Alicia Boutilier (born 1968) is the Chief Curator and Curator of Canadian Historical Art at the

Agnes Etherington Art Centre The Agnes Etherington Art Centre is located in Kingston, Ontario, on the campus of Queen's University. The gallery has received a number of awards for its exhibitions from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Association of Art Galleries ...

in Kingston. She has been Curator of Canadian Historical Art since 2008 and was appointed Chief Curator in 2017.Alicia Boutilier file, National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives, Canada. In 2020, she served as the Interim Director at the gallery and received a special recognition award from

Queen's University at Kingston Queen's University at Kingston, commonly known as Queen's University or simply Queen's, is a public university, public research university in Kingston, Ontario, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Queen's holds more than of land throughout Ontario and ...

for her work as a team leader, adapting to the new realities caused by Covid. She is a Canadian art historian with wide-ranging concerns with emphasis on women artists, artistic groups, regional scenes and collecting histories.

Career

Boutilier was born in Welland and grew up in Niagara Falls, Ontario. She received her Honours BA in English,

University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a Official bilingualism in Canada, bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ot ...

(1990); her MA in English,

Dalhousie University Dalhousie University (commonly known as Dal) is a large public research university in Nova Scotia, Canada, with three campuses in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Halifax, a fourth in Bible Hill, Nova Scotia, Bible Hill, and a second medical school campus ...

, Halifax (1992); then did a qualifying year in Art History at

Carleton University Carleton University is an English-language public university, public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to se ...

, Ottawa (1995/1996) and received her MA in Canadian Art History from Carleton University, Ottawa (1998). Boutilier began her career as an exhibition assistant at the show of ''Helen Galloway McNicoll: A Canadian Impressionist'' at the

Art Gallery of Ontario The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO; ) is an art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located on Dundas Street, Dundas Street West in the Grange Park (neighbourhood), Grange Park neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, the museum complex takes up of phys ...

in 1999, then worked in various jobs at the Art Gallery of Northumberland (1999-2000), the

Art Gallery of Hamilton The Art Gallery of Hamilton (AGH) is an art museum located in Hamilton, Ontario, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The museum occupies a building on King Street (Hamilton, Ontario), King Street West in downtown Hamilton, designed by Trevor P. Garwood-Jon ...

(2001-2006), as an Independent Curator (2005-2008) and as a research assistant at the Art Gallery of Ontario (2006-2008). She was appointed Curator of Canadian Historical Art at the

in 2008, and in 2017, Chief Curator. In 2020, she served as the gallery`s Interim Director. In her 1998 inaugural show ''4 Women Who Painted in the 1930s and 1940s'' - Rody Kenny Courtice, Bobs Cogill Haworth, Yvonne McKague Housser, and

Isabel McLaughlin Isabel McLaughlin, (10 October 1903 – 26 November 2002) was a modernist Canadian painter, patron and philanthropist. She specialized in landscapes and still life and had a strong interest in design. Biography Born in Oshawa, Ontario, McLaug ...

, she discussed as part of her narrative their striving to promote a wider Canadian consciousness of art. In her exhibitions and publications, she has continued to be interested in such a "wider consciousness" herself, choosing to discuss, for instance, the intersections of art and craft as in quilts (2011) and assisting with the history of the Art Gallery of Hamilton's historical Canadian collection in ''Lasting Impressions: celebrated works from the Art Gallery of Hamilton (2005)''. She focused as well on Canadian historical art in the exhibition and publication of collections such as that of H. B. Southam (2009), Inuit art (2011) and Northern Indigenous Art (2013), as well as on Canadian artists such as Jack Bush (2009) and

William Brymner William Brymner, (December 14, 1855 – June 18, 1925) was a Canadian figure and landscape painter and educator. In addition to playing a key role in the development of Impressionism in Canada, Brymner taught numerous artists who became leadi ...

(2010) (co-curated and co-authored with Paul Maréchal of the

Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec The Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (), abbreviated as MNBAQ, is an art museum in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The museum is located in National Battlefields Park and is a complex of four buildings. Three of them were purpose-built for ...

). Her ''A Vital Force: The Canadian Group of Painters'' (CGP) (2013), which she curated, was the first major touring exhibition to focus exclusively on the CGP in an exhibition of major paintings from public and private collections across Canada, for which she received an oaag Curatorial Writing Award for Major Essay. In 2015, she co-curated ''The Artist Herself: Self-Portraits by Canadian Historical Women Artists'' (2015) with Tobi Bruce of the Art Gallery of Hamilton, concentrating on what art and craft offered the genre's definition of self-representation. Her 2021 exhibition ''Tom Thomson: The Art of Authentication'', co-curated and authored again with Bruce, established criteria to authenticate a work of art, taking as its focus the work of

Tom Thomson Thomas John Thomson (August 5, 1877July 8, 1917) was a Canadian artist active in the early 20th century. During his short career, he produced roughly 400 oil sketches on small wood panels and approximately 50 larger works on canvas. His wo ...

. Boutilier has written entries to the catalogues of such exhibitions as ''Uninvited, Canadian Women Artists in the Modern Movement'',

McMichael Canadian Art Collection The McMichael Canadian Art Collection (MCAC) is an art museum in Kleinburg, Ontario, Canada. The museum is located on a property in Kleinburg, an unincorporated village in Vaughan. The property includes the museum's main building, a sculpture gar ...

(2021) as well as writing numerous essays in publications and journals such as "Road Trip Across Canada with Alan C. Collier" which was related to her show of the same name (2017). Since 2009, she has supervised M.A. and Ph.D. theses in the area of Canadian art at Queen's University, Kingston and since 2019, she has served as an adjunct professor in its department of Art History and Conservation. She also has served on many committees, notably for the city of Kingston, and was a Founding member of the Curators of Canadian Historical Art (COCHA), in 2009 and has remained on it till the present.

Awards

*Research Fellowship in Canadian Historical Art,

National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's National museums of Canada, national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the List of large ...

(2004). *Curatorial Writing Award for Major Essay (''A Vital Force: The First Twenty Years''),

Ontario Association of Art Galleries The Galeries Ontario / Ontario Galleries (GOG), formerly Ontario Association of Art Galleries / Association Ontarienne des Galeries d’Art (OAAG/AOGA), was established in 1968 to encourage development of public art galleries, art museums, community ...

(OAAG) (2013). *Certificate of Achievement, Foundational Leadership Program, Queen's University, 2019. *Special Recognition for Staff Awards 2020 from

Queen's University, Kingston Queen's University at Kingston, commonly known as Queen's University or simply Queen's, is a public university, public research university in Kingston, Ontario, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Queen's holds more than of land throughout Ontario and ...

, 2020.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boutilier, Alicia 1968 births Living people Canadian non-fiction writers Canadian art historians Canadian women non-fiction writers Academic staff of Queen's University at Kingston Canadian women art historians Canadian art curators People from Welland Canadian women curators University of Ottawa alumni Dalhousie University alumni Carleton University alumni Art museum people