McMichael Canadian Art Collection
Appoints Emily Laurent Henderson

Associate Curator:
Indigenous Art and Culture

November 20, 2023. Kleinburg, ON –The McMichael Canadian Art Collection is pleased to announce the appointment of Emily Laurent Henderson as Associate Curator: Indigenous Art and Culture. A curator of Greenlandic Inuit and settler heritage, Henderson’s expertise will guide the McMichael through the interpretation of the recently digitized Kinngait (Cape Dorset) Archive, which will be presented as a touring exhibition and publication in 2025. She will also assume a leading role in organizing exhibitions and publications focused on Indigenous, Métis, and Inuit art.

Henderson’s practice is rooted in Indigenous creative sovereignty, and her writing has been featured in Inuit Art Quarterly, Inuktitut Magazine, C Magazine, Azure, Studio Magazine, and other national publications. A former member of the Indigenous and Canadian art curatorial team at the Art Gallery of Ontario, she was the first full-time Inuk editor at Inuit Art Quarterly, and in 2019 co-led a special issue that focused on the Inuit artist collective Isuma, which represented Canada at the 58th Venice Biennale the same year.

“To be entrusted with the Indigenous collection and to join this respected curatorial team is an honour,” said Henderson. “Stepping into this role at the same moment of the release of the Early Days publication marks an important moment for Indigenous art at the McMichael, and a new chapter that I am thrilled to be a part of.”

“We are delighted to welcome Emily to the curatorial team at the McMichael,” said Executive Director and Chief Curator Sarah Milroy. “She is a gifted and creative writer and researcher, with a very bright future before her. Emily is poised to write an important chapter at the McMichael as she takes on this important post. We welcome her insights as we develop our exhibition program and publications in the years to come.”

To obtain high-resolution images or request an interview, please contact Sam Cheung, Media Relations and Communications Associate at scheung@mcmichael.com or 905.893.1121 ext. 2210.

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ABOUT THE MCMICHAEL CANADIAN ART COLLECTION 

The McMichael Canadian Art Collection is an agency of the Government of Ontario and acknowledges the support of the Ministry of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries, and the McMichael Canadian Art Foundation. It is the only major museum in the country devoted exclusively to Canadian art. In addition to touring exhibitions, the McMichael houses a permanent collection of more than 6,500 works by historic and contemporary Canadian artists, including Tom Thomson, the Group of Seven and their contemporaries, Indigenous artists and artists from many diasporic communities in Canada. The Gallery is located on 100 acres of forested land and hiking trails at 10365 Islington Avenue, Kleinburg, north of Major Mackenzie Drive in the City of Vaughan. For more information, please visit mcmichael.com. 

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