Naomi Sawada

Naomi Sawada is Manager of Public Programs at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery at the University of British Columbia (UBC). She received a BA (Anthropology 1995) and Diploma (Art History 1996) from UBC. She has worked in exhibitions research and programs at Science World in Vancouver (1986-1991) and at the UBC Museum of Anthropology (1991-1995). As co-curator of exhibitions and curator of programs, she helped to develop the mandate and operating policies at the Nikkei National Museum in Burnaby (1995-2000). With John O’Brian and Scott Watson, she co-edited All Amazed: for Roy Kiyooka(Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, and the Vancouver Art Forum Society, 2002), and with Scott Watson and Jana Tyner, co-edited Thrown: British Columbia’s Apprentices of Bernard Leach and Their Contemporaries (Vancouver: Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, 2011). Two of her abiding interests are to include discussions about diversity and anti-racism in her programs and to mentor university students; many have become curators and programmers in cultural organizations. She served on the Board of Directors of 221A and currently serves on the Boards of the Asian Canadian Studies Society and the North West Ceramics Foundation.