Uploaded March 2024 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
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Michelle Jacques is a 2024 winner of the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts.
Video directed by Morgan Pinnock.
A presentation of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Independent Media Arts Alliance.
The Canada Council for the Arts is a federal, arm’s-length Crown corporation created by an Act of Parliament in 1957 (Canada Council for the Arts Act) “to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts.”
For more information, visit: en.ggarts.ca
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Transcript:
I once was reprimanded for saying that I liked artists more than I like art. And I’m not sure how the person who was reprimanding me was interpreting that, because it’s not that I don’t like art, of course, but the best part about being a curator is being able to be in a relationship with artists.
I got my first job at the Art Gallery of Ontario two weeks after I graduated from art history. Then, the experience of working there just opened me up to the politics of museums, and I started to realize that not everybody felt that museums were for them, that there were a lot of hindrances to people from different walks of life accessing the museum experience that had been so important to me.
And I think because I looked like somebody who maybe wasn’t born to work in a museum, I became connected to many people, many communities who were struggling for that access to these spaces that should be for everybody, but don’t always feel that way. I have ended up working for a long time at making the museum more accessible, more welcoming, more recognizable as a place of connection for all kinds of people.
#GGArts2024 #MichelleJacques #CanadaCouncil
Connect with us on social media:
Canada Council for the Arts
Instagram - / canada.council
Facebook - / canadacouncil
X - / canadacouncil
LinkedIn - / canada-council-for-the-arts
Website - canadacouncil.ca
Art Bank
Instagram - / artbank_banquedart
Facebook - / ccartbank
YouTube - • Art Bank Art Rental Program
Website - artbank.ca
CCUNESCO - Canadian Commission for UNESCO
Instagram - / ccunesco
X - / ccunesco
LinkedIn - / canadian-commission-for-unesco
Website - en.ccunesco.ca
Please like this video and subscribe to support the arts in Canada.
Michelle Jacques is a 2024 winner of the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts.
Video directed by Morgan Pinnock.
A presentation of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Independent Media Arts Alliance.
The Canada Council for the Arts is a federal, arm’s-length Crown corporation created by an Act of Parliament in 1957 (Canada Council for the Arts Act) “to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts.”
For more information, visit: en.ggarts.ca
****
Transcript:
I once was reprimanded for saying that I liked artists more than I like art. And I’m not sure how the person who was reprimanding me was interpreting that, because it’s not that I don’t like art, of course, but the best part about being a curator is being able to be in a relationship with artists.
I got my first job at the Art Gallery of Ontario two weeks after I graduated from art history. Then, the experience of working there just opened me up to the politics of museums, and I started to realize that not everybody felt that museums were for them, that there were a lot of hindrances to people from different walks of life accessing the museum experience that had been so important to me.
And I think because I looked like somebody who maybe wasn’t born to work in a museum, I became connected to many people, many communities who were struggling for that access to these spaces that should be for everybody, but don’t always feel that way. I have ended up working for a long time at making the museum more accessible, more welcoming, more recognizable as a place of connection for all kinds of people.
#GGArts2024 #MichelleJacques #CanadaCouncil
Connect with us on social media:
Canada Council for the Arts
Instagram - / canada.council
Facebook - / canadacouncil
X - / canadacouncil
LinkedIn - / canada-council-for-the-arts
Website - canadacouncil.ca
Art Bank
Instagram - / artbank_banquedart
Facebook - / ccartbank
YouTube - • Art Bank Art Rental Program
Website - artbank.ca
CCUNESCO - Canadian Commission for UNESCO
Instagram - / ccunesco
X - / ccunesco
LinkedIn - / canadian-commission-for-unesco
Website - en.ccunesco.ca


![Portrait of Germaine Koh, #GGArts2023 winner
Please like this video and subscribe to support the arts in Canada.
Germaine Koh is a 2023 winner of the Governor Generals Awards in Visual and Media Arts.
Video directed by Kyle Armstrong.
A presentation of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Independent Media Arts Alliance.
The Canada Council for the Arts is a federal, arms-length Crown corporation created by an Act of Parliament in 1957 (Canada Council for the Arts Act) to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts.
For more information, visit: https://en.ggarts.ca
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Transcript:
My work as an artist is about putting ideas out into the world.
The word ‘art’ is more often a stumbling block or barrier or kind of like… not useful. [laugh]
A lot of my work exists outside of gallery spaces. People go to art galleries for contemplation and so on. What I want to do is focus on the behaviours that happen in the world at large.
I’m always looking for the patterns that shape any kind of place, not only how people behave, what kinds of communities use the space, but also the kinds of systems that underlie it that we don’t necessarily pay attention to always in our daily lives. The kinds of behaviours that we engage in every day that end up structuring our lives and our interactions with other people, so a lot of my work is having to do with trying to find the patterns that cross in any particular space or situation.
The general public has a capacity to look at things and bring all of their creative faculties and have conversations with both the work and with their fellow citizens about interesting ideas. For sure, my work is multidisciplinary and tends to take very different forms and make use of and even delve into different kinds of systems and modes of operating, to such an extent that I have started to describe my work as being a lot about translating different realms to each other. You might be in a situation before you actually realize it. For example, when I built a bench that looks like a bench in the transit shelters, but it was actually a teeter-totter. It’s kind of like a recognizable situation. People are approaching the situation with certain kinds of expectations and then, all of a sudden, the conditions have been shifted in a way that hopefully creates an interesting conundrum for them and the people around them.
I would like my work to be part of that social mesh that we all share, and a lot of my work is trying to pay attention to and celebrate the kinds of things that we have in common, rather than the things that divide us. Portrait of Germaine Koh, #GGArts2023 winner](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Gm5-N89HNYg/mqdefault.jpg)







