Norman Vorano
Department Head and Director of the Fine Art Program, and Associate Professor of Art History
Department of Art History and Art Conservation
Arts and Sciences
Research Interests
Indigenous North American arts of the 19th and 20th centuries, Arctic arts, museum and curatorial studies, global Indigenous arts, cultural heritage studies/digital cultural heritage.
Biography
Norman Vorano is an art historian and curator whose work bridges the classroom, the museum, historic sites, archives and communities. He specializes in the historic and contemporary arts of Indigenous North America鈥攅specially the Arctic鈥攁nd in the broader questions that arise when Indigenous visual cultures meet colonial institutions and global audiences. His research and teaching examines museum and curatorial studies, along with digital/cultural heritage studies, including site scanning for historical analysis and preservation.
A 皇冠体育鈥檚 National Scholar in Indigenous Art and Material Culture, Norman Vorano received his PhD from the University of Rochester鈥檚 Program in Visual and Cultural Studies and his MA (Art History) and BFA (Visual Art) from York University, Toronto. From 2005 to 2014, he was the Curator of Contemporary Inuit Art at the (formerly Canadian Museum of Civilization), and was the Curator of Indigenous Art at the from 2014 - 2019. He has been an elected board member of the Native American Art Studies Association (NAASA), served on the editorial board of the Inuit Art Quarterly, and is a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographic Society. He is a 2017 Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Fellow.
Research & Curatorial Practice
Global Indigenous modernisms. A research partner in the Cambridge鈥慴ased project , Vorano examines Indigenous artists worldwide who have navigated and reshaped twentieth鈥慶entury modernism, with a particular emphasis upon .
Northern community partnerships. His long鈥憈erm fieldwork in , Nunavut, links local artists and knowledge鈥慿eepers with museum collections held far from the Arctic, supporting community access and cultural sovereignty.
Exhibitions on the move. Major touring shows include (Canada/Japan, 2011鈥13) and (Canada鈥憌ide tour 2017鈥19 with satellite venues in Kanngiqtugaapik/Clyde River, Mittimatalik/Pond Inlet, and Iqaluit).
Digital heritage documentation. As co鈥慸irector of the , Vorano deploys 3鈥慏 laser scanning, photogrammetry, and VR/AR platforms to model endangered architectures, producing interactive archives that serve both community stewardship, historical documentation and cutting鈥慹dge preservation research.
Teaching & Supervision
Vorano welcomes graduate students interested in:
- Indigenous art histories and global Indigenous studies
- Contact鈥憐one aesthetics and the politics of display
- Museum and curatorial studies, including collections repatriation, community-based research
- Digital heritage: 3鈥慏/VR documentation, laser scanning, interactive exhibitions, and other emerging technologies
- Marketing, circulation, and reception of Indigenous material culture
Recent upper鈥憀evel seminars have tackled Indigenous modernisms, culture鈥慳s鈥慶ommodity, and immersive digital museum environments. Introductory courses survey the arts of Indigenous North America, curatorial studies, and a special attention to Inuit visual culture.
Why study with Norman?
Students gain hands鈥憃n experience with museum collections, digital documentation methods, and community鈥慹ngaged research鈥攕kills that translate to curatorial work, heritage policy, and advanced scholarship alike.
To discuss graduate supervision or collaborative projects, feel free to get in touch.
Recent Books
Recent Publications
(Open Access) ISSN: 0143-9685 , 1465-3451; DOI: 10.1080/01439685.2025.2477339
鈥淚nuit Prints,鈥 Here Now: Indigenous Arts of North America at the Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO: Denver Art Museum/Hirmer Press, 2021: 242-247.
鈥淭hings: The Agency of Objects or Objects of Appropriation? The Toronto Airport Inuksuit,鈥 in The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Visual Culture, edited by Catherine Zuromskis, Joan Saab, and Aubrey Anable, 2020. (peer reviewed)
With Jennifer Burgess, 鈥溾楨ven Banks Have Large Windows That Need Draperies鈥: Marketing Canada in Cape Dorset Textiles,鈥 in Qallunaaqtait Sikusilaarmit: Printed Textiles from Kinngait Studios, Edited by Roxane Shaughnessy and Anna Richard, Toronto, ON: Textile Museum of Canada: 65 鈥 73, 2019.
鈥淐ape Dorset Cosmopolitans: Making 鈥楲ocal鈥 Prints in Global Modernity,鈥 in Mapping Modernisms: Indigenous and Colonial Networks of Artistic Exchange, Edited by Ruth Phillips and Elizabeth Harney, Duke University Press: 209-234, 2018. (peer reviewed)
鈥淲e All Have to Live By What We Know鈥: Activating Memoryscapes in the North Baffin Inuit Drawing Collection to Understand Environmental Change,鈥 Artistic Visions of the Anthropocene North: Climate Change and Nature in Art, Edited by Gry Hedin and Ann-Sofie Gremaud, London, UK: Routledge: 76-93, 2018.
鈥淐uratorial Notes: Picturing Arctic Modernity,鈥 Inuit Art Quarterly, Vol. 30, No. 3 (Fall): 134 鈥 139, 2017.
鈥淚nuit Art: Canada鈥檚 Soft Power Resource to Fight Communism,鈥 Journal of Curatorial Studies, Vol. 5, No. 13 (2016): 312-338, 2016.
鈥淎ngokwazhuk鈥檚 Walrus Tusk,鈥 in Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection, edited by Eva Fognell, Alexander Brier Marr, Gilbert Vincent, Sherry Brydon and Ralph T. Coe, Cooperstown, NY: Fenimore Art Museum: 498, 2016.
Media and Public Scholarship