Head of National Gallery of Canada says institution in transition, not chaos

The interim director of the National Gallery of Canada says the institution is in a period of transformation, not chaos, after four senior staffers were fired last month.

Angela Cassie, who took the reins earlier this year when Sasha Suda cut short her term at the gallery’s helm, is responding to accusations contained in a letter to the heritage minister from seven former staff members who left before the latest round of firings.

Cassie declined to comment on the specifics of the staffers’ departures, citing privacy concerns.

But she denied the accusations of Greg A. Hill, who was let go from his position in November as senior curator of Indigenous art.

Hill posted on Instagram that he was fired because he “disagreed with and was deeply disturbed by the colonial and anti-Indigenous ways the Department of Indigenous Ways and Decolonization is being run,” referring to a department created earlier this year to examine the gallery’s collection and policies.

Cassie says the gallery has been working towards decolonization by examining its collection for gaps, and changing the way it acquires Indigenous art by no longer taking ownership of the art, but rather engaging in “collaborative stewardship.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 2, 2022.

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