Virginia Eichhorn has worked in the visual arts field for over twenty-five years and was appointed to the position of Executive Director of the Quest Art School + Gallery in July 2018. She was Director & Chief Curator of the Tom Thomson Art Gallery from 2009 – 2018. She is a graduate of the Art History programme at Queen’s University.
In 2004 she was appointed as the first full time Curator at the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery. Under her tenure CCGG was successful in applying for operational funding from the Ontario Arts Council. In 2016 she successfully completed the Certificate in Not-for-Profit and Charity Finance Leadership programme through the Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario programme.
As an independent curator she has presented exhibitions at numerous prestigious venues including the XII Biennale of Art at Villa Nova Cerveira in Portugal. She has worked extensively with artists from across Canada and abroad, including Carl Beam, Judy Chicago, Vessna Perunovich, Jane Ash Poitras and Peter Von Tiesenhausen, developing exhibitions for high profile Canadian galleries and museums.
In addition to curating, she has written numerous catalogue essays and has contributed articles to prominent Canadian magazines including Artichoke, Canadian Art, Border Crossings, ESPACE Sculpture and international magazines such as Ceramics Monthly.
She is a member of the Aboriginal Curatorial Collective, the International Association of Art Museum Curators (IKT), the Canadian Art Museum Directors’ Organization (CAMDO) and the Association of Art Museum Curators and is Past-President of the Ontario Association of Art Gallerie. Previous board tenures include the Association of Native Development in the Performing and Visual Arts (ANDPVA), Visual Arts Ontario (VAO), Visual Arts Alliance (VAO), Cahiers métiers d’art /Craft Journaland the National Historic Site Alliance of Ontario (NHSAO).
In 2009 she won the Jean Johnson/Melanie Egan Award for Curatorial Excellence awarded by the Ontario Crafts Council. Under her leadership the Tom Thomson Art Gallery received an A rating from the Ontario Arts Council which means the gallery exceeded the standards of excellence artistically and administratively. In 2014 she initiated a ground-breaking multiyear partnership for the TOM with ROOTS Canada. In 2015, she was part of a three-person team that developed an extensive five-year business plan for the TOM as well as a case for expansion and incorporation.
Eichhorn has three sons, three cats and one husband.