BIO

Virginia Eichhorn has worked in the visual arts field for over twenty-five years and was appointed to the position of Director/Curator of the Tom Thomson Art Gallery in September 2009. In 2012 her title was changed to Director & Chief Curator and her responsibilities were expanded to include the management of the Billy Bishop Home & Museum and the Owen Sound Marine and Rail Museum, as well as the Tom Thomson Art Gallery. She is a graduate of the Art History programme at Queen’s University and continued her studies at the University of Toronto. As an independent curator she has presented exhibitions at numerous prestigious venues including the XII Biennale of Art at Villa Nova Cerveira in Portugal. She has worked extensively with artists from across Canada and abroad, including Carl Beam, Judy Chicago, Vessna Perunovich, Jane Ash Poitras and Peter Von Tiesenhausen, developing exhibitions for high profile Canadian galleries and museums. In addition to curating, she has written numerous catalogue essays and has contributed articles to prominent Canadian magazines including Artichoke, Canadian Art, Border Crossings, ESPACE Sculpture and international magazines such as Ceramics Monthly. She is a member of the Aboriginal Curatorial Collective, the International Association of Art Museum Curators (IKT), the Canadian Art Museum Directors’ Organization (CAMDO) and the Association of Art Museum Curators and is Vice President and Treasurer of the Ontario Association of Art Galleries and is a board member for Cahiers métiers d’art /Craft Journal. In 2009 she won the Jean Johnson/Melanie Egan Award for Curatorial Excellence given by the Ontario Crafts Council.