Barbara A. Tyler Award in Museum Leadership
This award recognizes excellence in museum leadership within the Canadian museum community.
Denis Longchamps, PhD
Executive Director and Chief Curator
Photo — Denis Longchamps. March 2023
Through a pandemic that knocked so much off course, Denis Longchamps set the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery on the road to sustainability. Denis, says Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery executive director Shirley Madill, has “raised awareness of the importance of clay and glass in Canadian art and instilled a new sense of pride of the Gallery within Kitchener-Waterloo. It is this kind of astute leadership at a most difficult time that is so needed.”
As executive director since 2018, and a long-time administrator, curator, educator and writer, Denis has reinvigorated an organization that was in poor financial health and had a fading reputation. He developed a sound business model, reorganized staffing to be more effective, increased grant revenues and private donations, and opened the gallery’s doors to diverse communities in innumerable ways. He has balanced the budget, and brought national recognition to the gallery once again.
Voices: an exhibition presenting the work of 35 Canadian artists on diversity, equity and inclusion in Canada
“WOW…I am humbled on receiving the 2023 Barbara A. Tyler Award in Museum Leadership, and I wish to thank the jury of my peers for this honour as well as the colleagues who nominated me. It is such a privilege to be recognized by the Canadian Museum Association. Thank you again!”— Denis Longchamps
Emergence: Annual exhibition of winners and finalists to the Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics and the RBC Award for Glass.
Publicity
