Ottawa, May 6, 2009 - The Canada Council for the Arts announced today the appointment of four new senior staff members:
Doug Sigurdson as head, Visual Arts Section; Pierre Pontbriand as head, Strategic Communications; Vincent Renaud as head, Digital Media and Creative Services; and Kim Lymburner as head, Arts Services.
Mr. Sigurdson has served as a program officer in the Canada Council's Visual Arts Section since 1989, amassing a thorough knowledge of both the Canadian artistic community and the ongoing development of the Canada Council itself. Prior to his work at Council, Mr. Sigurdson was engaged in a variety of administrative and independent writing projects in Toronto and Winnipeg. He was a founding director of Winnipeg's Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art in 1972. Following Pierre Arpin's departure last January, Mr. Sigurdson was appointed interim head of the Visual arts section. He assumed the role of head permanently as of May 4, 2009.
Mr. Pontbriand has extensive senior experience in strategic communications in the cultural sector at the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (vice-president, Communications), the Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation (vice-president, Public Relations and Publishing), Telefilm Canada (director, Communications) and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (director general, Information Services). Mr. Pontbriand will begin his role as head, Strategic Communications, effective May 11, 2009.
Mr. Renaud has over 15 years of experience in communications and digital media in the cultural and the private sectors. In 1996, he founded and directed a company that provided consulting services in communications and digital media. For the past five years, he has worked at Parks Canada in Québec and Ottawa in the development of several strategic and educational websites and new media products. Mr. Renaud will begin his role as head, Digital Media and Creative Services, effective May 19, 2009.
Mr. Lymburner has served in Communications at the Canada Council since 1990, first as publications manager and later as business manager responsible for communications planning, translation and corporate websites. He has extensive experience in Internet communications and is a founding member of the Online Marketing Council. In the 1980s, he held positions in print communications and design in the Registrar's Office of the University of Ottawa and at Bombardier Inc. in Montreal, where he was responsible for technical publications. He assumed the role of head of Arts Services on April 1st, 2009.
The positions of head, Strategic Communications and head, Digital Media and Creative Services were created following the Canada Council Organizational Design Review which began in January 2007. The objective of this review was to improve the effectiveness of the Canada Council's operations and enhance its capacity to support the arts.
The Canada Council for the Arts is a federal Crown Corporation created by an Act of Parliament in 1957. The role of the Council is to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts. To fulfill this mandate, the Council offers a broad range of grants and services to professional Canadian artists and arts organizations in dance, integrated art, media arts, music, theatre, visual arts, and writing and publishing. It also promotes public awareness of the arts through its communications, research and arts promotion activities.
The Council administers the Killam Program of scholarly awards, the Governor General's Literary Awards and the Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts. The Canadian Commission for UNESCO and the Public Lending Right Commission operate within the Council. The Canada Council Art Bank, which has some 17,400 works of contemporary Canadian art in its collection, rents to the public and private sectors.
