New face

It took more than 20 years but the Thunder Bay Art Gallery has appointed its second Aboriginal curator.

Suzanne Morrissette took on the role of the Aboriginal Curator in Residence after the Canada Council for the Arts approved a two-year grant last month. Morrissette was working on her graduate degree in her hometown of Winnipeg a few months ago when she heard the good news.

She moved to Thunder Bay and officially started her new job on Monday.

The last time the Canada Council approved a grant for residency at the Art Gallery was in 1984. Art Gallery curator Nadia Kurd said sometimes finding the right person to have a joint submission can take a long time.

“Like all grants they are competitive and there is a process of finding people to submit the grant with and that process takes a while,” Kurd said. “Some of the grants in the past have not been successful but we were very fortunate that the grant was successful. Rather than the one-year the Canada Council provided us with a two-year residency.”

Kurd said Morrissette will play a big role in managing the permanent collection and developing exhibitions. Grants from the Canada Council are tough to come by, which is why it took so long for the Art Gallery to secure the funding, she said.

Although the two-years may seem like a long time, Morrissette said she has a lot to go through to ensure that all the art has a turn to shine.

“Right now I’m working on a couple of exhibitions as part of the regular programming schedule,” Morrissette said. “The collection here is wonderful. To have access to that many works is an amazing honour and privilege. I’m going to look over the past research that has been done here at the gallery and hopefully contributing to that legacy in some way.”

She added that she will be working with artists across the country and in town to have exhibits up at the Art Gallery.

“It’s been a pretty easy transition. The city is so welcoming. I’ve met a few people now and it is a really nice place to be.”