The Board of Directors of C The Visual Arts Foundation and C Magazine announces the upcoming departure of our Executive Director and Publisher, Kate Monro, effective January 2023. Having submitted her resignation to the board in September 2022, she will continue to work with the Board of Directors’ search committee and support the upcoming transition.

Kate started as Associate Publisher in January 2009, and has had a positive impact on every aspect of the organization’s governance, including operational, financial, and human resource development, as well as overseeing the magazine’s artistic programs and equity initiatives. Kate is deeply committed to supporting contemporary arts publishing and, through her expertise in development, distribution, and administration, and her dedication to mentoring emerging arts workers, she has ensured that C Magazine has not merely survived turbulent times but has thrived. 

“C Magazine is an important forum for voices in the visual arts across Canada,” Kate stated. “Countless artists, art writers, curators, arts educators, researchers, students, galleries, and other knowledge-holders in related disciplines and communities have had significant involvement with its publication since its founding in 1984. Many have also been excluded–a history that C has made it our current mandate to address. I am grateful for the experience of working with the incredible individuals and organizations who have participated in our ongoing project to disseminate their work and provide a forum for challenging new ideas to flourish, and I will miss the endless satisfaction of seeing their work launched into the world, where it continues to live on as an important document of our times. I want to thank the many colleagues who have enriched my time at C and afforded me continual opportunities for learning and growth. I especially want to thank my fellow employees who have given so much, and the dedicated board members, advisors, and interns who have supported our work. I’m confident that with the leadership of a new Executive Director and Publisher and our new Editor Joy Xiang, alongside the rest of our fantastic team, the publication will continue to thrive, make space for positive change, and challenge its readers.”

During her tenure, Kate actively grew the organization’s overall capacity. As Executive Director, she secured donations and grants to support programming, and significantly expanded the annual C Magazine Contemporary Art Auction. Kate has also ensured that C’s resources support the livelihoods of the art workers, writers, artists, and all those who contribute to producing C Magazine by reducing wage gaps and attaining full certification from the Living Wage Network.  Kate embraced the long-term work of formalizing and transforming C’s mandate towards greater inclusion of contributors, staff and volunteers from priority equity-seeking groups. Kate ensured that the organization’s ongoing commitment to the principles of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility were documented, and actualized in continuing Anti-Oppression Strategic Planning and in organizational policy and procedures.

As Publisher, Kate has supported and maintained C Magazine’s purpose in serving the visual arts community by championing needs over marketing, and advocating for and modelling C on artist-run, collective culture. During her tenure, Kate collaborated with C’s editors and many artists, and arts workers to develop a range of programs including C School, an initiative to support educators and students with learning resources and sponsored subscriptions, the long-term Experiments in Criticism program, the 8-week symposium, Curious Criticism. In 2010, C initiated the C New Critics Award, and in 2021, the Indigenous Art Writing Award in partnership with the Indigenous Curatorial Collective, under Kate’s direction. She also oversaw the continued development of C Magazine’s website, which was recently redesigned and relaunched on a world-class platform that successfully prioritizes print publication while enabling more space for digital contributions. The Board of C The Visual Arts Foundation extends its deep gratitude to Kate Monro for her integrity, long-term commitment, and service to C Magazine, especially throughout the significant upheavals of recent years. She has been instrumental in building a substantial foundation for the future of C, and we wish her the best as she pursues a Master's in Public Policy.

C Magazine has formed a search committee to start the process of hiring a new Executive Director and Publisher. The job will be posted in the coming days.