Rebecca Huxtable is the manager of art rental at the Canada Council Art Bank, whose collection is made up of more than 17,000 works of art by some 3,000 contemporary artists from Canada. For over a decade, Rebecca has worked to promote art from Canada and increase the Art Bank’s visibility and accessibility.
Immersed in art her entire life, she has built a career out of sharing her passion with art lovers and the uninitiated alike, accompanying them in their discovery of all that art has to offer by engaging with them via the Art Bank’s rich and diverse collection.
Artful origins
Rebecca comes from a family whose obsession with the beautiful and the functional reaches back several generations. As a child, she spent a lot of time with her father, who was an antiques dealer, picking through objects as diverse as farm tools, cabinets and rugs, appreciating that every item had a story to tell. She was sensitive to this because her grandmother—a collector and prolific maker in the fibre arts, including weaving, knitting, sewing and crocheting—had a profound sense of aesthetics. What’s more, her grandmother owned a shop in Ottawa called The Web, where, among other things, she would trade her work with Ojibway artist Benjamin Chee Chee. And Rebecca’s mother, who worked in the North, collected Inuit soapstone carvings and stone-cut prints. Needless to say, art was ubiquitous in Rebecca’s life.
Zinnia Naqvi, The Wanderers – Niagara Falls (1988–2019), digital inkjet print, 75.6 x 121.3 cm. Collection of the Art Bank.
And so, growing up she developed an interest in exploring the ways that art could be a window on society. In fact, one of Rebecca’s favourite works of art is The Wanderers – Niagara Falls, by Toronto-based artist Zinnia Naqvi, part of her Yours to Discover series, which explores “commonly accepted ideals of Canadian culture” through games, photography and various other media set against well-known tourist attractions.
“I like art that makes you think about people’s lived experiences, worldviews and society,” Rebecca shares. “I like art that has humour,” she adds, citing Onondaga artist Jeff Thomas’s North American Indian, “especially if it brings a playfulness to a more serious topic.” This work is part of a series entitled Indians on Tour, in which Thomas challenges expectations and stereotypes, having Indigenous figurines “tour” popular non-Native tourist sites.
Jeff Thomas, North American Indian (2005), colour photograph, 85 x 102 cm. Collection of the Art Bank.
Being steeped in an artistic environment from an early age naturally led to Rebecca studying art history and anthropology at Carleton University. During that time, she landed her first arts sector job, at the National Capital Commission. She worked first as a project coordinator for major capital events like Canada Day and Winterlude before moving on to the public art area, where she oversaw outdoor art and history exhibitions celebrating culture.
For the first few years of her career, she was surrounded by local and national history, symbols, storytelling and celebration, deepening her understanding of art and refining the way she engaged with it. By 2013, Rebecca was on to new adventures, seizing an opportunity to become an art consultant with the Canada Council Art Bank.
Demystifying art
An Art Bank consultant’s role is to make contemporary art from Canada—and the process of renting said art—accessible to workspaces or businesses. Art consultants are advisors, but they are also facilitators and collaborators—people who know a lot about art history, art, symbols, aesthetics and even more practical things like placing art in non-museum settings and the Art Bank collection itself. But for Rebecca, the most fulfilling part of being an art consultant is undeniably the broad spectrum of people she meets, collaborates with and gets to introduce to the art world—and to the art in the world.
Rebecca reviewing a selection of works of art in the Art Bank racks.
“The joy of working with art rental clients is that you get to have conversations about art at different elevations of knowledge,” she says. “Some clients have deep personal interest and knowledge of art—they ask for specific artists, styles or movements by name. Other clients have an interest in learning and occasionally visit galleries.” But there is yet another group of clients with whom it is especially gratifying to work: clients who come to the Art Bank with more functional needs.
“They need something on their walls. They don’t necessarily know what they like or need, and original art can be intimidating for them. We help demystify it—we can explain how things are made, the story behind a given work and what it can convey in the context of their business. This is a powerful moment of conversion, from art-hesitant to art-engaged.”
Rebecca speaking with a rental client about a selection of artwork for their office.
Making art accessible
For more than 50 years, the Art Bank has been meeting people where they are—at work and in unexpected spaces, igniting interactions with art in their everyday lives. PCL Construction and the University of Ottawa recently reached out to the Art Bank with a desire to include art in their spaces and speak to their visitors through the works they displayed.
You might also be interested in telling your business’s story through art. If so, contact Rebecca; she will be delighted to meet you where you are and to contribute to beautifying your workspaces with contemporary art from Canada that speaks to you—and your clientele, creating opportunities for connection and exchange.
“The joy of working with the Art Bank collection is how vast and diverse it is,” Rebecca concludes, coming full circle on the notion learned in early childhood that there is a story in everything. “Artists have many stories to tell, and working with the collection offers lifelong learning.”