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Carol Podedworny (born 1959) is a museum director and curator who advocated for the inclusion of contemporary Indigenous art and for Indigenous voices in Canadian museums in a career spanning over 40 years. Besides post-contact First Nations art, she is interested in contemporary Canadian art, and a diverse range of art history and art, including its material practice. She is the author or co-author of many books, catalogues and essays which investigate these subjects as well as issues of medical inquiry.


Career

Podedworny was born in
Kingston, Ontario Kingston is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located on the north-eastern end of Lake Ontario, at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River and at the mouth of the Cataraqui River (south end of the Rideau Canal). The city is midway between Toro ...
to Ukrainian and British parents and grew up mostly in Hamilton, Ontario. Carol Podedworny biography, Carol Podedworny file, National Gallery of Canada, Library and Archives, Ottawa. She received her BA in Art History at the
University of Guelph , mottoeng = "to learn the reasons of realities" , established = May 8, 1964 ()As constituents: OAC: (1874) Macdonald Institute: (1903) OVC: (1922) , type = Public university , chancellor ...
(1977-1981); her Master of Museum Studies at the
University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
(1981-1984); and her MA in Art History at
York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...
in Toronto (1988-1990). The title of her MA Thesis, an excerpt of which was published in C Magazine in 1991, was "First Nations Art & the Canadian Mainstream". From 1981, she worked in different galleries and museums, then became Curator at the Thunder Bay Gallery (1984-1988) and an independent curator (1988-1999). She was appointed Director/Curator at the University of Waterloo Art Gallery (1999-2006), Director/Curator at the McMaster Museum of Art, Hamilton (2006-2008) and Director & Chief Curator, McMaster Museum of Art in 2008. She has taught and lectured at many universities and since 2006, has served as an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the School of the Arts, McMaster University. In 1987-88, she was President of the Native Art Studies Association of Canada. She has worked for a number of cultural institutions in the Canadian art community since 1982 and from 1991 to 1995 and 2012 to 2016, she was on the Board of Directors of the Ontario Association of Art Galleries.


Writing

Podedworny organized, co-organized or contributed essays to exhibitions on the art of such First Nations contemporary artists such as Gerald McMaster (1984), Rebecca Belmore (1988), Robert Houle (1993 and 2002), and
Carl Beam Carl Beam (May 24, 1943 – July 30, 2005), born Carl Edward Migwans, made Canadian art history as the first artist of Native Ancestry (Ojibwe), to have his work purchased by the National Gallery of Canada as Contemporary Art. A major retrospec ...
(1994), as well as on Julie Voyce (1999),
Rae Johnson Rae Johnson (1953-2020) was a Canadian painter who lived in Toronto, Canada. Early life Originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Johnson studied at the New School of Art in Toronto from 1975 to 1976 and at the Ontario College of Art from 1977 to 19 ...
,
Ed Pien Ed Pien (born February 23, 1958) is a Canadian contemporary artist, known for his drawings and large-scale drawing-based installations inspired by multiple sources (Inuit as well as European and Chinese) and traditions, printmaking, paper cuts a ...
(2006) and Jane Buyers (2006) and others. She curated the important exhibition ''Rethinking History: Abrams, Andrews, Houle, Leydon, Poitras & Ash-Poitras'' (1992) in which she placed contemporary First Nations artists in the context of the contemporary mainstream; and curated or co-curated '' Natalka Husar: Burden of Innocence'' (2008), ''
Shelagh Keeley Shelagh Keeley (born 1954) is a Canadian multi-disciplinary artist. She is best known for her drawings and immersive installations, but her practice also includes photography, film, collaborative performances, and artist's books. Life Keeley was ...
'' (2009) and ''Jeff Thomas: Cold City Frieze: Mapping Iroquoia'' (2012). She has co-authored with Robert Houle a ''Mandate Study (1990-1993) on the Subject of the Issues Surrounding the Exhibition, Collection and Interpretation of Contemporary Art of First Nations Artists''. She also has curated exhibitions on a broad range of subjects from exploring the material history of paintings to the development of art collections and issues of health and wellness as well as serving as Managing Producer for many diverse exhibitions such as ''Greek & Roman Coins in the collection of the McMaster Museum of Art'' (2022). She wrote ''Woodlands: Contemporary Art of the Anishnabe'' (1989), and the chapter "Daphne Odjig: Making History", in ''Odjig: The Art of
Daphne Odjig Daphne Odjig, D.Litt LL. D. (September 11, 1919 – October 1, 2016), was a Canadian First Nations artist of Odawa-Potawatomi-English heritage. Her paintings are often characterized as Woodlands Style or as the pictographic style. She was the ...
, 1960 - 2000'', which was praised by the ''
Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...
'' and said to:
lluminatethe artist’s participation in the Winnipeg Art Gallery's groundbreaking 1972 show, Treaty Numbers 23, 287, 1171, which foregrounded questions of cultural diversity, multiplicity of gaze, and history as social construct, and did so within the walls and cultural authority of a major gallery. Now commonplace, these issues were then revolutionary in their application to Aboriginal artmakers.
She co-authored ''Robert Houle: Troubling Abstraction'', is the author of "Issues of Access, Representation & Diversity in the Canadian Milieu", in ''Re-Mediations: Stephen Foster & James Gillespie'', the catalogue which accompanied an exhibition held at the Kelowna Art Gallery; McMaster Museum of Art; Art Gallery of Sudbury and The Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba (both 2007) and contributed to the ''Husar Handbook: Natalka Husar'' (2010). She has written many articles on a wide range of subjects for magazines such as Muse, the magazine of the
Canadian Museums Association The Canadian Museums Association (CMA; french: Association des musées canadiens, ''ACM''), is a national non-profit organization for the promotion of museums in Canada. It represents Canadian museum professionals both within Canada and internat ...
.


Awards

From 1987 on, Podedworny has been the recipient of many art critics, art writers and curators grants from the Ontario Arts Council and Canada Council.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Podedworny, Carol 1959 births Living people Canadian art curators Canadian women curators Canadian women non-fiction writers Canadian art historians 20th-century Canadian non-fiction writers 20th-century Canadian women writers 21st-century Canadian non-fiction writers 21st-century Canadian women writers University of Guelph alumni University of Toronto alumni York University alumni Academic staff of McMaster University Writers from Kingston, Ontario Canadian people of Ukrainian descent Canadian people of English descent Directors of museums in Canada Women museum directors