Fifth anniversary edition to be presented August 16 – September 14, 2025
Bonavista Peninsula, Newfoundland and Labrador – Bonavista Biennale is thrilled to announce the appointment of Dr. Heather Igloliorte as Curator of the 2025 Bonavista Biennale. Igloliorte will work alongside Bonavista Biennale’s Artistic Director Rose Bouthillier to create a compelling new vision for the fifth iteration of the month-long contemporary art event.
Igloliorte’s appointment follows an extensive hiring process that drew applicants from across Canada and internationally. Igloliorte is an Inuk-Newfoundlander and Nunatsiavut Beneficiary. Her father’s family is from the Nunatsiavut community of Hopedale, and her mother’s family hails from the fishing village of Greenspond, on Bonavista Bay.
“As someone who is both Labradorian and Newfoundlander, Indigenous and settler, and who works both away and at home, I understand the various complexities throughout this region,” says Igloliorte. “I’ve been fortunate to attend three Bonavista Biennales, and I have been incredibly impressed by the high calibre of work accomplished in every iteration, and inspired by the diversity of venues, challenges and ingenuities that the Biennale presents to artists, curators and audiences.”
“We are thrilled to be collaborating with Heather as Curator of the Bonavista Biennale’s fifth edition,” says Bonavista Biennale’s Executive Director Sue Balint. “Her own practice closely aligns with the Biennale’s intention to carefully consider – within the context of the Peninsula – not only art and artists, but also communities, cultural touch points, and opportunities to offer new narratives. I’m incredibly excited for Heather to join us in reflecting on past editions and envisioning the Biennale’s future.”
The 2023 Biennale saw attendance figures of nearly 20,000, tripling numbers from 2021. Many visitors spend multiple days on the Peninsula touring the 165 km coastal loop that Biennale sites are placed along. The Biennale has a significant economic impact throughout the Peninsula through both visitor spending and job creation.
About Bonavista Biennale
Bonavista Biennale is an innovative, rural-based, public art event occurring every two years on Newfoundland’s Bonavista Peninsula. It provides a unique platform for artists and audiences to explore, exchange and challenge different ideas and perspectives. Biennale visitors experience artworks alongside the complex and compelling histories, economies, geological features and environments that shape the Bonavista Peninsula. Projects are realized in unconventional outdoor and indoor sites, including historic and industrial buildings, outport villages, beaches and cliffsides.
Biography of Dr. Heather Igloliorte
Dr. Igloliorte is an Inuk-Newfoundlander and Nunatsiavut Beneficiary, and the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Decolonial and Transformational Indigenous Art Practices at the University of Victoria, BC, where she is a professor in the Visual Arts department. Heather has been a curator since 2005 and has worked on more than thirty curatorial projects, including nationally and internationally touring exhibitions, permanent collection exhibits, festivals, and public art installations. She has made significant contributions to the art history of Newfoundland and Labrador, including SakKijâjuk: Art and Craft from Nunatsiavut, created and circulated by The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery in St. John’s. SakKijâjuk toured across Canada from 2016 – 2020 and was awarded the 2017 Award of Outstanding Achievement in Education from the Canadian Museums Association. Igloliorte’s curatorial work has been recognized by The Hnatyshyn Foundation with the Award for Curatorial Excellence in Contemporary Art (2021). She is the current president of the board of the Inuit Art Foundation, and was the first Indigenous person in Canada to be awarded a Royal Canadian Academy of Arts Medal for her service to Indigenous art and artists, also in 2021.
Click here to download a high resolution headshot of Dr. Heather Igloliorte and longer form biography.
Photo credit: Lisa Graves for Concordia University, 2023.
Click here to download a selection of project images from the 2023 Bonavista Biennale: Host.
All photos by Brian Ricks.
Further announcements to follow. Visit the Biennale’s website, subscribe to the e-newsletter and follow on Facebook and Instagram.
Media Contact:
Sue Balint, Executive Director
sue@bonavistabiennale.com
647.216.3974
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Bonavista Biennale gratefully acknowledges that the land on which we gather is Ktaqmkuk, traditional unceded Mi’kmaw territory. We further acknowledge with respect the diverse histories and cultures of the Beothuk, Mi’kmaq, Innu and Inuit of this province, and the ongoing connections with the past, present and future in our relationships with Indigenous and other peoples in Newfoundland and Labrador.