Agassiz Ice by Gordon Reeve (City of Winnipeg Public Art Collection)

Carol A. Phillips

As a cultural executive, Carol Phillips has been successful in arts administration, program creation and management at the senior leadership level and in arts-related positions. She has effectively directed a multi-disciplinary arts environment specializing in professional development and production, with additional extended experience in visual arts and the art museum.

As Director of Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art in Winnipeg, she has overseen management of Canada's representation to the 2001 Venice Biennale and has worked to position the ICA for program and facility expansion.

From 1992 to 2000, Carol Phillips was Vice-President and Director of the Banff Centre for the Arts. She was responsible for maintaining the Centre's international reputation as a leader in the professional development and advanced training of artists from Canada and around the world. Carol brought to the Centre a passion for the arts and strong track record in arts management, innovative program development, project creation, and community relations. She remains concerned with pushing the boundaries of art forms in Canada; adding new layers while preserving and enlivening worthy traditions. She has made the creation of Indigenous arts programs a priority in each institution with which she has been associated. Most recently, international relations were a preoccupation in a project of brokering international agreements for Banff with countries in Europe and Latin America.

Previously, she directed the Winnipeg Art Gallery and the Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery in Regina; presiding over a period of transformation for the Winnipeg Art Gallery into one of Canada's most progressive regional galleries, and earlier preparing the Mackenzie for its new constitution and new building.

Carol has been jurist and advisor for arts boards, councils and cultural agencies across Canada and internationally. For six years she was Chair of the Subcommission for Culture and the World Decade for Cultural Development, Canadian Commission for UNESCO, and has represented Canada at many UNESCO international gatherings. Awarded the Queen's Jubilee Medal, 2002.