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Art Gallery of Greater Victoria announces seasoned veteran as its new director

Nancy Noble will take the reins as gallery continues plan to move downtown
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Nancy Noble, the newly announced director of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, was instrumental in the creation of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia’s new location and the Museum of Vancouver’s award-winning Indigenous exhibit. (Art Gallery of Greater Victoria)

Nancy Noble, an acclaimed 30-year veteran of gallery and museum administration from coast to coast, has been appointed the new director of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.

She’ll arrive at the position following six years as director and CEO of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. Under Noble’s direction, an international design competition decided the architectural team behind Halifax’s new waterfront gallery, for which $110 million was fundraised.

“With plans for a new AGGV location downtown, it is a huge plus to the gallery that Nancy has experience leading a major building project, as well as proven success in directing capital campaigns,” Art Gallery of Greater Victoria board president Chris Lawless stated in a release.

The gallery is partnering with Reliance Properties in its major development proposal in the works for the City of Victoria’s new arts and innovation district, with a five-storey building proposed for Store and Discovery streets.

READ ALSO: New Art Gallery home part of Victoria’s first arts and innovation district proposal

The position will provide Noble with an opportunity she likes best – “to work with a great team of board, staff, donors and community to envision a new way forward, building on its existing strengths while working with the community to ensure we meet the diversity of perspectives and provide a place for all,” she said.

“The new building provides that opportunity but, as I have always said in Nova Scotia, the building is a means to an end and that end is to be inclusive and responsive and provide great programming through art.”

READ ALSO: New Art Gallery of Greater Victoria exhibition explores work of Emily Carr

Prior to Halifax, Noble was CEO of the Museum of Vancouver from 2005 to 2016. In that time the museum underwent significant changes to governance, staff and processes for strategic, business and program planning, the release stated. As well, the exhibition Casnaem, The City Before the City, a collaboration with UBC’s Museum of Anthropology and the Musqueam Cultural Centre, won a Governor General’s history award for excellence in museums.

Noble holds a masters degree in museum studies from the University of Leicester in England and a bachelor’s degree in history and political science from the University of Saskatchewan.


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