“I think that art is one of the best things that humanity has come up with as a way of being able to directly communicate,” Emily Baker says. “It's a way to create something—to take an idea or a feeling and a history—and be able to give it directly to the heart of another person.”

As the curator at the Art Gallery of St. Albert, Baker gets to see the impact of that communication first-hand: in working with the artists, and helping audiences experience those works. For her role in making a space where art and audiences can connect, Baker is one of the recipients of the St. Albert Gazette Arts Champion Award from this year’s Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts.

“I'm a really sappy person, so watching all the videos tends to make me all teary and inspired,” she says of the celebration. “It was a really, really lovely evening … my mom was there, and she had no idea it was coming.”

Baker always loved art. Her parents took her to galleries, yes, but also concerts, ballets, operas, and more—“They just liked going out and doing things,” she recalls. It was on one of those family outings at a gallery where Baker rounded a corner and found herself facing a series of Frida Kahlo paintings. They made an immediate impact, even if some of their depths were beyond her at the time.

“I was probably 10 or 12, and I just remember being completely mind blown,” she says. “There's this person who’s painting these stories I'm too young to understand, but I know are really important … It feels like one of those moments: art has something really powerful to say. Even though I don't know exactly what she's saying yet, there's something really important and special here. And it felt more resonant than anything else I can remember from that early age.”

Baker ended up taking art history at university, and never really looked back—that way of understanding the world proved irresistible. After a few years as the Art Gallery of St. Albert’s exhibitions assistant, she took over as curator in 2021. Since then, Baker’s worked on more than 60 exhibitions and put countless pieces up on the gallery’s walls.

“I love looking at the world through the stuff we've made, who's made it and why and everything they're creating,” she says. “That experience of witnessing something that someone has made to be shared I think is really, really important. It's a way for the community to kind of hold onto each other, and to itself.”

Of course, the best way to introduce a particular artist’s vision to gallery-goers is a puzzle that changes with every show. But spending time in the gallery itself, talking to guests, and considering how her previous curatorial choices panned out all helps Baker fine-tune her work, which amplifies the art gallery experience for anyone who walks through the doors. Even if much of that work goes unseen.

“Ideally, if I've done my job well, you haven't noticed that I'm there,” Baker says.

More info about Emily Baker and the other recipients from this year’s Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts  can be found at stalbert.ca/exp/arts-culture/mayors-celebration.

Article written by Paul Blinov

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