will be in charge of the national gallery for five years. He takes over for Angela Cassie, who has been acting as director and CEO since June 2022.
Bélisle was the executive director and chief curator of theMusée d’art de Joliette in Quebec.
The National Gallery said in a statement that he has been a manager in the visual arts world since the mid-1990s.
“I think art can change society, and I’m looking forward to working with the gallery’s staff and artists from all over the country to make sure our institution stays a great force for good,” Bélisle said in the statement.
Bélisle promised to work on projects that will make the national gallery a leader in Canadian visual arts and make it easier for Canadian artists to show their work around the world.
2022 will be a rough year for the gallery
Over the past two years, both current and former staff have criticized and looked closely at the National Gallery of Canada.
In November 2022, the art museum in Ottawa got rid offour senior staff membersIncluding Greg Hill, who has been its Indigenous art curator for a long time.
In a statement posted to social mediaAfter he was fired, Hill said he was “deeply disturbed by the colonial and anti-Indigenous ways the Department of Indigenous Ways and Decolonization is being run.”
Later that month, seven people who had been in the galleryexpressed their concernsIn an open letter to Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez. The letter was about the changes to the staff.
The letter said that the recent departures and previous firings had caused a “high degree of internal uncertainty and instability” in the gallery.
At the time, Cassie was the interim director.told CBC the staff departuresreflect a need for change, and the gallery was welcoming new members who had been “historically excluded from this institution.”
The gallery’s leaders said earlier this year that the art institution wasSteps toward decolonizing its collectionAnd getting people to visit for the first time.