Interim Director Angela Cassie leading the National Gallery of Canada transformation
July 25, 2022
In elementary school, Angela Cassie visited the then Museum of Man and Nature in Manitoba.
It was a rite of passage for many students.
Though fascinated by the collections that provided an insight into the Prairie’s human and natural history, it wasn’t until Cassie transitioned to adulthood did she begin to appreciate fine art.
While music and culture were part of family life embedded in the home, her immigrant parents encouraged she and her four younger sisters to pursue traditional careers.
For them, that was the ticket to a secure future.
“I was supposed to be the lawyer,” laughs Cassie who, last month, was appointed Interim Director and Chief Executive Officer of the National Gallery of Canada. (NGC).
She assumed the new duties on July 10.
“Though the role is Interim, these types of experiences are still important because you seldom see racialized and Indigenous people holding them in institutions like this,” said Cassie who was the Chief Strategy & Inclusion Officer prior to the elevation. “I am honoured to be in this position, I take the responsibility very seriously and I will do what I can in this period. At the end of the day, my role in this institution has been about identifying systemic barriers at all levels of the organization. Being the Interim CEO doesn’t mean there aren’t barriers that exist.”
Francoise Lyon, the NGC Board of Trustees Chair, said Cassie brings added value to Canada’s national arts museum.
“As one of the key architects of the new vision of the Gallery, she is the ideal candidate to build on her predecessor’s successes,” she said. “Angela is a bold and inclusive leader who will continue to strengthen the Gallery’s connections with communities across the country.”
Cassie earned the Board’s confidence through the significant role she played in overseeing the implementation of the Gallery’s first-ever strategic plan.
Released in May 2021, ‘Transform Together’ has five strategic pillars that underline the NGC’s commitment to strengthen community connections through transformative art experiences, build a collection and program that inspire human connection, empower, support and build a diverse and collaborative team, centre Indigenous ways of knowing and being and invest in operational resiliency and sustainability.
“This work really came at a point when the institution and people in it were questioning its place in Canada in a global sense,” noted Cassie who was born and raised in Winnipeg and is bilingual. “We were starting to wonder if we had a vision that was as inclusive as possible. Though the Gallery is located in Ottawa, our work and collections should really be reflective of the entire Canadian population. Part of the transformation work was to look internally and understand that we can do more to amplify the voices of Black, Indigenous and racialized artists within our collection.
“At the same time, we have to create systems and build teams at all levels to be able to tell those stories in an authentic way. ‘Transform Together’ speaks to not just what we will collect and display. It also speaks to how we are going to go about doing that work and that is underpinned by principles related to justice, equity, diversity and inclusion.”
As part of the new direction, a groundbreaking curatorial approach has been taken for the Rembrandt exhibition with invitations going out to curators and historians to tell their stories through a Western, Black and Indigenous lens.
Black American Rashid Johnson created ‘Capsule’ for the Gallery’s glass-domed main entrance.
Rashid Johnson created ‘Capsule’ for the National Gallery of Canada (Photo courtesy of the NGC)
The installation consists of a series of stacked cells filled with plants, books, fiberglass, shea-butter sculptures, video monitors and grow lights. Functioning like a brain, it incorporates and connects autobiographical, intellectual, musical, art historical and literary sources that are embedded within the objects occupying the minimalist form.
“It is a very compelling structure that you can’t miss,” said Cassie. “Visitors will be welcomed by that display when they walk through our doors. In our permanent gallery, there is a wide range of works on display. It’s a rich experience and you are seeing different voices whose works are being profiled and shared.”
For those creatives interested in showcasing their work at the NGC, she is working to clarify processes that will be clearly articulated to provide pathways.
“Sometimes if you don’t have relationships or you haven’t been trained in a traditional fine arts gallery culture, places like the National Gallery of Canada do become inaccessible to you and you are not sure how you can introduce yourself to some of the curators who help inform those decisions,” Cassie, who is a Governor General’s Canadian Leadership Conference member, said.
“We get people who email us directly to show their work which is shared with the curatorial team. That is really where a lot of the decision-making rests within the institution. There are also prizes, like the Sobey Art Award, that we administer, that you can apply for to help to raise your profile. In addition, I am working to ensure that our curatorial team reflects the voices of our multicultural country. That perspective has to be at our table.”
In the mid-1990s while pursuing a degree in Political Science & History at the University of Winnipeg with the intention of going to law school, she was turned on to Communications.
Upon completing her undergraduate certification, Cassie joined the Department of Canadian Heritage in 1998 as a Regional Director of Communications & Executive Services (Prairies & Northern Region).
As an umbrella organization with one of the largest portfolios in the federal government, the departmental framework includes creativity, arts and culture.
“It is really through that entry point that I went from someone who took piano lessons, sang in choirs and engaged in art as a patron to someone who was working with cultural institutions and trying to grasp how they were attempting to become more sustainable,” said Cassie.
In 2008, she moved to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) as Director of Communications & External Relations.
As a member of the Museum’s inaugural leadership team, she played a lead role in the establishment of the first national museum since 1967, leading communications, public and community engagement, government relations and partnership development efforts. As one of the Museum’s primary spokespeople, she led exhaustive cross-Canada consultations that travelled to 10 provinces and territories to raise awareness and identify stories and issues to populate the institution’s content.
After 11 years in progressively senior roles at the CMHR in Winnipeg, Cassie stepped down in 2019 as Senior Vice-President with responsibility for Programs, Exhibitions & Public Affairs to pursue a mini-MBA at McGill Executive Institute.
She joined the NGC in January 2021 as Vice-President of Strategic Transformation & Inclusion.
“I have gone from a museum of ideas to now a gallery with art,” said Cassie whose sister, Cheryl Jean-Paul, was the Canadian head coach at the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Under-17 Women’s World Cup tournament that ended on July 17 in Hungary. “But I think the principles of engaging people and audiences and also thinking what legacy is going to be left for future generations is part of what inspires me to be in this space.”
These days, Cassie’s parents are quite happy with her pursuing a path they hadn’t envisioned.
“I think they have seen and can appreciate there are other careers to be had,” she said. “That is part of what I found to be exciting and interesting about this role. There are many jobs in these cultural institutions that people aren’t aware of if you have not been around these places. We have people who conserve art who have chemistry backgrounds because you need that kind of science mind to manoeuvre the complexity of working on paintings. Part of what I am excited about is showing Black and other racialized communities the range of employment that you can have in these cultural institutions that is beyond just a fine arts background and that all of those types of experience and knowledge help keep the lights on in these spaces.”
Cassie’s father, Alix Jean-Paul, migrated from Haiti in 1976 and completed a Bachelor of Education three years later at the University of Saint-Boniface before embarking on a teaching career. Now retired, he was appointed to the Order of Manitoba on July 14 for his contributions to education, community building and anti-racism initiatives.
His wife of 47 years, Gertrude Jean-Paul, was born to stateless Ukrainian parents who settled in Paraguay. She came to Canada at age 10.
