Canada

B.A. (Honours), Anthropology, McMaster University, 1976
M.A., Anthropology, McMaster University, 1996

Kenneth Lister received his B.A (Honours, 1976) and M.A. (1996) in Anthropology from McMaster University. He joined the Department of Ethnology at the ROM in 1978 and holds curatorial responsibility for several collections, including: Arctic, Subarctic, and Northwest Coast ethnographic collections of North America, the Native watercraft collection of canoes and kayaks, and the Paul Kane collection of sketches and oil paintings. Ken’s field research includes archaeological research in the Hudson Bay Lowland of northern Ontario, ethnographic research among the northern Ontario Cree and the Inuit of Baffin Island, and field studies relating to sites sketched by Paul Kane. The main focus of his work is oriented toward understanding the role of material culture within the context of traditional cultures.

Past Exhibitions

Canada Collects: Treasures from Across the Nation. (October 6, 2007–January 6, 2008). Garfield Weston Exhibition Hall.

Daphne Cockwell Gallery of Canada: First Peoples. Curatorial Coordinator. Permanent Gallery opened December 2005.

Tuugaaq: Ivory Sculptures from the Eastern Canadian Arctic. (October 12, 2002–March 31, 2003). Gallery of Indigenous Peoples.

Paul Kane: Land Study, Studio View. (August 5, 2000–February 20, 2001). Sigmund Samuel Canadiana Gallery Feature Exhibition Space and Portrait Gallery.

Wilderness to Studio: Four Views of Paul Kane. (November 11, 1998–May 1, 1999). Sigmund Samuel Canadiana Gallery Feature Exhibition Space and Portrait Gallery.

In the Time of the Kayak: Hunting in the Eastern Canadian Arctic. (February 1994–January 1996). Gallery of Indigenous Peoples (inaugural exhibition).

Western Woods Cree Snowshoes. (July 1993–June 1994). From the Collections Gallery.

Arctic Bay Kayak Frame. (March 1992–April 1993). From the Collections Gallery.

"I Took His Likeness": The Paintings of Paul Kane. (April 1985–April 1986). Canadiana Building. Joint curation with Honor de Pencier.

Wilderness to Studio: The Work of Paul Kane. (April–September 1984). 1B Terrace Galleries.

Dr. Trudy Nicks is Senior Curator in the World Cultures Department at the Royal Ontario Museum. She is the coordinating curator and curatorial contact for the Ainu, Philippines, Taiwan sections of the Shreyas and Mina Ajmera Gallery of Africa, the Americas and Asia-Pacific. She is also the curator responsible for the Evelyn Johnston Collection and contemporary First Peoples art in the Gallery of Canada: First Peoples.

Her areas of research include museum anthropology, the history of First Peoples in popular performances in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the development of First Peoples art and craft industries in the 20th century, and contemporary Canadian First Peoples art.

Dr. Nicks' exhibition projects include the ROM/Woodland Cultural Centre collaboration, Mohawk Ideals, Victorian Values: Oronhyatekha, MD (2002), Across Borders: Beadwork in Iroquois Life (2002), Things that Fly, as part of the Greater Toronto Airports Authority’s Exhibition Program (2004), and consulting curator for Iroquois Beadwork - 'o'h ya'h ohdiwenda goh' - Through the Voices of Beads, as part of the ROM's Community Travelling Exhibition Program (2005).

Dr. Nicks worked extensively on the opening of the Shreyas and Mina Ajmera Gallery of Africa, the Americas, and Asia Pacific. Highlighting the artistic and cultural traditions of indigenous peoples from Africa, the American continents and the Asia-Pacific region, including Oceania. This is the first permanent home for these collections in over 30 years, with many of the 1,400 artifacts on display for the first time. The artifacts reveal aspects of spiritual and everyday life, clothing, commerce, sacred and secular ritual, and art of indigenous cultures. Rich with symbols of heritage and identity that continue to have meaning today, this gallery presents objects ranging from large and dramatic ceremonial masks and colourful robes to archaeological objects such as ceramics and basketry.

BFA (Honours), Visual Arts, York University, 1974

Arni Brownstone curates the ethnographic collections from Latin American, and the following regions of North America: Great Plains, Plateau, Great Basin, and the Southwest. His responsibilities include the development of exhibitions and galleries drawing on material from those areas. His scholarly focus is on the visual culture of the northern Plains Indians, with a special interest in Plains Indian pictographic painting. He is currently working toward a survey book based on his re-drawings of over fifty large-scale pictographic paintings, some of which are detailed below.

B.A. (Honours), Art History, University of Windsor, 1972
M.A., Museology, Wayne State University, 1975
Ph.D., Art History & Archaeology, University of Missouri, 1987

Ross Fox is a decorative arts and material culture specialist who retired from the ROM in December 2011, where he was the curator responsible for Canadian Decorative Arts. He remains a ROM Research Associate and is an affiliated faculty member with the Department of Fine Arts, University of Toronto. Though primarily a Canadianist, Fox also has extensive experience with the fine and decorative arts of Europe and the United States, particularly of the 18th and 19th centuries. Previously he was associated with the Mead Art Museum (Amherst College, Massachusetts), Art Gallery of Hamilton (Ontario), National Gallery of Canada, and the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Fox was the curatorial interpreter and developer of the decorative arts exhibits in the Sigmund Samuel Gallery of Canada, which opened in October 2007, as part of the ROM’s building expansion. Currently he is writing a book on Canadian silver. Among other research projects are: furniture of Lower Canada (Quebec) 1763-1837; Loyalist and early American artifacts in Canada; period rooms in museums; and Grand Manan Island as a topographical and symbolic landmark in Canadian landscape art.

Major publications include Quebec and Related Silver at the Detroit Institute of Arts (Wayne State University Press, 1978); Presentation Pieces and Trophies from the Henry Birks Collection of Canadian Silver (National Gallery of Canada, 1985); The Art Gallery of Hamilton: Seventy-Five Years (1914-1989) (1989); and The Canadian Painters Eleven from the McLaughlin Gallery (Amherst College, 1994). He also wrote the section on Canadian silver in Grove’s Dictionary of Art (1996).