Portrait of Michelle Jacques,

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Michelle Jacques is a 2024 winner of the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts.

Video directed by Morgan Pinnock.

A presentation of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Independent Media Arts Alliance.

The Canada Council for the Arts is a federal, arm’s-length Crown corporation created by an Act of Parliament in 1957 (Canada Council for the Arts Act) “to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts.”

For more information, visit: https://en.ggarts.ca

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Transcript:

I once was reprimanded for saying that I liked artists more than I like art. And I’m not sure how the person who was reprimanding me was interpreting that, because it’s not that I don’t like art, of course, but the best part about being a curator is being able to be in a relationship with artists.

I got my first job at the Art Gallery of Ontario two weeks after I graduated from art history. Then, the experience of working there just opened me up to the politics of museums, and I started to realize that not everybody felt that museums were for them, that there were a lot of hindrances to people from different walks of life accessing the museum experience that had been so important to me.

And I think because I looked like somebody who maybe wasn’t born to work in a museum, I became connected to many people, many communities who were struggling for that access to these spaces that should be for everybody, but don’t always feel that way. I have ended up working for a long time at making the museum more accessible, more welcoming, more recognizable as a place of connection for all kinds of people.

#GGArts2024 #MichelleJacques #CanadaCouncil

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