Curatorial Team

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, B.C., where she is a professor in the Visual Arts department. Dr. Igloliorte has been a curator since 2005 and has worked on more than 30 curatorial projects, including national and international 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.

Rose Bouthillier joined the Bonavista Biennale as Artistic Director in April 2022, and is based in Maberly, on the Bonavista Peninsula. Throughout her career, her focus has been on working closely with artists to develop and present new projects, promoting under-recognized voices and creating thoughtful inter-generational dialogues. Previously, she served as Curator (Exhibitions) at Remai Modern, and Associate Curator and Publications Manager at the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland.

The 2025 Bonavista Biennale features a special exhibition of three senior artists from Nunatsiavut: Andrea Flowers, Nellie Winters, and Sarah Baikie. Highlighting intergenerational connections, the exhibition is curated by three of the artists’ granddaughters: Vanessa Flowers, Jessica Winters, and Ella Jacque.

Jessica Winters is a painter, mixed media artist and curator from Makkovik, Nunatsiavut currently living in St. John’s, Newfoundland. She grew up immersed in art and craft; her mother Blanche Winters and grandmother Nellie Winters are well known for their seamstress work, and Winters idolized her aunt Dinah Andersen for her trailblazing work as a painter and carver. Winters has been featured in exhibition including Surfacing at Feheley Fine Arts in Toronto and S’olh Xaxa Temexw, Our Sacred Earth at Robert Kardosh Gallery in Vancouver. In 2023 she was named one of three Canadian recipients of the Hnatyshyn Foundation’s Saunderson Prizes for Emerging Artists. In 2024, Winters was long-listed for Canada’s most generous art prizes, the Sobey Art Award. Her introduction into curating began in 2019 when she curated Billy Gauthier’s first major solo, Saunituinnaulongitutloni at the Rooms. Winters also curated Regeneration | Piguttaugiallavalliajuk | Ussanitauten: Seven Northern Labrador Photographers, a special exhibition for the 2021 Bonavista Biennale. 

Ella Jacque is a student and Grasswork artist from Rigolet, Nunatsiavut. Ella is currently completing her post-secondary degree in Nursing at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, but plans to return to Nunatsiavut as a nurse, artist and community member. Ella began sewing as a child, heavily inspired by the generational tradition-keepers in her family. Ella was taught by her grandmother, Sarah Baikie, and mother, Marilyn Baikie, and has been practicing the fibre art since the age of nine. Ella understands Grasswork to be more than a craft, but a way of life, family, tradition and peace. Jacque’s work has been sold at the Northern Lights Trade Show in 2023 as well as numerous online auctions through Nunatsiavut’s Artistic division. Most recently, a piece of Ella’s Grasswork was gifted to King Charles on behalf of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK) in 2023.

Vanessa Flowers is an artist and teacher from Hopedale, Nunatsiavut. She began crafting over a decade ago, having made her first pair of hand-sewn slippers at a local sewing circle. With the help of her grandmother Andrea Flowers and local seamstress and mentor Sarah Jensen, she continued to stitch moosehide slippers with beaded tongues. Before their grandmother’s passing, Vanessa and her siblings were fortunate to learn how to make kamek, a craft that their grandmother was well known for, which they continue to make today. She is a well-established artist, having facilitated many sewing workshops alongside her sister Veronica, participated in cultural conferences, exhibited her work, including in SakKijâjuk: Art and Craft from Nunatsiavut. She holds a Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Education from Memorial University of Newfoundland and a Certificate of Indigenous Language Proficiency from the University of Victoria (through the Pirurvik Centre in Iqaluit). Vanessa currently lives in Hopedale and works as the Director of Education with Inotsiavik Language and Culture Incorporated, a newly established, youth-led, not-for-profit organization dedicated to creating a safe space to learn and celebrate Inuttut language and culture.