Goose Lane Editions congratulates Wanda Nanibush and Georgiana Uhlyarik on winning the 2023 Toronto Book Award for their book, Moving the Museum: Indigenous + Canadian Art at the AGO. Nanibush and Uhlyarik accepted the prize during a gala at the North York Central Library on Tuesday, October 10. The award includes $10,000 for the winning authors.

Co-published by Goose Lane Editions and the Art Gallery of Ontario in January 2023, Moving the Museum highlights the AGO’s ongoing efforts to reopen the J.S. McLean Centre for Indigenous & Canadian Art with a renewed focus on showcasing the work of Indigenous artists.

In its jury citation, the Toronto Book Award jury called Moving the Museum “revelatory” as it “kicks the colonial gaze to the curb, insisting instead that museums and galleries radically shift what they’ve been doing and offers page after page enacting the potential of Indigenous art to empower, inspire and create community.”

Nanibush is an Anishinaabe-kwe image and word warrior, curator and community organizer from Beausoleil First Nation. She is the inaugural curator of Indigenous Art and co-head of the Indigenous & Canadian Art Department at the AGO.

Uhlyarik is the Fredrik S. Eaton Curator of Canadian Art and co-lead of the J.S. McLean Centre for Indigenous & Canadian Art at the AGO.

The 2023 Toronto Book Awards winner was chosen by a jury made up of Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm, Jamila-Khanom Allidina, Steven W. Beattie, Sue Carter, and karen lee.

Goose Lane Editions prides itself on its diverse collection of art and architecture books. You can browse our full collection on our website here.

Photo: Georgiana Uhlyarik, Fredrik S. Eaton Curator of Canadian Art, accepts Toronto Book Award from Vickery Bowles, City Librarian, on behalf of herself and co-author Wanda Nanibush, AGO Curator, Indigenous Art. Image courtesy Toronto Public Library.