Vancouver Art Gallery releases statement on departure of CEO and executive director Anthony Kiendl
Board of trustees states that the arts administrator, curator, and writer is leaving “to pursue other professional and personal interests”
Anthony Kiendl.
THE VANCOUVER ART Gallery has confirmed the immediate departure of its executive director and CEO Anthony Kiendl, who has held the role for nearly five years.
According to a statement from the gallery’s board of trustees, Kiendl is leaving “to pursue other professional and personal interests” and the board “expresses its best wishes to him in his future endeavors”. Eva Respini, deputy director and director of curatorial programs, and Sirish Rao, senior director of public engagement and learning, will serve as interim leaders of the gallery during the transition.
Born in New York and raised in Winnipeg, Kiendl is an administrator, curator, and writer who has over 25 years of experience working in the arts in B.C., Canada, and beyond. Hired in 2020 to replace Kathleen Bartels, he led the Vancouver Art Gallery through the pandemic and secured major funding for the development of its new building at the intersection of Cambie and West Georgia streets (including a record-setting $100 million donation from the Audain Foundation in 2021).
“I am particularly excited about plans for an incredible new gallery and working with government and community stakeholders to move this shovel-ready project forward,” Kiendl said in a release when he was appointed to the role in summer 2020. “Our new gallery will be an accessible, cultural hub where ideas are shared by everyone, but it will also demonstrate the importance that our institution can have in helping to support economic growth.”
The news came in December that the gallery had scrapped its plans for a building designed by Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron that was to feature woven-copper cladding created with the consultation of several Indigenous artists. The decision was made shortly after it was announced that the project’s cost had skyrocketed from $400 million to $600 million over the last two years.
When Stir spoke to Curtis Collins, director and chief curator of Whistler’s Audain Art Museum, following the cancellation of the project, he called it “a very unfortunate circumstance for B.C.’s cultural community”.
“The VAG in many ways has been a central point in the artistic scene and it’s losing ground with this announcement,” Collins added. “Having said that I’m very sympathetic to Anthony’s dilemma in the sense that having to raise $600 million dollars in a very short period of time is almost an impossible task and they’ve finally come to the realization that that price tag just exceeded the reality of what is possible in a city the size of Vancouver.”
The upcoming Vancouver Art Gallery exhibition Lucy Raven: Murderers Bar, curated by Kiendl, will open as planned on April 18.
As progress on a scaled-back building design continues, keep an eye on the Stir site for more announcements. 
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