Global Engagement of Museums in Canada is a multi-partner collaborative research project funded by Mitacs and led by NACDI.

• Click here to download and read about the report
• Click here to watch and read about Drs. Jeff Brison and Sarah E.K. Smith’s presentation on this project at the Meridian’s 2021 Global Humanities Symposium

The project surveys global activities of ten selected museums across Canada,  ranging in size from municipal institutions to national institutions as well as museums with international stature. The case study institutions are: the Royal Ontario Museum, the Montreal Museum of Fine Art/Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal (MMFA/MBAM), Ottawa Art Gallery, National Gallery of Canada, The Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, The Canadian Museum of History, the Aga Khan Museum, Museum of Anthropology at UBC, the Art Gallery of Alberta, and the Pointe-à-Callière Montréal Archaeology and History Complex.

The project surveys the global activities of the case study institutions within a ten year span between 2009 and 2019. Marking it the first of such study in Canada, it assesses the impacts of these institutions and their global cultural activities, not only in terms of concrete, short term outcomes (e.g. economic impacts, attendance) but also in the ways they function – or are perceived to function – as catalysts for mutuality, respect, and trust which can in turn lead to more productive and long-lasting people-to-people relationships across borders and cultures.

The preliminary baseline data and qualitative analysis were gathered in 2018 and 2019 under the leadership of Drs. Sarah E.K. Smith (Carleton University) and Jeff Brison (Queen’s University). An interdisciplinary team of research fellows, scholars and practitioners participated in research training, workshops, collaborative project writing, and individual archival and institutional research. Each RF completed residencies in participating institutions and created an individual report that examined the institution’s global cultural work and initiatives (including exhibitions, museum exchanges, research, etc.) and the staff’s perceptions of this work. 

These individual reports were synthesized into one cumulative report which presents the key findings of the project. Marking it as the first of such study across Canada, the report also parses the dynamics of museums’ global engagement, exploring the ways that these institutions have been engaged globally in the last decade. 

Research Team

Drs. Sarah E.K. Smith and Jeffrey Brison (PIs)
Elyse Bell (RF)
Antione Devreode (RF)
Simge Erdogan-O’Connor (RF)
Christina Fabiani (RF)
Kyle Hammer (RF)
Sebastian De Line (RF)
Katie-Marie McNeill (RF)
Vanessa Runions (RF)
Tyler Russell (RF)
Ben Schnitzer (RF)