The Paul Wells Show Live Podcast Taping: Art and Canadian Society in a Post-Pandemic World with Sarah Milroy

On January 24, Paul Wells was joined in conversation with Sarah Milroy, chief curator of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. Prior to becoming a celebrated curator and member of the Order of Canada, Milroy worked as chief art critic at the Globe and Mail, as well as the editor and publisher of Canadian Art. She discussed trends in Canadian art, the place of museums in a society addicted to Instagram, and the role of the art critic in a world where the job has become rare.

This event was part of a week of live podcast tapings for The Paul Wells Show. The Paul Wells Show is produced by Antica Productions in partnership with the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy and the National Arts Centre. The founding sponsor is TELUS. The title sponsor is Compass Rose. Its publishing partners are The Toronto Star and iPolitics.

Listen to conversation here.

About our Speakers:

Sarah Milroy is Chief Curator of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection and a champion of the art of Canada, both historic and contemporary. She served as The Globe and Mail’s lead art critic from 2001 to 2011. Before that, from 1984 to 1996 she worked with Canadian Art magazine, latterly as editor and publisher. During her years at Canadian Art Milroy contributed regularly to the CBC as a visual arts correspondent and has written for many scholarly publications.

Over the past decade, Sarah has co-curated four major exhibitions in collaboration with McMichael Executive Director, Ian Dejardin: From the Forest to the Sea: Emily Carr in British Columbia (2015, Dulwich Picture Gallery, UK, and Art Gallery of Ontario); Vanessa Bell (2016, Dulwich Picture Gallery); David Milne: Modern Painting (2018, Dulwich Picture Gallery, Vancouver Art Gallery and McMichael Canadian Art Collection); and Into the Light: Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald (2019, McMichael Canadian Art Collection and Winnipeg Art Gallery). More recent projects at the McMichael include Uninvited: Canadian Women Artists in the Modern Moment (2021); Gathie Falk: Revelations; Generations: The Sobey Family and Canadian Art; and Wanda Koop: Lightworks (all 2022).

Paul Wells is one of Canada’s leading political journalists, having spent more than 25 years on the Hill, covering eight federal elections, four prime ministers, and a big piece of Canada’s history. Fresh, funny, and authoritative, Wells speaks in both official languages on all matters of the day, from the nation’s position in the global economy, to the inside scoop on what’s really happening inside the Parliament buildings and beyond.

For 19 years, Wells was the lead political columnist at Maclean’s magazine. Prior to this, he was the national affairs columnist at The Toronto Star and has also written for the Globe and Mail and The National Post. Wells has won three gold National Magazine Awards and a National Newspaper Award.

Today, Wells is a regular political commentator on both the French- and English-language CBC networks. He has also launched a subscription newsletter, which is already one of the most widely read political newsletters in Canada. In fall 2022, Wells will launch his podcast, The Paul Wells Show, in partnership with the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto. He is also their inaugural journalist fellow-in-residence for the 2022-23 academic year.

A bestselling author, The New Yorker magazine called Wells “Canada’s foremost Harperologist” with the release of his book on Stephen Harper, The Longer I’m Prime Minister. It is the only book to have ever won three major non-fiction book awards: The Shaughnessy Cohen Prize, the John W. Dafoe Book Prize, and the Ottawa Book Award.