Curator of the Zack

OLGA LIVSHIN

Many members of the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver associate the Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery with Reisa Smiley Schneider’s smiling face. As the JCCGV cultural arts director, Schneider graciously welcomes everyone into the gallery for art exhibitions and poetry readings, or simply for a chat. Her knowledge of the arts is extensive, but her career began with a much different focus.

After Schneider received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work from McGill University, she worked as a social worker in Montreal. In 1975, she and her husband moved to Vancouver. The young couple planned to make it the first leg of their journey around the world, but the plan never materialized. They settled in Vancouver for good.

Schneider resumed her social work career, but the effect of her efforts was elusive. She was frustrated by the intangibility of her work, by the challenges clients faced and her inability to change the systems that prevented clients from getting ahead. “It was hard for me to continue to work as a social worker,” she explained. “I was too sensitive to clients’ suffering and pain and I wasn’t sure how effective I would be as a social worker without making huge changes to our society, something I could not do alone. I decided to take some time off to nurture myself and to figure out what I wanted to do with my life.”

Schneider took vocational tests to find out her strengths and interests and, before long, she was enrolled in a broadcast journalism program at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. She raised her three daughters and intermittently worked as a social work researcher, a freelancer for the arts magazine Step and for CBC, doing everything from radio stories to research and production.

A series of serendipitous events brought her in contact with local artist Linda Frimer. They became instant friends and, with First Nations artist George Littlechild and author Garry Gottfriedson, they wrote and published a book of painting and poetry, In Honor of Our Grandmothers.

In 1998, Frimer and Schneider collaborated again, this time on the Gesher Project, a unique effort of Vancouver Holocaust survivors, child survivors and adult children of survivors to examine the impact of the Holocaust on their lives through talking, writing and visual art. Once again, Schneider brought together her considerable organizational skills as a facilitator, her love for the arts and her Jewish heritage.

Later that year, she was hired to coordinate the Cherie Smith JCCGV Jewish Book Festival, which she went on to direct for nine years. When she saw an empty gallery in the middle of the JCCGV, it struck a note that resonated in her heart. “The empty walls drove me crazy,” she said. “I couldn’t stand having the gallery without art on its walls.”

It wasn’t long before Schneider convinced the administration to let her work with local artists to revive the gallery. Meeting with artists, writing media releases, installing and dismantling exhibits and organizing opening nights only scratch the surface of the hectic job of a gallery director. Behind the scenes, Schneider curates art shows.

“Placing pieces around the gallery is like creating a painting out of the room,” she explained. “I talk to the artist, get to know the art and get a feel of the energy of the show. Some pieces look good next to each other, while others compete with each other and have to be separated. You want the viewer’s eyes to stop at each painting or sculpture, but you also want to move the viewer’s eyes from one artwork to the next. You do that with color and movement. Much of what I do is intuitive, but I did study art and composition at Langara and Emily Carr and, having worked in this gallery for more than 10 years, I not only have experience, but an intimate knowledge of the gallery space.”

Although her work at the gallery is governed by the mandate to promote Jewish artists and Jewish themes, sometimes non-Jewish artists are selected, if their art complies with the mandate. Currently, there are two exhibits on: a solo show in the gallery, Colors of Kauai by Elaine Charach Campbell; and a group display in the Wosk Auditorium, Highlight on Jewish Holidays, presented in conjunction with Festival Ha’Rikud. One of the paintings that was selected for the latter is “Upheaval.” The artist, Enda Bardell, is not Jewish, but rather, she is Estonian. When Schneider sent out a call for submissions, Bardell contacted her with a story. The artist had traveled to Prague in 2008 and had visited a Jewish cemetery there. “The tombstones ... were calling to me,” Bardell said. “They needed to be remembered.” The painting was accepted as related to the prayer Yizkor and to Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

“I feel fortunate to be here,” Schneider said about the gallery, adorned with Campbell’s vibrant, joyful paintings. “I connect artists and buyers in the community.”

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She is available for contract work. Contact her at [email protected].

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