Accomplished former art gallery director, member of the Order of Canada and Sudbury native Marc Mayer will give a talk at Place des Arts Dec. 18.
Place des Arts du Grand Sudbury is holding a series of talks and exhibitions this fall.
Under the banner “Enlightening Talks for Evolving Times,” the talks will feature prominent arts and culture personalities who will discuss key issues, including relationships with Indigenous people.
Simultaneous translation will be available, to French or English.
Mayer’s talk is entitled “What I Bought For You.” Reminiscing on his career as a public collector of art, Mayer’s show-and-tell will cover many of the cultural wonders he and his teams have acquired for the public over the years, and he’ll explain his passion for them.
From creators as diverse as Jean-Michel Basquiat and Judy Chicago, to Canadian classics Jack Bush and Alex Janvier; from old masters Pierre Paul Prud’hon and Elizabeth Vigée-Lebrun, and internationally recognized Canadians Rebecca Belmore and Geoffrey Farmer, it will be a stimulating evening of art and ideas.
From 1986 to 1990, Mayer was assistant to the director, and ultimately assistant director of the 49th Parallel Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art in New York. From 1990 to 1993, Mayer was head of visual arts with cultural servicers at the Canadian Embassy in Paris and was a correspondent for the New York periodical Rizzoli’s The Journal of Art.
He served as director of the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal (2004–2008) and the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery in Toronto (1998–2001), as well as deputy director at the Brooklyn Museum in New York City (2001–2004)and curator of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo (1994–1998).
From 2008-2019, Mayer was the director of the National Gallery of Canada.
In 2015, Mayer was the driving force behind the establishment of the Canadian Photography Institute at the National Gallery and later created Art in Canada, a 275-page book to commemorate Canadian Indigenous artists.
The hardcover discusses the current thinking on artwork in this country and expands the definition of “what is art” beyond Western European painting and sculpture.
Now retired, Mayer lives in New York state and devotes his time to his love of contemporary art.
Mayer’s lecture runs at 7 p.m. Dec. 18 at Place des Arts. Purchase tickets online here.
