Its a long way from home for Michelle Jacques, but the new chief curator at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria is prepared to learn the terrain.The Toronto native was in Victoria for five days last week to begin laying groundwork for her official transition to the new role on Oct. 22. After nearly 20 years of curatorial work at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Jacques says shes ready for the more intimate community of Victoria.I guess Im just at a stage in my career where I have a lot of thoughts about what a museum is and what it can be for a community, she said. And Im really excited about being somewhere where you can see that fulfilled in a shorter timeline.Over the course of her work at the AGO, Jacques has curated several notable exhibitions, including a year-long series of consecutive and thematic video programs and most recently, Toronto Now, which put the spotlight on artists living and working locally. Although most of her time at the gallery has been in the contemporary field, Jacques most recently spent 18 months as acting curator of Canadian art. She said she sees the position at the AGGV as an opportunity to continue bridging those two worlds.Certainly I would love to see contemporary projects that have been happening at the gallery get a higher profile and little more space, she said. That said, Im really interested in historical programming, too.Jacques studied art history at Queens University and picked up a masters degree in the subject from York University. She has taught at the Ontario College of Art and Design, York University, the University of Toronto Mississauga and the Nova Scotia School of Art and Design. She is also on the boards of Vtape and the Feminist Art Gallery, as well as being a contributing editor to FUSE magazine.AGGV director Jon Tupper said Jacques was chosen from 53 applicants to replace Mary Jo Hughes, who has moved to a new position as director of the University of Victoria Art Collections. It certainly will change the direction of the gallery in some ways, he said after announcing Jacques hiring last month. Chief curators are really the heart of what the institution does; they always bring with them a particular flavour and direction that informs the museum.In addition to her work at the AGO, Jacques experience as director of programming at the Centre for Art Tapes in Halifax made her stand out as a candidate, as did her intelligent, measured and friendly personality. Her high profile will also be an asset to the gallery.Some measure of a good curator is the size of their Rolodex and the connection that they have with artists, Tupper said. Michelle is known across Canada and internationally.Though shes new to the area, Jacques expects a smooth transition. And while her ideas for the gallery are still seedlings at this point, Jacques has an eye on putting the local into a larger context.When I did my interview, it was only my second time in Victoria. I, of course, was struck by the physical location, but I also started thinking about what it means to be a harbour town and have that history as a port city, she said. Much of her past curatorial work has focused on diversity, as well as people and institutions from cities with similar histories such as Liverpool, England, and Marseille, France. She hopes to develop a broad framework for bringing together the things already happening at the AGGV with new projects, she said, and also bring some theoretical underpinning to whats happening here so we can talk about it on an international stage.Another area shes interested in exploring is early female artists like Sophie Pemberton, who preceded Emily Carr.Im really interested in what it was about this place that fostered such interesting female artists so early, she said. I think there are some really relevant things you can do with historical content things that have a real contemporary impact that can tell us about the history of this place and even something about what this place is about now.[email protected]
