Draft:Lilly Koltun

Lilly Ann Koltun (1951 – 21 November 2021) was a Canadian art historian, archivist, and interdisciplinary artist with work ranging across video, performance, sculpture, installation, painting and photography. Born in Toronto, she dedicated much of her life and practice to the arts community in Ottawa, Ontario, notably as the former Director General of the Portrait Gallery of Canada.

Early life and education

Lilly Koltun was born in 1951. She earned an Honours BA in art history from the University of Toronto in 1973, an MA in art history from the Courtauld Institute of Art in 1974, and a PhD in art history from University of St Andrews, Scotland in 1997.

Academic career

Koltun published some two dozen books, catalogues, and articles, including editing the book Private Realms of Light, Canadian Amateur Photography, c. 1839–1940. She was also frequently invited to teach and to speak, in Canada, the United States, and numerous other countries, on topics relating to the history, interpretation and management of art, photography and visual materials.

In 1985–86, she was Visiting Professor in the Master of Archival Studies program at the University of British Columbia, and for many years she was a Graduate Supervisor and Adjunct Research Professor in Art History at Carleton University in Ottawa.

Curation

Koltun was especially active in Canadian arts archives, contributing to the expansion of the National Archives of Canada and the development of new preservation and digital policy. From 1996 to 2001, she was the Director of the Archives Preservation Division and the Director General of the Archives Headquarters Accommodation Project at the National Archives of Canada. She also served as the Director General of the Policy Branch, and as Director of the division responsible for the National Archives' major national collections of documentary art and photography.

Koltun supervised the planned transformation of the Beaux-Arts style former U.S. Embassy at 100 Wellington Street into the National Portrait Gallery of Canada. As the Portrait Gallery's director, she curated numerous exhibitions including the Festival Karsh in 2009 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Armenian-Canadian portrait photographer Yousuf Karsh. Despite $11 million already invested in the Portrait Gallery, the renovations at the former embassy were ended in 2006 under the Harper administration, one of many of the Conservative government's egregious cuts to arts and cultural funding.

She sat on the Board of Directors of the Ottawa Art Gallery for nine years.

Art practice

As an avid photographer, sculptor, painter and video artist, Koltun launched a second career as an artist with a practice based in Ottawa. In Ottawa, her sculpture has been exhibited at Gallery 115 and Nuit Blanche Ottawa-Gatineau, with photography, video and painting exhibited at Studio Sixty Six. She also exhibited in Montreal, Kingston, Winnipeg and Toronto.

Bibliography

• Justin Wonnacott: I Remember and I Forget.  Sandra Dyck, curator, with an essay by Lilly Koltun.  Ottawa, Carleton University Art Gallery, 2010: 48 pp., 24 colour illustrations.
• Yousuf Karsh, Portraits, Nice, France: Théatre de la photographie et de l'image, Nice Musées, 2006:  152 pp, 111 illustrations.
• Private Realms of Light:  Amateur Photography in Canada, c. 1839-1940, editor. (Toronto:  Fitzhenry & Whiteside) 1984:  352 pp and over 300 illustrations. (Also available in French under the title Le coeur au métier: la photographie amateur au Canada de 1839 à 1940.)
• City Blocks, City Spaces/Espaces urbains, historical photographs of Canada's urban growth, c. 1850- 1900/Photographies historiques de la croissance urbaine au Canada, vers 1850-1900.  (Ottawa:  Public Archives Canada) 1980: 102 pp, 28 illustrations.
• The Cabinetmaker's Art in Ontario, c. 1850-1900.  National Museum of Man Mercury Series, History Division Paper No. 26, (Ottawa: National Museums of Canada) 1979:  193 pp, 110 illustrations.