Senator Patricia Bovey is one of Canada’s most prominent art historians, teachers and arts management consultants. She teaches 20th century Canadian art, curatorial practice and cultural resource management; her art consulting has spanned much of Canada; and she has published and lectures widely on aspects of western Canadian art. She is a former director of the Winnipeg Art Gallery and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.
Among her many current roles she is Chair of the Board of Governors of the University of Manitoba, Adjunct Professor of Art History at the University of Winnipeg, Project Lead at the Buhler Gallery, St Boniface Hospital Winnipeg, a member of the Board of the Eckhardt-Gramatté Foundation, Chair of the Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art, and a member of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation. She is a former member of the National Gallery of Canada’s Board of Trustees and the Board of the Canada Council for the Arts, and a past Chair of the Board of Emily Carr University Art and Design and of the Canadian Art Museum Directors Organization.
Her honours include the appointment as Fellow of both the UK’s Royal Society for the Arts and the Canadian Museums Association. She was awarded the Canada125 Medal, the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal, the 2002 Woman of Distinction for the Arts, the Canadian Museums Association Distinguished Service Award, the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts Medal and the Association of Manitoba Museum’s inaugural Award of Merit. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Fellow of the Canadian Museums Association.