Later this year, Timothy Long will retire after a 35-year career at the MacKenzie Art Gallery, working his way up from Curatorial Assistant and serving the public as head curator for the last 23 years. 

In celebration of his dedicated management, preservation, and interpretation of the MacKenzie’s permanent collection, Long will curate his final show — a culmination of over three decades of research, exhibition planning, and educational outreach. 

“When I started working at the MacKenzie fresh out of grad school, wearing a bow tie of course, I had no idea what a curator did,” says Long. Art history classes had given me a road map, but they provided no clue how to drive the car! I started learning on my first day, and I am still learning now, thirty-five years later. I have had so many incredible teachers along the way, both within and outside this organization, too many to name.  

And I have encountered so many amazing artists and artworks, who have been my chief inspiration over the years. I cannot believe the breadth of experiences and the freedom to explore them that I have been given. I cannot believe how good it has been to work on Treaty 4 territory, with so many gifted Indigenous curators and artists. I am filled with gratitude.  

As I leave my position as head curator, I take with me countless moments of insight, laughter, connection, and wonder.”  

“Timothy Long has been synonymous with the MacKenzie Art Gallery for as long as I’ve been around,” shares MacKenzie Art Gallery Executive Director & CEO, John G. Hampton.” When I was an emerging artist, Tim was the one of first big shot curators to do a studio visit with me, and I know he has had an immeasurable impact on countless other artists, curators, and art lovers in Regina and beyond.  

Hampton adds, “Timothy has had as big a hand as any in shaping the MacKenize, our collection, and the broader artistic landscape in this territory. Anyone who has had the pleasure of taking a vault tour with him has likely been in awe of his bottomless knowledge, and I’m so pleased to have this fitting send-off, where we can share as much of this knowledge and insight as possible in honour of Tim and all who have worked with him.” 

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION 

Whispers from the Vault: Revelations from Three Decades at the MacKenzie, is an exhibition celebrating Timothy Long’s thirty-five years as curator at the MacKenzie Art Gallery (1989–2024) in the style of a vault tour and podcast series. Curated by Long, this exhibition reveals the secrets and stories of select works from the vault and will be on view from July 26, 2024, to June 16, 2025.  

Long creates an immersive and reflective journey, sharing his profound insights and personal anecdotes, gained through repeated viewing, archival research, and engaging conversations with guests and artists. The stories include encounters with Joe Fafard’s portraits of Long’s professors at the University of Regina, the twisting saga of John Nugent’s ill-fated memorial to Louis Riel, and Sheila Orr’s surprising revelation about what her Inuit relatives used for Christmas trees. Whispers from the Vault invites audiences to discover these stories and other whispers of history, culture, and art. The vault doors are open — join us for a transformative tour.  

“Over the course of my career, telling stories about the collection while guiding groups through the basement has become a favourite form of communication. I see the vault tour as a model of learning, a venue for research, and an opportunity for diverse audiences to engage with the presence, meaning, and mystery of art.” 

“Whispers from the Vault is the product of my lifelong engagement with the collection of the MacKenzie Art Gallery, going back all the way to my student days at the University of Regina in the 1980s. Learning the stories connected with artworks is one of the most important ways of caring for a collection.  

I feel privileged to have had access to these artworks, to the artists who made them, to the collectors who in many cases donated them, and to the many other individuals whose lives have been touched by them. The MacKenzie collection has been my world for the past thirty-five years. This exhibition is my invitation to meet the artworks and individuals who make up that world.” 

 

ABOUT TIMOTHY LONG 

Timothy Long has over thirty-five years of curatorial experience at the MacKenzie Art Gallery where he has been Head Curator since 2001 and Adjunct Professor at the University of Regina since 2005. Working with curators and writers from across Canada, Long has helped write the art history of Saskatchewan through projects that include the nationally touring surveys Regina Clay, Superscreen (with Alex King), and Prairie Interlace (with Michele Hardy and Julia Krueger), as well as retrospectives of Jack Sures (with Virginia Eichhorn), David Thauberger (with Sandra Fraser), Wilf Perreault, and Victor Cicansky (with Julia Krueger). Long has spearheaded the application of René Girard’s mimetic theory to an anti-violence critique of aesthetics and spectatorship in several projects, including: Wanda Koop: Sightlines, The Limits of Life: Arnulf Rainer and Georges Rouault, Let Me Be Your Mirror, Double Space, My Evil Twin, After Presence, Masculin/Féminin: Ian Wallace and Jean-Luc Godard, and Atom Egoyan: Steenbeckett (with Elizabeth Matheson and Christine Ramsay).  

His well-attended public lecture series, “The Rembrandt Code” and “…But Now I See,” provided an accessible point of entry to this theory. With Robin Poitras, artistic director of New Dance Horizons, he initiated the innovative MAGDANCE series, which since 2011 has regularly brought contemporary dance into the gallery. He has supported Indigenous curation through his work with several MacKenzie curators over the past twenty-five years. 

An experienced editor, his publications and co-publications have been nominated for a number of awards, winning the Saskatchewan Book Award for Publishing (Jeanne Randolph, Joey Morgan: The Man Who Waits and Sleeps While I Dream, 1999), the High Plains Book Award for Art/Photography (Victor Cicansky: The Gardener’s Universe, 2020), and the Melva J. Dwyer Award for Outstanding Canadian Art Reference Book, Art Libraries Society of North America (Dana Claxton, The Sioux Project—Tatanka Oyate, 2022).  

Deepening our knowledge of the MacKenzie permanent collection has been an ongoing interest; his recent work on the MacKenze Bequest resulted in new attributions for four previously unidentified early modern artworks.  

 

ABOUT THE MACKENZIE   

Located in Treaty 4 territory, the MacKenzie Art Gallery is Saskatchewan’s oldest public art gallery, with a 50-year history of championing Indigenous art from Indigenous perspectives. The MacKenzie embraces its unique position within the Canadian and international art landscape, celebrating the diverse perspectives of all artists within the plains region and Canada. It has a focus on Indigenous and contemporary art, contextualized through select historic and international work.   

 

MEDIA CONTACT  

Angela Lackey  

Communications Coordinator  

MacKenzie Art Gallery  

alackey@mackenzie.art  

(306)-584-4250 x4271 

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