Jury


Art Challenge Patrons
	Honorary Patron Shawn Atleo, National Chief, Assembly of First Nations
	Honorary Patron Clément Chartier, President, Métis National Council
	Honorary Patron Mary Simon, President, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami
	Honorary Patron The Honourable John Duncan, Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians
	Patron Phil Fontaine, Former Chief, Assembly of First Nations
	Patron and Jury Chair John Kim Bell (OC) – Born on the Kahnawake Mohawk Reserve in Quebec, Bell studied music since he was eight. The first Aboriginal person to ever conduct a symphony orchestra, Mr. Bell has built what is now the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation, Canada’s premiere charity providing financial support to Aboriginal youth pursuing educational development in business, science, health, medicine, and the performing and visual arts. Mr. Bell is an Officer of the Order of Canada and has received the Order of Ontario. In 2005, Mr. Bell was appointed one of five Canadian advisors to His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales and is currently the President & CEO of Bell & Bernard Limited, a firm that specializes in First Nations-Corporate-Government Relations.


Art Challenge Jury Members
	Stan Bevan Stan works from the village of Kitselas and is a graduate of the Kitanmaax School of Northwest Coast Indian Art, spending many years training under the tutelage of Dempsey Bob. By 1987, Stan had a strong grounding in art and culture, having contributed to numerous commissions, educational projects and ceremonies. Stan taught with Dempsey Bob and the late Freda Diesing both locally and abroad, and has been teaching for almost 20 years. Stan is an internationally acclaimed artist in the medium of wood and has been the program coordinator and an instructor with the Freda Diesing School of Northwest Coast Art at Northwest Community College in Terrace, B.C. since 2006.
	Ryan Rice Ryan Rice, a Mohawk of Kahnawake, Quebec is an artist and curator. Rice received a Master of Arts degree in Curatorial Studies from the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, New York, graduated from Concordia University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and received an Associate of Fine Arts from the Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico. He has worked for the past 17 years within the museum/art gallery milieu at various centers including the Iroquois Indian Museum, Indian Art Centre, Carleton University Art Gallery and the Walter Phillips Art Gallery. He has published articles in the periodicals – Canadian Art, Spirit, Fuse, Muse and Blackflash. Rice is also a co-founder and former director of the Aboriginal Curatorial Collective. His exhibitions include ANTHEM: Perspectives on Home and Native Land, Oh So Iroquois, Scout’s Honour, LORE, Hochelaga Revisited, ALTERNATION and Soul Sister: Re-imagining Kateri Tekakwitha. In 2009, he joined the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico as Chief Curator.
	Kent Monkman Kent Monkman is an artist of Cree ancestry who works in a variety of media including painting, film/video, performance and installation. Monkman has exhibited widely within Canada, and is well represented in numerous private and public collections including the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
	Christi Belcourt Christi Belcourt is a Métis visual artist with a deep respect for the traditions and knowledge of her people. The majority of her work explores and celebrates the beauty of the spirit and natural world. She is the author of Medicines To Help Us and Beadwork: First People’s Beading History and Techniques. Her work has been commissioned by the Gabriel Dumont Institute, the Nature Conservancy of Canada and the Centre for Traditional Knowledge & Museum of Nature, the Indian and Inuit Art Collection and is found in the permanent collections of the Gabriel Dumont Institute, the Thunder Bay Art Gallery and Canadian Museum of Civilization, First People’s Hall. Christi is a past recipient of awards from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Chalmers Family Fund and the Métis Nation of Ontario.
	Maxine Noel Maxine Noel is Santee Oglala Sioux, born on the Birdtail Reservation in south-western Manitoba. Noel was one of the first artists to work with the Canada and Africa Village Twinning Programs, and she is a founding Board Member of the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation. Noel has also lectured at the Saskatchewan School of Fine Arts, the University of Western Ontario, the Ontario College of Art, and served as a panel member at the Canadian Heritage Symposium for the Minister of Culture. Maxine Noel has received the Golden Jubilee Medal, a creation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, in honour of her outstanding service to Canada.
	Shirley Moorhouse Shirley Moorhouse lives in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador. From a young age she observed her parents and grandparents create clothing, objects and household items of both function and beauty. In her paintings, drawings, wall hangings and installation art she explores boundaries, both real and imagined, on the flexibility and strength of women and family, the environment and citizenship. Since 1996, Moorhouse has exhibited nationally and internationally in solo and group exhibitions. She is a volunteer and sits on the Board of Directors for the NunaKatiget Inuit Community Corporation in Goose Bay, Labrador and also a Director for the Inuit Art Foundation, Ottawa, Ontario.