{"id":908923,"date":"2026-09-28T19:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T19:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/908923\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T19:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T19:44:10","slug":"eva-respini-and-sirish-rao-named-permanent-co-ceos-at-vancouver-art-gallery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/908923\/","title":{"rendered":"Eva Respini and Sirish Rao named permanent co-CEOs at Vancouver Art Gallery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Sirish Rao and Eva Respini said that their roles would overlap more than a traditional artistic and executive director would, especially with fundraising, but also in some programming.Vancouver Art Gallery\/Supplied<\/p>\n

The Vancouver Art Gallery\u2019s board of trustees have named Eva Respini and Sirish Rao as its co-chief executive officers in a rare dual appointment to a top job in Canada\u2019s visual-art sector.<\/p>\n

The pair have been interim co-CEOs for the past 18 months after Anthony Kiendl\u2019s departure as director and chief executive officer. Respini has been promoted from curator-at-large to chief curator; her remit will include artistic priorities as well as the overseeing of progress on the gallery\u2019s long-delayed, now shrunken future home<\/a>. Rao will also serve as executive director, handling operations and finance while retaining his long-standing oversight of Art of Wellbeing Lab and Centre for Global Asias.<\/p>\n

This kind of double-headed leadership structure is common in the performing arts, where institutions are often headed by both artistic and executive directors. It\u2019s less common for large national visual-arts museums and galleries, which often fall under a single executive\u2019s vision \u2013 though more dual-CEO examples are emerging at Canadian galleries, including at Saskatoon\u2019s Remai Modern. <\/p>\n

In a joint interview, Respini and Rao said that their roles would overlap more than a traditional artistic and executive director would, especially with fundraising, but also in some programming. They will carry their respective experiences \u2013 Respini as long-time curator, including at New York\u2019s Museum of Modern Art, and Rao as a publishing entrepreneur and leader of South Asian cultural enterprises \u2013 into their equal roles. <\/p>\n

New Vancouver Art Gallery to be smaller, more Canadian than ambitious original plan<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really looking at the future of the gallery, including the capital project,\u201d Respini said, referring to the gallery\u2019s new building. \u201cHe\u2019s much more focused on minding the shop \u2013 that the today is also being taken care of.\u201d But she acknowledges the necessary overlap: \u201cI\u2019m very much focused on the today as well because we\u2019re only as good in our new building. And we\u2019re only as good as how we are today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rao said he describes Respini \u201caffectionately as a museum beast, and myself not being one.\u201d Together, he said, he hopes they can orient the Vancouver Art Gallery as a place to answer the big questions of our time at a moment when major cultural institutions face significant challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is the need right now for institutions like museums to behave much more nimbly, much more entrepreneurially, to understand that their models are under great flux,\u201d Rao said. <\/p>\n

The Vancouver Art Gallery, one of Western Canada\u2019s most prominent art galleries, has faced a variety of financial struggles in recent years. With attendance and revenue at a 15-year low last year, the gallery cut<\/a> about 30 per cent of its work force and expenses. And its ambitious plan to replace its current Robson Square home in a former courthouse with a tower six blocks away has been significantly<\/a> downsized after cost projections reached $600-million. <\/p>\n

For the Vancouver Art Gallery\u2019s Eva Respini, it\u2019s all about the art. Period.<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s now expected<\/a> to be three, rather than nine, storeys tall. The Vancouver firm Formline Architecture + Urbanism and Toronto\u2019s KPMB are set to design the new building.<\/p>\n

Dana Claxton, a gallery trustee, photo-based artist and member of Wood Mountain Lakota First Nation, said in an interview that in their year and a half as interim co-CEOs, Respini and Rao showed both a shared vision and an ability to make difficult decisions in difficult times. \u201cThey knew those things had to be done, and brought things back in order in a good way,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Respini and Rao have endeavoured to make the gallery\u2019s permanent collection<\/a> more consistently available to the public on the building\u2019s third floor. The first floor is hosting That Green Ideal: Emily Carr and the Idea of Nature, the institution\u2019s biggest solo exhibition of the B.C. painter\u2019s works in more than two decades. With the exception of four loans, Respini said, the works are drawn entirely from the gallery\u2019s own collection.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking quite seriously into building an international tour for that,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s another way where we\u2019re utilizing our collection \u2013 not just in-house, but also as a way to talk about Canadian artists, and the way in which they connect to the world outside of Vancouver and B.C.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Sirish Rao and Eva Respini said that their roles would overlap more than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":908924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[3793,449,458,3782,459,64,63,3794,1348,3774,3795,2065,3773,3787,3788,3784,3775,3772,460,164,2555,134,75,69,3781,3805,3776,3777,3786,3783,1625,2289,3796,3779,3800,3801,3803,3798,3802,3797,3799,3778,3790,3791,84,3789,2111,635,105,3792,3785,3780,1346,3804],"class_list":["post-908923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-alberta","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-arts-news","tag-artsanddesign","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-design","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-entertainment","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=908923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/908924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=908923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=908923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=908923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}