McMaster appoints new Museum of Art director

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Podedworny_Carol.jpg” caption=”Carol Podedworny”]McMaster has appointed a new director for the Museum of Art.

Carol Podedworny, currently the director/curator with the University of Waterloo Art Gallery, will begin her new position at McMaster on January 16.

“I am very excited about coming to McMaster,” says Podedworny. “The McMaster Museum of Art has a wonderful facility and an outstanding collection.”

As part of the interview process, candidates were asked to put forth a vision for the Museum of Art in the 21st century, a task Podedworny took to heart. “The process of preparing that vision for the museum, working from McMaster University's Refining Directions document, was a very interesting and revealing process. I am very excited about putting into place the mandate I have developed for the McMaster Museum of Art.”

Her mandate, she explains, it to enable McMaster to step forward as an innovator in museum research in the 21st century, and allow the museum to increase its engagement with the McMaster campus community.

“We are thrilled to have Carol join us,” says McMaster provost Ken Norrie. “The McMaster Museum of Art is a jewel on campus and we look forward to Carol's approach to shining that jewel and revealing it to Canada and the world. She has an outstanding career in the world of fine arts, and a plethora of connections in this field, which I am confident will help advance McMaster's nationally and internationally respected art collection.”

Podedworny, who holds a masters degree in museum studies from the University of Toronto, and a masters degree in art history from York University, was curator of the Thunder Bay Art Gallery from 1984 through 1988 and worked as an independent curator from 1988 through 1999, freelancing with a variety of cultural institutions. In 1999, Podedworny became the director/curator of the University of Waterloo Art Gallery. In addition to programming and administering the two galleries on campus, Podedworny teaches an upper level course on “The History & Discourse of the Museum,” in the Department of Fine Arts at the University of Waterloo.

At the University of Waterloo Art Gallery, Podedworny curates exhibitions of contemporary Canadian art in all media; cares for and acquires a collection of the same; teaches in the art history department; and manages the day-to-day administration of a university-affiliated public art gallery. The administration of the UWAG includes but is not restricted to the following activities: staff training and supervision; grantsmanship; exhibition production, collections management, education; development, promotion; registration, extension and events programming.

As an independent, Podedworny has worked with a variety of institutions and publications across North America as a curator, writer, reviewer, guest speaker and lecturer.

Her contributions to the art world are vast, including her involvement on a committee to select the inaugural exhibition in the Indian & Inuit Galleries at the Canadian Museum of Civilization and participating in conference proceedings at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, for the Land, Spirit, Power Quincentenary Celebrations. She also served as a Scholar-in-Residence in the Art History department at Queen's University, was a panelist at the conference on “Aboriginal Representation in the Art Gallery,” jointly produced by the Art Gallery of Ontario at Queen's University and the Vancouver Art Gallery and has published Daphne Odjig, 1960-2000, with Key Porter Press, Toronto.

Podedworny's curatorial work focuses on contemporary Canadian art and issues in curatorial and museum practice.