As a Senior Fellow of Massey College, Zainub Verjee was invited to moderate an important discussion on the National Gallery of Canada, one of the foremost cultural institutions of Canada.
Leadership of Cultural institutions is always an understated challenge. In tumultuous times when the meaning of culture, cultural wars, and cultural policies are in flux, how do we account for the histories of national cultural institutions as much as its future? With women at the helm, how does its leadership fare in the complex politics of cultural institutions? What role does gender play in the making of a cultural institution?
The discussion foregrounded an important publication Women at the Helm: How Jean Sutherland Boggs, Hsio-yen Shih and Shirley L. Thomson Changed the National Gallery of Canada by Diana Nemiroff: McGill-Queens, 2021..
Two laureates of the Governor General Award in Visual and Media Arts — Diana Nemiroff (2012) and Zainub Verjee (2020) were joined by Alexandra Badzak (Director and CEO, Ottawa Art Gallery.