Jan Allen

Jan Allen (born 1952) is a Canadian curator, writer, visual artist, and assistant professor in the Department of Art History and Art Conservation, and the Cultural Studies Program, at Queen's University, in Kingston, Ontario.

Early life and education Allen, born in Windsor, Ontario, was raised in Toronto and Mississauga. In 1972, she enrolled in Queen's University at Kingston to study history.

As Chief Curator and Curator of Contemporary Art, at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre in Kingston, Allen has overseen numerous exhibitions, publications and programs since 1992. She became Acting Director at the Agnes Etherington in 2012 and was appointed Director in 2014. Since she became Director, the Agnes Etherington Art Centre has won several awards, and has nearly doubled its funding from the Canada Council for the Arts.

Select projects include Museopathy (2001), Better Worlds: Activist and Utopian Projects by Artists (2002), and Machine Life (2004).

Allen joined the Board of the Ontario Association of Art Galleries in 2012. She also serves on, and has chaired, the Arts Advisory Committee of the City of Kingston, its Visual Arts Working Group, and the Advocacy Committee of the Kingston Arts Council.

Allen has served on the Canada Council for the Arts Standing Peer Advisory Committee on International Exhibitions, and the Advisory Committee of the School of Image Arts, Ryerson University in Toronto, Ontario.

Visual art practice and select solo exhibitions

Speculative Science, Carleton University Art Gallery, 1999. In the exhibition catalogue, Sandra Dyck examines how Allen's sculptural works evoke relationships between biological, psychological and technological aspects of identity. Other subjects discussed include Allen's work in relation to themes of biotechnology, hybridity, and cybernetics. Oblivion Station, Modern Fuel Gallery, Kingston, Ontario, 1996. In Heaven, Blackwood Gallery, Erindale College, Mississauga, Ontario, 1996. Trophy, State of Flux Gallery, Kingston, Ontario, 1994.

Carole Conde and Karl Beveridge: Working Culture, 2008. Joyce Wieland: Twilit Record of Romantic Love, 1993.

Selected publications Allen has contributed essays and reviews to publications such as Prefix Photo, C Magazine, Artexte, and Poliester. Other essays include:

"David Askevold: Once Upon a Time in the East," Prefix Photo, Issue 26, Autumn-Winter 2012. Allen's poetry has been published in journals and anthologies and includes a cyber-punk inspired collection Personal Peripherals (2006).

Awards Allen received the OAC (Ontario Arts Council) Exhibition Assistance Grant in 1999, 1998, 1993–1995, and 1991, respectively. From 1994 to 1995, she held the Canada Council B Grant in Visual Arts.

Allen received a First Prize for Sculpture at the Queen's University Arts Fest in 1990 and the First Prize at St. Lawrence College's Environmental Art Show in 1992.

She was also the recipient of an educator award for her professional development of Exposures, at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre in 2008 (with Katrina Enros and Pat Sullivan).

In 2019 she was the sole recipient of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts Medal. Also in 2019 she was given a lifetime achievement award from Ontario Galleries.