{"id":942625,"date":"2026-10-22T23:16:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T23:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/942625\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T23:16:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T23:16:11","slug":"new-director-brings-incredible-artistic-vision-to-winnipeg-art-gallery-qaumajuq-board-chair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/942625\/","title":{"rendered":"New director brings ‘incredible artistic vision’ to Winnipeg Art Gallery-Qaumajuq: board chair"},"content":{"rendered":"

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John Mahli Lawa’ Hampton has been named the new director and CEO of the Winnipeg Art Gallery-Qaumajuq.<\/p>\n

Hampton, a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma, was most recently the executive director and CEO of the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina<\/a>, and prior to that, the executive director of the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba in Brandon. <\/p>\n

They officially start their new position in Winnipeg on Dec. 10.<\/p>\n

“I like to cross-country ski, [and] I think you got better trails that we do here,” Hampton quipped in a phone interview from Regina with CBC Radio’s Up to Speed on Thursday.<\/p>\n

“I’m just excited to get back to the people that I know there, but also to meet a lot of new people.”<\/p>\n

Hampton takes over at Manitoba’s largest art gallery from Stephen Borys, who was its director and CEO for 17 years and oversaw the addition of Qaumajuq<\/a>, the WAG’s Inuit art centre, in 2020. Borys stepped down in July 2025 to\u00a0start a consulting firm.<\/p>\n

Bill Elliott, the deputy director and chief financial officer of WAG-Qaumajuq, has served as interim director and CEO since.<\/p>\n

Hampton has co-chaired the last two Canada Arts Summits and is the author of the article Decolonizing Museum Management: Toward a Human Institution, published in the Manual of Museum Management<\/a>.<\/p>\n

WAG-Qaumajuq board of governors chair Aynsley Cockshott said Hampton, who grew up in Regina, is not only “very grounded in a Prairie experience,” but also has a wide relationship circle across Canada.<\/p>\n

“Having had the experience of leading a fantastic institution like the MacKenzie, they are coming into the WAG with \u2026 the practical abilities and skills to run a complex institution,” Cockshott told Up to Speed.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Winnipeg Art Gallery-Qaumajuq in the city’s downtown is shown in a 2021 photo. (Lindsay Reid)<\/p>\n

Hampton “also really enunciated an incredible artistic vision that we found some compelling,” she said.<\/p>\n

The first year on the job will be about building relationships and establishing strong ties with the local community, Hampton said.<\/p>\n

“Part of that [is] that they feel welcomed into the direction of the gallery, that the gallery is reflective of Winnipeg and the territory here,” they said. <\/p>\n

“By leaning into that unique and authentic voice \u2026 we can build and amplify our voice on the national stage.”<\/p>\n

WAG-Qaumajuq said in a news release Hampton’s hiring will help advance the gallery’s strategic vision, strenghten relationships and support its long-term sustainability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":942626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,75],"class_list":["post-942625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=942625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/942626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=942625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=942625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=942625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}