Founder and Executive Director of the Art Canada Institute; Art Restitution Authority; and Visual Arts Journalist
Founder and Executive Director of the Art Canada Institute; Art Restitution Authority; and Visual Arts Journalist
Founder and Executive Director of the Art Canada Institute; Art Restitution Authority; and Visual Arts Journalist
Founder and Executive Director of Art Canada Institute, Art Restitution
Authority, Visual Arts Journalist
Founder and Executive Director of Art Canada Institute, Art Restitution
Authority, Visual Arts Journalist
Sara Angel, CM, PhD is the Founder and Executive Director of the Art Canada Institute/Institut de l’art canadien, a non-profit organization based at the University of Toronto that is dedicated to the documentation and promotion of Canadian art history. In 2024 she was awarded the Order of Canada for her contribution to the country’s cultural landscape. She is an expert on Nazi-era art restitution, a subject that she teaches on. Angel is also an arts educator and one of the country’s leading visual arts journalists.
The Art Canada Institute is a national not-for-profit institution and the leading digital initiative in Canadian art research, education, and promotion, which makes knowledge on the subject available to all free-of-charge. Launched in 2013, ACI is the go-to resource for learning about Canadian art. It is the only national organization of its kind to promote the study of an inclusive multi-vocal Canadian art history to as broad an audience as possible, in both English and French, within Canada and internationally. ACI is a multi-vocal, bilingual, comprehensive online platform—one that is accessible to all and open 24/7 to share, promote and educate on and about artists in Canada. The organization offers open-source original content, available in French and English, including a digital library of over 60 books, a school-level art education program, a fellowship program, and a weekly newsletter.
Sara Angel wrote her PhD dissertation on Nazi-era art restitution and how it has become one of the most significant topics in the international art world since the mid-nineties. Through the framework of the Max Stern Restitution Project, Angel’s doctoral research explored how art-recovery cases have challenged jurists, impacted international cultural policy, and given museums public relations nightmares.
Sara Angel is one of the country’s leading visual arts journalists. She has written on contemporary visual culture for an extensive number of publications, including Maclean’s, Canadian Art, The Walrus, and The Globe and Mail, making the world of art accessible to a broad audience.
Sara Angel’s academic writing has appeared in international journals and museum catalogues. It focuses on topics such as art restitution, network theory, Picasso’s Guernica, Canadian art history, and contemporary visual culture. It has appeared in multiple publications, including the Journal for Canadian Art History, Leonardo: The Journal of the International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology, and exhibition catalogues from the country’s leading art galleries.