It is a good fit.
As Nadia Kurd steps into her new role at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery, her expressive eyes are bright with ideas, her smile warmly genuine.
The young art academic and professional arrives in this city with a bit of an unusual background that appears to have shaped her into a woman with a broad perspective and outlook.
“Well, I grew up in Brantford with my grandparents; I’d say one of the biggest supporters of my academic and creative interests was my grandfather. He was an artisan from Kashmir, the Himalayan state in northern India, and he would make tiles, marble bird-baths and such. He always encouraged me to pursue my own art. But he’d also always say ‘make sure you go to school, to university’.”
She added that most of the rest of her family worked in the Ford plant piecing together cars and trucks; with a light laugh she recalled her father’s suggestion she take up the reputable, necessary and lucrative trade of plumbing some day.
But here’s where Nadia’s path took the unusual turn mentioned: alongside her involvement with art clubs in high school, at age 16 she landed a cop-op placement with something called The Prison Arts Foundation helping incarcerated people develop art interests and skills.
“That’s right, prison art,” she said with another little laugh. “Naturally my parents weren’t thrilled about that. But it really opened doors and possibilities for me in prisons right across Canada. People from maximum, medium and minimum, women’s and youth facilities would submit (mostly) drawings which would be juried. By the time I got to university they’d hired me on and so I went on the road to all these prisons to put on exhibitions.”
Later, after earning her BFA and MA in art history, Nadia turned her energies to initiatives with the South Asian Visual Arts Collective in Toronto, a non-profit artists collective that presents contemporary works of South Asian origin in various venues in that city.
Now, having stepped into the curator’s shoes at the gallery here, Nadia said she sees herself at the centre or hub of so much promising art and artists across the region. Speaking to this area’s aboriginal component, “oh I suppose it’s not so cut and dry in southern Ontario, but the town I grew up in is right next to Six Nations and a large aboriginal population. For me there was never any sense that my south Asian background would get in the way of all I could learn from aboriginal artists who are so different from me.”
Her plan is to make the gallery even more inclusive of groups and cultures in this community.
“Putting on exhibitions is one thing, perhaps the main thing I’ll be doing, but we also have the youth program, art camps for kids, education and outreach. These are all ways we can engage the different communities. I’m asking how can we make ourselves more available to you? How can we make that happen? Let us know.”
Meet Nadia Kurd during your next visit to the gallery and, between now and Sept. 5, take in the vibrant hues and complexity of Frank Big Bear’s huge colour pencil on paper kaleidoscopes, the enduring power and mystique of Norval Morrisseau and a lovely but spooky exhibit entitled Aloft: Ravens and Other Flyers.
As Nadia Kurd steps into her new role at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery, her expressive eyes are bright with ideas, her smile warmly genuine.
The young art academic and professional arrives in this city with a bit of an unusual background that appears to have shaped her into a woman with a broad perspective and outlook.
“Well, I grew up in Brantford with my grandparents; I’d say one of the biggest supporters of my academic and creative interests was my grandfather. He was an artisan from Kashmir, the Himalayan state in northern India, and he would make tiles, marble bird-baths and such. He always encouraged me to pursue my own art. But he’d also always say ‘make sure you go to school, to university’.”
She added that most of the rest of her family worked in the Ford plant piecing together cars and trucks; with a light laugh she recalled her father’s suggestion she take up the reputable, necessary and lucrative trade of plumbing some day.
But here’s where Nadia’s path took the unusual turn mentioned: alongside her involvement with art clubs in high school, at age 16 she landed a cop-op placement with something called The Prison Arts Foundation helping incarcerated people develop art interests and skills.
“That’s right, prison art,” she said with another little laugh. “Naturally my parents weren’t thrilled about that. But it really opened doors and possibilities for me in prisons right across Canada. People from maximum, medium and minimum, women’s and youth facilities would submit (mostly) drawings which would be juried. By the time I got to university they’d hired me on and so I went on the road to all these prisons to put on exhibitions.”
Later, after earning her BFA and MA in art history, Nadia turned her energies to initiatives with the South Asian Visual Arts Collective in Toronto, a non-profit artists collective that presents contemporary works of South Asian origin in various venues in that city.
Now, having stepped into the curator’s shoes at the gallery here, Nadia said she sees herself at the centre or hub of so much promising art and artists across the region. Speaking to this area’s aboriginal component, “oh I suppose it’s not so cut and dry in southern Ontario, but the town I grew up in is right next to Six Nations and a large aboriginal population. For me there was never any sense that my south Asian background would get in the way of all I could learn from aboriginal artists who are so different from me.”
Her plan is to make the gallery even more inclusive of groups and cultures in this community.
“Putting on exhibitions is one thing, perhaps the main thing I’ll be doing, but we also have the youth program, art camps for kids, education and outreach. These are all ways we can engage the different communities. I’m asking how can we make ourselves more available to you? How can we make that happen? Let us know.”
Meet Nadia Kurd during your next visit to the gallery and, between now and Sept. 5, take in the vibrant hues and complexity of Frank Big Bear’s huge colour pencil on paper kaleidoscopes, the enduring power and mystique of Norval Morrisseau and a lovely but spooky exhibit entitled Aloft: Ravens and Other Flyers.
