Meet your neighbour

Jean-François Bélisle, Director and CEO of the National Gallery

Ana Júlia Galvan

Previously the Executive Director and Chief-Curator of the Musée d’art de Joliette (MAJ), Jean-François Bélisle moved to Sandy Hill with his wife Alexandra and their kids, Clara and Adrien, in July 2023 when he assumed his current role as the National Gallery of Canada’s Director and CEO. A child of diplomats, Bélisle grew up surrounded by art. Here, he talks about his views on art, his work at the Gallery, and the relationship between our vibrant neighbourhood and culture.

You moved to Ottawa (and to Sandy Hill) in 2023. How do you like it so far?

It’s an amazing neighbourhood with a sense of community, which is really surprising to find in the downtown core of a major Canadian city. I think that the historical architecture is what drew us to the neighbourhood. And, because it’s Ottawa, it’s not just the history of the neighbourhood that you feel, it’s the history of the country. It’s a privilege for us to be able to raise our kids in this environment.

Does living here influence how you think about your role at the National Gallery?

Being the only national art museum in Canada, we are actually very active in every province and territory. Because Sandy Hill has a strong sense of community, I think I better understand small communities. And it’s funny because there’s a bit of a tradition of directors of the Gallery living here. I’m the third, maybe, in the history of the Gallery. I think anyone that works in a museum has an appreciation for history and likes to be surrounded by it. It’s also a very diverse neighbourhood. That is another huge draw, to be fed by this diversity and this constant influx of culture and different points of view. It’s a privilege for me to live here.

What role did art have in your formative years?

My parents are huge art fans. We’ve always had engravings, drawings, paintings—not high value items, but art was always around. And there were always art-interested friends coming through the house, but that was just the background music to my life. Turning 18, I realized: “This is it. Maybe it can be more than the background music.” In a way, my parents and my upbringing set the scene for me to do this.

You mentioned in an interview that you think art could change the world. How?

To me, art doesn’t change the world through ideologies or propaganda; it changes the world incrementally, even if only 1% of the time people start questioning their own perspective on things. To me, really good art is art that is beautiful, that you want to see, that makes you feel something, that makes you feel like you’re connecting with something. And in the process, it introduces new thoughts and new ideas in your mind, of looking at something from another perspective. That’s the beauty of art. And I think visual arts have the amazing strength of not having language barriers. We all relate to shapes and colours.

How could art become a more natural part of everyday life in neighbourhoods like ours?

I’m a huge fan of public art, artistic installations, takeovers, or pop-ups. I think art should be everywhere all the time, but it doesn’t need to be big, costly things. If each individual that likes art takes a little step and thinks, “How can I do a little something?” Simple things. Shop owners, building owners, universities, people like me. Yes, I think it’s just a better society overall if you have art in your life every day.

Large institutions, such as the Gallery, can sometimes feel very distant from the public. How do you prevent them from becoming disconnected from their surroundings?

It all depends on the people doing it, telling those stories, and building these institutions. In our case, I think it starts with me. I’m very conscious that when you go into the National Gallery, you feel like you’re going into something special. I think, on the human side, we have to overcompensate for that impressive, huge building. If you walk into the building and the first person that you talk to is cold and distant, if you feel judged, then it matches the building, right? If the person surprises you, that changes everything. You walk up that ramp with that impression in your mind. When you walk out of there, you think, “this was comfortable, this was fun.”

Is there something you learned from the people that walk in?

Tons. I make a point of using the public entrance every day, going through the galleries, walking through the public hallways, and talking with people. And of course on opening nights, events, and activities. Whenever school is closed, there’s a studio open at the Gallery, where you can go with your kids. There’s staff there, and every art material you can think of, and there are always activities. It’s a beautiful, fun space. My kids love it. We often go there on weekends, and there you meet even more people, because you’re sitting at a table with them and you talk. I’ve learned a lot from museum goers—what they like, what they don’t like. But, more meaningfully, how they see and learn, and what they understand about the shows, the art, and the programs we build.

What do you think makes Canadian art distinct today?

Well, extremely high quality. But more importantly, the relationships with Indigenous peoples and recent immigrants—multiplying that and framing that discussion in a constructive, positive, and rich fashion. It’s something that Canada has done for centuries and it’s a recent thing for most other countries around the world. I think those Canadian voices are incredibly rich and strong, and can play a huge role internationally. I see a very Canadian nature to this that I love, and I think is fantastic.