UBC professor/curator receives Hnatyshyn Award

The recipient of the 2010 Hnatyshyn Foundation Award for Curatorial Excellence in Contemporary Art is UBC’s Scott Watson, director and curator of the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery and professor in the Dept. of Art History, Visual Art and Theory at UBC. He is also director and graduate advisor for the Critical Curatorial Studies program, which he helped initiate in September 2002.

In making the curatorial award recommendation, the jury praised Watson’s deep understanding of artists and their work. “For almost 40 years Scott Watson has made thoughtful and substantial contributions to our understanding of contemporary art. His writings on Jack Shadbolt, Roy Kiyooka, Stan Douglas and Rebecca Belmore have broadened our knowledge of the artists work and the context in which it was produced. Watson’s curatorial practice shows an impressive range of interest from conceptual art to ceramics, and his approach has been both critical and timely. His restless curiosity and his scholarly dedication have been inspiring to his colleagues in Canada and abroad. In addition to the profound impact he has made as a curator, his leadership of the Critical Curatorial Studies program at the University of British Columbia is an important contribution to the professionalization of curatorship in Canada.”

The award will be presented in Montreal, Quebec on Jan. 6, 2011 at a ceremony and reception at the Galerie de l’Universite de Quebec a Montreal.

For more information, visit http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Artist-Shary-Boyle-and-Curator-Scott-Watson-Receive-Hnatyshyn-Awards-1361851.htm