The ECU Curator Emeritus and alum dove deep into the ECU Archives for his contribution to a new project led by Vancouver Art Gallery Chief Curator Emerita Daina Augaitis.
Emily Carr University of Art + Design (ECU) Curator Emeritus Greg Bellerby (Alum 1973) is among the distinguished curators featured in Curatorial Portraits: Reading the 1980s and 90s, a new archival project at the Gibson Art Museum at Simon Fraser University.
As part of his contribution to the project, Greg spent the spring working in the ECU archives with support from ECU Archivist Kristy Waller to gather materials for an archival “self-portrait” reflecting his influences and contributions to regional art history.
“It’s very flattering to be included in Daina’s project, but more than that, it’s an acknowledgement of an overlooked and crucial period in our region’s history,” says Greg, who served as Director and Curator of the Charles H. Scott Gallery from 1988 until his retirement in 2013. Named for ECU’s first Principal, the Charles H. Scott Gallery served as the public-facing hub of the university’s campus during its time on Granville Island.
Prior to his tenure with ECU, Greg worked at the Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG), the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and, briefly, as director of the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver. Greg also served as President of the Emily Carr Alumni Society in the 1990s, as Chair of the Jack and Doris Shadbolt Foundation and was commissioner and co-curator of the Canadian Pavilion at the 2006 Venice Biennale of Architecture.
“I and my fellow Curatorial Portraits participants produced a huge amount of work during those decades and worked very hard to foreground practices that have become fundamental to how Vancouver views itself in terms of the arts,” he continues. “It feels very significant to be included in Curatorial Portraits, and I think this project is a testament to the importance of that time for the arts in the city.”
Led by Daina Augaitis, Chief Curator Emerita at the VAG, Curatorial Portraits aims to raise the visibility of Lower Mainland curators and the regional histories their work reveals. Among the project’s 20 current participants are esteemed ECU community members including Glenn Alteen (Hon. Deg. 2026), Lorna Brown (Hon. Deg. 2015), Hank Bull (Hon. Deg. 2014), ECU faculty member Henry Tsang, Paul Wong (Hon. Deg. 2023) and Shengtian Zheng (Hon. Deg. 2013).
Vanessa Kwan, Director + Curator, Gallery and Exhibitions at ECU, says Greg’s return to ECU comes at an ideal moment for both the university and the gallery.
“It’s been wonderful to connect with Greg,” says Vanessa. “It’s also especially timely given our recent and ongoing work to develop the gallery’s archive as a publicly accessible resource. It feels crucial in ECU’s centennial year to foreground the breadth of work that has been done in the community over time, and Greg’s contributions are a big part of that. He’s had a massive impact on ECU’s presence in the community, as well as on our region’s art history more broadly, and it’s been deeply gratifying to get insight into his process and ideas.”
As he pored through the ECU Archives, Greg says he was reminded of some of the exhibitions and initiatives that filled his quarter-century with the gallery. In addition to his work programming exhibitions by future visual-arts luminaries including Ron Terada (Alum 1991), Steven Shearer (Alum 1992) and former faculty member Ian Wallace (Hon. Deg. 2007), Greg taught curatorial practices at ECU, often organizing exchanges with international institutions including the San Francisco Art Institute and Pratt Institute.
As a facet of his push to ground ECU in a more expansive understanding of place, Greg also arranged numerous collaborations with international partners — a project which continues to animate gallery activities to this day.
In recognition of the 30th anniversary of the sister-city relationship between Vancouver and Yokohama, Greg facilitated an exhibition featuring a dozen women artists from each city, which showed in both Canada and Japan as well as in the Taipei Fine Arts Museum in Taiwan. In 2004, Greg co-curated an exhibition in partnership with curators in Australia and Japan, resulting in a show which visited all three countries. And in 2010, on the bicentennial anniversary of Mexican Independence, Greg curated an exhibition of Mexican artists at the gallery, bringing participants to the university to speak with students.
“All of that was part of acknowledging where we were located — that we were part of the broader art world as well as the university, and that our whole endeavour was to educate young artists, help them find a way into a career and to support them after they’d left,” he says.
“So much of the work I’ve done is connected to my role at the Charles H. Scott Gallery, and it’s been great to reconnect with ECU after a decade. I’m also excited to work with the gallery to help emphasize continuity in the university’s history, because where we are now is just the latest chapter of a long story. And I think the archive at the Gibson Art Museum will show that continuity for our community as a whole. It’ll reveal a lot about this region’s art history that’s currently hidden.”
Curatorial Portraits is on view at the Gibson Art Museum through Apr. 12, 2027.
100 Years of Creativity: The Stories that Shaped Us
As part of Emily Carr University’s centennial celebrations and our ‘100 Years of Creativity’ campaign, we are sharing stories that spotlight the creativity, resilience and impact of our community over the past 100 years. These stories feature the people, projects, places and ideas that have shaped ECU, reminding us of our shared legacy while inspiring the future. By revisiting past milestones and sharing new ones, we honour the many voices that built our institution and continue to guide its path forward.
For more information about ECU 100 centennial celebrations, upcoming events and stories, visit our webpage.
More about Curatorial Practices at ECU
More than organizing exhibitions, curating is an artistic and intellectual practice that shapes how we engage with art.
In ECU’s Curatorial Practices program, you’ll learn to write proposals, plan exhibitions and explore how curatorial choices influence meaning, dialogue and public engagement with art. Through coursework, projects and collaborations, you’ll explore self-curation and peer curation, understanding how curatorial strategies influence artistic presentation.
Visit ECU’s website to learn more.
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