Art propels our culture forward, according to the first Indigenous CEO of SK Arts.
Lisa Bird-Wilson was appointed in the fall of 2024 to head the provincial arts funding organization.
She spent 27 years at the Gabriel Dumont Institute working in Métis education across the province and ended her career there as CEO.
Now making the shift to SK Arts, her goal is to ensure Indigenous and diverse communities have better access to grants and resources for creators.
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Bird-Wilson is also an award-winning author. She has seen a rise in Indigenous writers and artists being published and recognized over the past 15 years.
“I’m very heartened to see that increase, and I know that we owe a lot to the artists and the writers who came before us who broke that trail and made sure there was space for us and that’s part of it, making space,” she said.
Bird-Wilson is excited to reach out to new communities and add to the SK Arts Permanent Collection. Once a year, there is a targeted process to look at gaps and identify creators who are not represented within the collection.
“It’s a good way for us to be able to reach out and make sure if there are underrepresented groups or artists that we are covering that off in the provincial art collection and we’re having the broadest representation that we can in that collection that will endure and go forward into the future,” she said.
SK Arts is 76 years old; Bird-Wilson is excited to see what the art collection looks like in another 76 years. The SK Arts Permanent Collection includes about 3,800 works of Saskatchewan visual art showcasing 850 artists.
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