Records group LA.AGOR030 - AGO Indigenous and Canadian Curatorial Department Records

From 1912 to the 1960s, curatorial work at the AGO was not divided by area or department. The Curator (later Chief Curator, as of 1968) and Assistant Curators worked on exhibitions in all media, including prints and drawings. By 1976, the Curatorial branch expanded to include four additional curators, overseeing Contemporary, Canadian Historical, the Moore Centre, and Prints & Drawings, respectively.

The position of Curator of Canadian Art was created in 1970, when Joan Murray was appointed to the post. The department was renamed Canadian Historical in 1974, after J. Russell Harper became the first Curator of Canadian Historical Art. In 1978, Marie Fleming joined the department as the Acting Curator of Contemporary Canadian Art; the first curatorial role dedicated to contemporary Canadian works. The separation of contemporary and historical remained until 1992/1993, when Dennis Reid joined the AGO as Curator of Canadian Art. The AGO’s first curatorial role dedicated to Indigenous art came in 1989, when Norman Zepp became the Curator of Inuit Art. Zepp remained in this post until 1994, and the position was not refilled. Cynthia Cook, Assistant Curator of Inuit Art, remained until 1998. In 2017, the department was renamed the J.S. McLean Centre for Indigenous and Canadian Art. The department was co-led by Georgiana Uhlyarik, Fredrik S. Eaton Curator, Canadian Art; and Wanda Nanibush, the first Curator, Indigenous Art; until 2023. The renaming occurred in conjunction with major exhibitions featuring works by Kenojuak Ashevak, Tim Pitsiulak, and Rebecca Belmore.

The Canadian and Indigenous collections now include significant acquisitions of works by individual artists, such as Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven, Frances Loring and Florence Wyle, Robert Houle, David Milne, Pegi Nicol MacLeod, and Shuvinai Ashoona. The collection spans over a wide range of mediums and artistic movements from historic to contemporary works; including Early Quebec art, pre-Confederation watercolours, Canadian modernism and abstraction, works on paper, and sculptural works; with a notable collection of Inuit sculptures.

The Indigenous and Canadian Art department regularly curates exhibitions at the AGO under the leadership of Georgiana Uhlyarik, who has been the Fredrik S. Eaton Curator, Canadian Art since 2017.