Gaëtane Verna

Art historian and arts administrator Gaëtane Verna is the Wexner Center's executive director.

Since 2012, Verna has been the director and artistic director of The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto. She was executive director and chief curator of the Musée d’art de Joliette in Québec from 2006 to 2012. Prior to her appointment at Joliette, Verna served as curator of the Foreman Art Gallery at Bishop’s University (1999–2006) in Sherbrooke, Québec, while also teaching in the art history department of both Bishop’s University and the Université du Québec à Montréal.

Since 1998, Verna has curated and organized exhibitions by emerging, midcareer, and established Canadian and international artists, including Terry Adkins, John Akomfrah, Vasco Araújo, Miriam Cahn, Alfredo Jaar, Luis Jacob, Kimsooja, Yam Lau, Oswaldo Maciá, Mario Pfeifer, Javier Téllez, Denyse Thomasos, Bill Viola, YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES, Zineb Sedira, and Franz Erhard Walther among many others. She has also edited and contributed essays to numerous books and catalogues.

Verna serves on several boards of directors, including for the Canada Council for the Arts, TV5 Québec Canada, the Holt/Smithson Foundation, and the Sobey Art Foundation. She is the past president of the board of directors of the Toronto Arts Council and serves on the advisory committees of the Art Gallery of Ontario’s Arts of Global Africa and the Diaspora and the Mosaic Institute in Toronto. In 2017, she was appointed Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Order of Arts and Letters) by the French government to spotlight and recognize her significant contribution to furthering the arts in France and throughout the world.

Press Release about Verna