The Board of Trustees of the National Gallery of Canada and the Minister of Canadian Heritage, Pablo Rodriguez, seem to have resolved the squaring of the circle by appointing Jean-François Bélisle to head the NGC. It comes at a pivotal moment in the history of the museum, which took a bittersweet turn last November when its Board of Directors fired Deputy Director and Chief Curator Kitty Scott, the curator of art Indigenous Greg Hill, Director of Conservation and Technical Research Stephen Gritt and Senior Communications Manager Denise Siele. Dismissals that had worried the visual arts community and Minister Rodriguez.
The transformation of the NGC put forward a desire to consider “the indigenous way of thinking” in the management and programming of the museum. Teeth gritted. The arrival of Jean-François Bélisle at the reins of the museum should allow the establishment to apply its program which gives a different and increased place to natives and social minorities, without however making a clean sweep of the past.
Holder of a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in art history from Concordia, Mr. Bélisle could be the providential director for this planned turn of the museum’s beacon of Canadian visual arts. First, because he brilliantly managed the need to give more space to Aboriginal people at the Musée d’art de Joliette.
Following the tragic death of Indigenous Joyce Echaquan in Joliette on September 28, 2020, he brought the communities closer together and brought the Anishinaabe director of the Lanaudière Native Friendship Center, Jennifer Brazeau, to the board of directors of the MAJ . And exhibited in Joliette a large number of valuable Aboriginal artists.
Jean-François Bélisle’s career is atypical. This is its strength. He has known the world of visual arts from all angles. Son of collector Jean-Denis Bélisle, former Canadian ambassador to several African countries, he is renowned for his broad expertise, his contagious dynamism and his knowledge of the Canadian museum community, having been, since 2021, vice-president of the ‘Organization of Canadian Art Museum Directors, before becoming President last week!
Speaking French, English and Italian, Jean-François Bélisle knows the international art market well. He worked at the Sotheby’s auction house in Geneva, and at the Iegor auction house in Montreal. Among his other professional experiences, he has worked at the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowski Canadian Art Research Institute in Montreal, at UNESCO in Paris, at the Prince of Asturias Foundation in Oviedo, Spain, as well as at the McCord Museum and Ciel variable magazine.
Director of the Association of Contemporary Art Galleries from 2007 to 2011 and of the Arsenal from 2011 to 2016, he has curated a large number of contemporary art exhibitions on the Quebec, Canadian and international scenes. He arrived in April 2016 at the head of the MAJ where he had replaced Annie Gauthier who left to direct the collections at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec.
In Ottawa, Jean-François Bélisle wants to pursue the current vision of the NGC and implement his vision of a museum centered on art and artists. “I would like the museum to play a role in society, through its reflections, its choices and the space for dialogue and research that it represents,” he says. I would also like to continue to build bridges at the national level, to ensure that artists from Quebec are known in British Columbia and vice versa. That institutions, exhibition venues and research venues collaborate more. We are a great country, but not an international superpower. So creating this abundance at the national level should help us stand out on the international scene. »
Arriving at the NGC after two unilingual English-speaking general managers, he does not succeed the last French-speaking general manager, Marc Mayer, present in Ottawa from 2009 to 2019. “All past general managers, Sasha Suda, Marc Mayer, Marc Théberge, have brought important bricks to the museum and will all influence my governance,” he says.
Given the internal crisis of last winter, Jean-François Bélisle is eager to meet the museum’s teams and “take the pulse of the institution’s human health”. “One of my concerns when I started thinking about this position was how, as a white male, I would be received,” he said. But I must say that I have always been unifying and open. Maybe it comes from my experiences abroad. My first wish is that the museum be open to everyone. »
Jean-François Bélisle will miss the MAJ. He is proud of what he has accomplished there, particularly from the community point of view and the societal issues that have been addressed in the various exhibitions under his direction. “I enjoyed mixing Indigenous art with non-Indigenous art and recontextualizing pieces like the Prakash collection,” he says. It is important from a social point of view. In 2018, we did an exhibition on artificial intelligence with the British Mat Chivers when we were not yet talking about AI. And I’m also proud of the first major exhibition of Kapwani Kipanga who will represent Canada in Venice next year! »
Pierre Trahan, co-founder of Arsenal Contemporary Art: “Jean-François is the ideal candidate for this job. Not only does his track record bear witness to his successes, but he also has an unparalleled charisma and interpersonal skills to attract the necessary traffic from all sought-after backgrounds and to restore full life and dignity to this museum. »
Michael Audain, businessman, patron, collector, founder of the Audain Art Museum in Whistler, B.C.: “This is great news. Jean-François will have the enormous task of restoring its reputation for excellence to the National Gallery of Canada. And I think he has both the determination and the experience to pull it off. »
Nathalie Bondil, Director of Museums and Exhibitions at the Institut du monde arabe, Paris, and former Director General of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts: “It’s an excellent choice for the NGC with someone with experience , and more French-speaking! »
