Karen Carter is the MacLaren Art Centre new Executive Director

December 2, 2020

It was just the right fit at this stage of her career.

With job loss a growing side effect of the pandemic, Karen Carter feels fortunate after the MacLaren Art Centre – following an international search process -- offered her the position of Executive Director.

Serving Barrie, Simcoe County and the surrounding area, the regional public art gallery is housed in an award-winning building that combines a renovated 1917 Carnegie Library with a contemporary addition designed by Canadian architect Siamak Hariri in 2001.

MacLaren Board President Michael MacMillan said Carter is expected to play a transformational role at a pivotal moment in the centre’s history.

“We look forward to working with her in this role,” he added.

More than just securing a full-time job, Carter is excited to be at a medium-size regional museum that has a stellar collection and strong reputation.

“Conversations about museums being more equitable and connected to diverse stories and the community are what I am interested in,” she said. “For the big machines to pivot to do that more effectively is more difficult than for the small regional museums. It’s also an ideal location to experiment a bit around what it means to run an art museum, especially a contemporary one that can often be intimidating and seem to be exclusive and just for a very limited group of people.  It’s really an opportunity to just open up the idea of what that means so that it’s more community-centred.”

As Executive Director, Carter is responsible for the centre’s management and operations.

“That means everything from planning curatorially and what type of things we will be doing as far as exhibition planning,” she said. “I will be working closely with the Associate Director & Curator and the Director of Philanthropy on fundraising. As you can imagine, a lot of organizations are struggling because of COVID, so fundraising is something I am going to be working on in addition to working with the Board.”

Former banking executive Charlie Coffey agreed that Carter is apt for the centre.

“The MacLaren will be taken to several new levels under your incredible leadership,” the Order of Canada recipient said in a Facebook post.

Two years ago, Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD) University Associate Professor Dr. Andrea Fatona guest curated an exhibit, ‘Settling in Place’, that was partly a response to the 2016 dedication of the Oro-African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Built in 1849 by freed slaves who were granted land after the War of 1812, community members preserved the church for nearly 75 years before it was abandoned in the 1920s. The Township of Oro-Medonte later took ownership of the church and adjoining cemetery to maintain and preserve the site.

Carter’s interest in the creative arts began with her singing in church.

With many Caribbean immigrants encouraging their children to pursue traditional careers such as medicine, law and teaching, she completed an undergraduate degree in History & Education, a Bachelor of Education and Master’s of Education in Sociology & Equity Studies.

“I got those education degrees largely because my father can tell people that I was a teacher,” Carter pointed out. “But I always wanted to work in the arts.”

Karen Carter (Photo contributed)

While pursuing undergraduate studies at York University, she volunteered with Canadian Artists Network: Black Arts in Action (CANBAIA) whose co-founders included the late Ayanna Black.

“That really give me a window into what it would mean to work in an arts organization behind the scenes because guidance counsellors and counsellors don’t tell you when you are leaving high school that there are arts management positions,” said Carter. “You find that out from volunteering and engaging at the community level. That showed me there was a way to be in the arts that didn’t necessarily mean being the artist.”

After two years teaching almost two decades ago at The Waterfront School on Queen’s Quay W., and another few years working in the health care sector while she completed her Master’s, she joined Canadian Heritage as an Arts Consultant. In that position for 20 months, she was responsible for liaising with professional presenters within the Arts Presentation Canada program.

Carter was a Museum Administrator with the City of Toronto for three years before being appointed Heritage Toronto Executive Director in July 2010.

“I think one of the reasons I am so comfortable going to Barrie is because of the work I did at Heritage Toronto as it was very White there,” the former Ireland Park Foundation Board member said. “But I realized something, and this maybe because of my Caribbean heritage, that I am comfortable anywhere. I don’t feel as if I am in a room as the only one because, for me, it’s an opportunity to bring other people into the conversation. Heritage Toronto was also this study of how you take something that’s established and seen as this kind of pillar and make sure more diverse histories were represented.”

A year before joining Heritage Toronto, Carter along with maxine bailey, Julie Crooks and Karen Tyrell co-founded the Black Artists Network Dialogue (BAND) that was last month voted ‘The Best Independent Gallery’ by NOW magazine.

Last June, BAND presented an exhibition showcasing the work of Jamaican-born sculptor, painter and mixed media artist Owen Gordon.

Carter and Amin Alsaden were the curators.

“For me, BAND is a study in building something and not necessarily following a playbook someone else has for you,” the arts executive said. “Most of the arts organizations that are built in this country are done by having the small micro grants that you get from government and then having that money while you volunteer and do little things. Julie and myself, who were on the Board at the time, recognized there was an opportunity to take the corporate partnership route because we didn’t have the money to write the grant which took a lot more time.

“The corporate partnerships were clear and simpler. Most arts organizations are more seasoned in the public funding, but that takes more time. The corporate partnerships with TD Bank and the Bank of Nova Scotia helped to build the organization and were pivotal in allowing us to do something not with a lot of money, but with enough money and a lot of work from volunteer board members. We are only now getting to the point where we are seeing enough money come in that we can start to get some more public funding. I think BAND is a study in the necessity of doing things differently in order to make space for yourself on your terms and I hope that that lesson is learned because we do need to have more cultural offerings in a city like Toronto to represent the diversity.”

For just over four years until December 2018, Carter was the founding Executive Director of Myseum of Toronto which is a pop-up museum doing programming throughout the city.

She feels that Myseum’s playbook is applicable to museums and arts organizations, particularly during the pandemic.

“You should be thinking about your programming being online and offline,” said Carter who was part of the ‘Imagine a Toronto…Strategies for a Creative City’ leadership team that prepared a report 14 years ago after travelling to Berlin, Barcelona, New York and London for a comparative study of these cities’ cultural sectors.

“People are starting to think if you do something offline with people, what representation will it have online. Coming out of the pandemic, I don’t think that will change back. At BAND, we have seen a rise in networking with other Black cultural organizations globally that have come out of our activities that have been heightened online. I think the pandemic will change what and how we do arts and culture after this because people are always going to be thinking about what am I doing online to bookend the offline. In order for them to really stay relevant, they are going to need to do both well.”

Launched at the end of last January in Mandeville, Jamaica, CArt: The Caribbean Art Fair is dedicated to promoting a contemporary visual arts movement across the region while connecting Caribbean artists to the global art world.

Carter is the organization’s Creative Director while the organizing/advisory committee includes Tyrell and Crooks.

“This project is starting to re-imagine what our fair concept could be like,” she said. “Because there are not enough dealers who represent Caribbean artists across the region, the idea is to use research that comes from artists referencing and referring you to other artists to invite and pull together exhibitions so that you can showcase the work and allow those artists to get a spotlight shone on them for the international art world to see. My ideal dream is for this project to keep growing and become an important economic driver and for Caribbean artists to not feel like they have to leave the region to make it.”

Just before the pandemic lockdown earlier this year, Carter lost a close friend.

Patricia Barretto, the President & Chief Executive Officer of The Harris Theatre for Music & Dance in Chicago, succumbed to breast cancer on March 3.

She was 45.

Before moving to the United States, Barretto – who spoke five languages -- was the Executive Director of Opera Atelier that she presented at the Royal Opera House and the Palace of Versailles.

She also led marketing programs for the Royal Conservatory of Music and the Canadian Stage Company.

“Patricia was at Opera Atelier the same time that I worked at Heritage Toronto and we would often see each other while we were hosting and managing a potential donor or funder because we are racialized,” she said. “We understood we were racialized women playing in very White spaces. As a person watching her who got to know and really adore her, she was a lesson in ‘you can do whatever you want and don’t let anyone tell you you can’t’. She was smart, charming and her strategy around fundraising was impeccable. It broke my heart that because of COVID, I didn’t get the opportunity to attend her funeral.”

Karen Carter (l) & Patricia Barretto (Photo contributed)

Born in Jamaica 51 years ago, Carter came to Canada at age seven.

She and her brother stayed with grandparents and aunts before being reunited with their parents -- Alphonso Carter is retired and spends most of his time in Jamaica and Patricia Carter – who migrated in the early 1970s.

“My mom is a staunch prayer warrior and my dad is the voice in my head saying be better, do better and don’t let anyone question your ability to achieve excellence,” said Carter who completed high school at West Hill Collegiate Institute. “He raised us and he instilled in us that we have to set high standards for ourselves.”