Careers & Staff Announcements

The Board of Directors of Griffin Art Projects announces today that after eight years as executive director and curator, Lisa Baldissera is leaving to join the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria’s senior management team as Chief Curator and Director of Exhibitions and Programs, beginning on February 1, 2027.

Baldissera joined Griffin Art Projects in 2018 and it has thrived under her stewardship. She has presented more than 20 exhibitions and initiated numerous dynamic public programs, many in partnership with Vancouver organizations such as the Vancouver Art Gallery, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, The Cinematheque, Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art, Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Similkameen Artist Residency, and Gordon Smith Gallery. Baldissera also initiated a wide-ranging residency award series that recognized BIPOC, Indigenous, Emily Carr graduate, and North Shore artists, as well as the creative mentorship program YouthHUB: Experiences in Contemporary Art. She secured Griffin’s first public grants and oversaw the publication of seven exhibition catalogues, including Person/ne: Citizenship, Agency and Communities of Care, The Sodomite Invasion: Experimentation, Politics and Sexuality in the work of Jimmy DeSana and Marlon T. Riggs (curator Lorenzo Fusi), Whose Chinatown: Examining Chinatown Gazes in Art, Archives, and Collections (curator Dr. Karen Tam), and the monograph Janet Werner: Sticky Pictures.

Baldissera also developed the popular Conversations on Collecting and Conversations on Collecting International public program series, which explored Griffin’s mandate through the work of national and international collectors. Through four national and international conferences, she has extended Griffin’s research scope.

“We are extremely grateful to Lisa Baldissera for her dedication and commitment to fulfilling the vision of Griffin through all of her remarkable endeavors and passion for sharing private art collections with the public through a wide portfolio of outreach and community educational projects,” says the board of Griffin Art Projects. “While we will miss her greatly, we wish her every success in her new position.”

Baldissera says: “It has been the honour of a lifetime to be part of Griffin’s story during the early days of its inception and to have joined Henning and Brigitte Freybe, along with Griffin’s extraordinary board, volunteers, and staff in the co-creation of a flourishing organization on the North Shore that shares, through free admission, contemporary art with the public. This generous mandate, arising from the Freybe family’s inspiring vision, along with the care and support Griffin’s board has offered, have made it one of my most cherished professional experiences. I look forward to witnessing Griffin’s continued flourishing into the future.”

Lisa’s last day will be January 30, 2027.

The board will begin the search for a new executive director and curator in the coming months.