Mann Art Gallery hires new art educator

“I grew up in southwestern Manitoba and so I did a four-year honours degree in Art History at the University of Manitoba,” Wilson said. “In 2006 I moved east to Kingston, Ontario and did my master’s degree in Art History at Queen’s University.”

During her time at Queen’s, Wilson discovered a strong desire to share her knowledge with others who may not be as familiar with art history.

“I didn’t necessarily only want to be doing research, education has always been a real interest of mine,” Wilson said. “I’ve had some instructor or educating positions in different fields before, but the idea of teaching art history perhaps at the University level, perhaps at a different level has always been part of my career path.”

Wilson eventually moved to Saskatoon to work with the Mendel Art Gallery.

During her time there she became even more enchanted with the idea of interactively teaching patrons about the history of the art exhibits.

“The Mendel like the Mann and like so many other galleries in Saskatchewan is so committed to making sure that they’re available as a resource to the public,” Wilson said.

Wilson said she would be engaging heavily with patrons who visited during what the staff would call the ‘ask me’ shifts.

“Having these wonderful conversations come up just from dialoguing in front of the work of art,” Wilson said. “That to me seemed really interest and really an area that I wanted to keep working more in, instead of doing a traditional academic research or a teaching career.”

The position at the Mann Art Gallery was brought to Wilson’s attention by her co-workers and she jumped at the opportunity to apply.

Speaking about hiring Wilson, new curator Jesse Campbell said, it was just the right fit for the direction she’s taking the gallery in.

“I hired Lana because she has this wonderful combination of knowledge of art and art history from across the country, she has a lot of experience in education,” said Campbell. “But most importantly Lana has this excitement about art, which she channels into her work every day and that I saw in our conversations before I brought her on.”

Looking forward, Wilson already has quite a few plans to help bring more interest and patronage to the gallery, as well as reach out to the arts community.

“I love the fact that as an art gallery we are situated in the Rawlinson Centre for the Arts,” said Wilson. “We have some theatre troops right near to us, I understand that there are some different people doing traditional dance in Prince Albert. I know that we’ve got some photographers here, it would be fantastic to do a little more work or perhaps build some bridges with those groups.”

She adds she hopes to use her wide range of experience in different areas of the arts to connect with these groups.

“I hope that some of those interests that I have or some of the experience that I have, might be able to build some bridges and see what we can do in terms of our existing programming.”

Wilson said she will bring community ideas in together with the ideas of Campbell to bring a collaborative feel to the gallery for future projects.

The first exhibit Campbell opened since taking the position of curator last year is now coming to a close, but you have a few more days to experience it, and now with the added guidance of Wilson.

If you’d like to pay a visit to the gallery and take in some of what the new team has to offer Wilson welcomes anyone, no matter what your level of art understanding.

“I do encourage everyone to come to our closing reception,” said Wilson. “We will have Lindsay Arnold and we will have Eileen Murray to talk about the arts that they’ve done here at the closing ceremony.”

The closing ceremony of the current exhibit is Jan. 16 at 7 p.m.

jbowler@panow.com

On Twitter: @journalistjim

by James Bowler

Mann Art Gallery hires new art educator

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