“Rooted” is all about the people and places that make us proud to call our community home.
---
You don’t have to be a visual artist to make a career for yourself in the arts industry.
“I either wanted to be an artist, or support artists in some way. So, my work as an administrator has been to support artists as much as I can,” says Amy Jenkins, the head of the Canada Council Art Bank at Canada Council for the Arts.
The North Bay native has lived and worked in the Ottawa arts scene for over 20 years.
“I have to say that it's all been very exciting, just introducing people to artists, through exhibitions or through rentals, being able to put someone’s work into someone else’s office who will have a true appreciation for that is very exciting.”
She got her start when she was a student at the University of Ottawa
“I was always creative, and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to pursue; I knew I wanted to do something creative. I learned to speak French in late immersion and I spent three months in France while I was in high school on an exchange and I didn’t want to lose the French that I had learned. I wanted to continue in my studies and so Ottawa U was a very logical place for me as it is a bilingual university and they had a Fine Arts program, so I moved to Ottawa with my boyfriend who is now my husband, and I did a Fine Arts degree and a History in Theory of Art Degree,” says Jenkins.
“I was looking for a summer job in my second year. My boyfriend said to me ‘why don’t you apply for a job at the National Gallery’ and I figured I had nothing to lose so I did. I got the job, which is something that my dad also suggested, and he takes credit for now. I’ve only worked at two organizations; the National Gallery and the Canada Council for the Arts, but I’ve had multiple different jobs within those two institutions. I started in Visitor Services and when I graduated university, I was the Manager of Visitor Services. I was very young, but it was an opportunity which I seized.”
At the National Gallery, Jenkins moved through the ranks.
“When I was 27, I moved into exhibition management and I managed the permanent collection of the National Gallery which was Canadian, European, Contemporary, anything that wasn’t specialized was what I was responsible for. That was a steep learning curve and a very interesting job,” says Jenkins.
But that run came to an end when the National Gallery went on strike for almost 70 days and Jenkins decided she would start looking for another job.
“I came across the job as an Arts Consultant at the Art Bank. I got that job and for the next 10-12 years that’s what I did,” says Jenkins.
The Canada Council for the arts is a federal funding body for the arts in Canada. It provides grants to the arts such as theatre, music and visual arts, and performing arts. The Art Bank is a program of the Canada Council which was set up in 1972 to introduce working government officials to the visual arts by placing artwork by contemporary Canadian artists in their office space. It was initially developed to stimulate the Canadian art market.
Jenkins says the collection holds over 17,000 works of art and those works are rented to public and private sector organizations across the country.
In her role as the Arts Consultant, Jenkins says, “That involved working with clients in Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver and managing a small team, and then at one point I was promoted to lead our consultants where I managed the three art rental teams. I oversaw the entire business development and strategies for that art rental program.”
She continues, “I took on a really interesting project in 2017 where I took a leave of absence and went back to work with the National Gallery to manage all of the projects for that year. So, I delivered the renewed Canadian and Indigenous Galleries, the contemporary galleries, the Venice Biennale which is like the Olympics for Arts which is held in Venice. I was there for 16 months and I was able to handle those projects successfully.”
Those are some of the moments that Jenkins reflects on and realizes she really has been able to achieve one of those goals she set out for herself in finding a way to support artists.
“Being able to deliver the Jeffrey Farmer exhibit in Venice, that’s top-notch, that’s world-class. It was a ton of work but to bring a project that represents a Canadian visual artist on the world stage like that, that was for sure was a great moment for me,” she says.
“Also, the Indigenous Galleries, which were formerly called the Canadian Galleries, but the entire narrative of the Canadian Collection was redefined. So, working with curators and designers from all over the world, doing that kind of a complex project was really amazing and I won’t get that opportunity again in my career.”
Now in her role as the head of the Art Bank, Jenkins is expected to oversee all kinds of projects.
“We have an exhibition, an outreach, and a loan program,” she says. “We lend works to galleries and museums across the country and sometimes internationally for exhibition. We also have an exhibition space at the Canada Council building in downtown Ottawa and the Art Bank is responsible for curating that space. We also do outreach projects, we recently partnered with Google Arts and Culture to launch about 50 artworks on the platform using their Gigapixel Camera which has been a very cool project.”
Jenkins says she feels extremely privileged to have had a career where she is working in the arts in this kind capacity.
“I never thought in a million years that these jobs existed when I was a student. I started at 20 in the public service and so I’m not too far from retirement now. It's such a rich and satisfying world to work in and I don’t take it for granted.”
If you have a story suggestion for the “Rooted” series, send Matt an email at [email protected]
