Written by Zandra Juarez
This is part two of a three part installment. You can read part one here. Read part two here.
ZJ: When did you start writing?
JN: From day one, when I started in fall 1968, I was writing all the time because I was writing curatorial essays and articles for art journals. I have written about 150 publications, some of them larger than others. A great deal of time was spent making sure that I had copyright approval for the use of the photographs of the artwork and I wanted the artists to read what I’ve written to make sure that it was factually correct. So, you always have to be careful about those things- it is quite time consuming.
ZJ: How many books have you written since you retired?
JN: I’ve written two books after my retirement and three before.
ZJ: Is The Making of a Museum your favourite? (about your forty-five year career at the AGG)
JN: I would think so, and there are so many stories, humorous and anecdotal, that I didn’t put in the book. I think now about the tediousness of how I used to write – longhand with a pencil. Because I was always a terrible typist, I would hire a student to dictate to and that would produce the manuscript. I don’t feel so ancient, because I read that Margaret Atwood writes in longhand. For my next project – writing travel memoirs-, I will dictate into my computer
ZJ: What is your biggest concern in terms of Canadian visual arts and where do you see younger artists missing opportunities?
JN: I think there’s a number of serious issues. One of the reasons why I started the sculpture park was because there were hardly any opportunities for an artist to do an outdoor sculpture commission. That’s why the sculpture park is so important, because for many of the artists, these sculptures were their first outdoor work. Today there are still few opportunities for artists to create large scale exterior sculptures.
The opportunity to write exhibitions reviews now is diminished because of the loss of some of our serious art journals. Also, there is a problem with public galleries receiving funding: it has been cut back and we now find that the public galleries are doing fewer exhibitions in a year, and they are having to extend the time period. Many of them are doing half the number, for instance, of the shows we used to do at the art gallery, and it’s also an aspect of not having enough staff.
During my career I spent a lot of time touring exhibitions. We sent exhibitions to four continents including cities like Tokyo, Washington, Caracas, Vienna, and Jaipur to name a few. I believe that once you organize a very fine exhibition: ‘What is the point of just showing it in one place?’ It’s a complete waste, so we put a lot of energy into that and the exhibitions were very well received. There’s a lot less of that activity going on now, due to increases in shipping costs and administrative requirements that have resulted in the diminishing of the traveling exhibition phenomena.
ZJ: How do you see Guelph as an art hub? Are we still an art hub or do you think past times were better?
JN: I think that Guelph has blossomed incredibly. There are many artists and fantastic graduates coming out of the MFA Program at the University of Guelph, some national award winners. Many artists have decided to settle in Guelph because of the tremendous cost of living and having studios in Toronto. Vocamus Writers Community is quite astonishing with the number of authors and publishers, I think the arts community is of a very high level, compared to cities the size of Guelph.
The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts presented the Charles 111 Coronation Medal to Guelph author Judith Nasby for exemplary service to the Arts in Canada. Judith recently received the 2024 McMaster University Distinguished Alumni Award for the Arts.
*This interview has been edited and condensed.
Zandra Juarez is a Guelph based writer and literary critic. She’s Vocamus Writers Community Director of Communications
