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Women at the HelmHow Jean Sutherland Boggs, Hsio-yen Shih, and Shirley L. Thomson Changed the National Gallery of Canada |
A unique history of the National Gallery of Canada exploring the many challenges faced by its first female directors.
When Jean Sutherland Boggs was appointed to direct the National Gallery of Canada in 1966, she became the first woman to direct a major museum in Canada and the first to direct a national gallery anywhere in the world. The subsequent appointments of Hsio-yen Shih in 1977 and Shirley L. Thomson in 1987 built upon this milestone, creating a remarkable precedent for the Canadian and international museum world.
Women at the Helm explores a transformative thirty-year period in the history of an iconic cultural institution through the careers of three directors, their accomplishments, and the challenges they faced. The obstacles to success were many, beginning with an ambitious scheme to centralize the administration of Canada’s four national museums, which diminished the autonomy of the gallery and the authority of its director. In spite of this, as Diana Nemiroff demonstrates, the directors’ many achievements were noteworthy. Boggs’s commitment to excellence and her key role in building a permanent home for the gallery, Shih’s desire to broaden the collections to better reflect the diversity of Canadian peoples, and Thomson’s defence of artistic freedom and the gallery’s arm’s-length relationship with government demonstrate these women’s aptitude at the highest echelons of leadership.
From their leadership style to the challenges they overcame and the contributions they made to the institution, Women at the Helm considers the circumstances of these directors’ remarkable tenures and the obstacles still faced by women in leadership roles today.
Women at the Helm explores a transformative thirty-year period in the history of an iconic cultural institution through the careers of three directors, their accomplishments, and the challenges they faced. The obstacles to success were many, beginning with an ambitious scheme to centralize the administration of Canada’s four national museums, which diminished the autonomy of the gallery and the authority of its director. In spite of this, as Diana Nemiroff demonstrates, the directors’ many achievements were noteworthy. Boggs’s commitment to excellence and her key role in building a permanent home for the gallery, Shih’s desire to broaden the collections to better reflect the diversity of Canadian peoples, and Thomson’s defence of artistic freedom and the gallery’s arm’s-length relationship with government demonstrate these women’s aptitude at the highest echelons of leadership.
From their leadership style to the challenges they overcame and the contributions they made to the institution, Women at the Helm considers the circumstances of these directors’ remarkable tenures and the obstacles still faced by women in leadership roles today.
Details
Part of the McGill-Queen's/Beaverbrook Canadian Foundation Studies in Art History Series (number 35 in series)
552 Pages, 7.5 x 9.5
85 photos, colour insert
ISBN 9780228008729
October 2021
Formats: Cloth, Paperback
"In addition to its thorough analysis of the challenges faced by women in leadership positions, this is a book about women leaders and their everyday work. Women at the Helm paints a rich picture of what it means to lead a major art institution and tells us as much about the history of the National Gallery of Canada as it does about the women who led the institution during a very formative period." Anne Whitelaw, Concordia University and author of Spaces and Places for Art: Making Art Institutions in Western Canada, 1912-1990
"Seldom have I read a book in which the issues facing institutions and their directors are so deeply researched, so clearly synthesized, and so engagingly presented. Diana Nemiroff demonstrates the complex circumstances in which each director found herself and lays out in detail the obstacles of bureaucracy, the veiled challenges to women in leadership positions, and the need for arm's-length governance of national cultural institutions. Women at the Helm is a fascinating page-turner." Joyce Zemans, York University and co-editor of Museums after Modernism: Strategies of Engagement
“In this vibrant intellectual history of the National Gallery of Canada, Diana Nemiroff draws out the leadership and legacy of three women guiding this key Canadian institution from the 1960s to the 1990s. Written with a deft knowledge of cultural policy, the gallery’s internal workings, and the importance of curators and artists, this fine book reveals the many challenges of the gallery in navigating this turbulent and transformative period. Nemiroff never loses sight of the research, exhibitions, and artworks that were often at the centre of debate, discussion, and controversy under these three exceptional directors.” 2022 Ottawa Book Awards jury
"This is an important book, and the successes and failures that Nemiroff lays bare make for essential reading for anyone interested in Canada’s artistic heritage or in institutional leadership." RACAR
"Seldom have I read a book in which the issues facing institutions and their directors are so deeply researched, so clearly synthesized, and so engagingly presented. Diana Nemiroff demonstrates the complex circumstances in which each director found herself and lays out in detail the obstacles of bureaucracy, the veiled challenges to women in leadership positions, and the need for arm's-length governance of national cultural institutions. Women at the Helm is a fascinating page-turner." Joyce Zemans, York University and co-editor of Museums after Modernism: Strategies of Engagement
“In this vibrant intellectual history of the National Gallery of Canada, Diana Nemiroff draws out the leadership and legacy of three women guiding this key Canadian institution from the 1960s to the 1990s. Written with a deft knowledge of cultural policy, the gallery’s internal workings, and the importance of curators and artists, this fine book reveals the many challenges of the gallery in navigating this turbulent and transformative period. Nemiroff never loses sight of the research, exhibitions, and artworks that were often at the centre of debate, discussion, and controversy under these three exceptional directors.” 2022 Ottawa Book Awards jury
"This is an important book, and the successes and failures that Nemiroff lays bare make for essential reading for anyone interested in Canada’s artistic heritage or in institutional leadership." RACAR
Diana Nemiroff is an art historian and a former curator of contemporary and modern art at the National Gallery of Canada.
Finalist
Ottawa Book Award
City of Ottawa
2022
Ottawa Book Award
City of Ottawa
2022
