Director and CEO
Art Gallery of Nova Scotia
He was born in New York, NY in 1964, and grew up in Fredericton, New Brunswick. He is a graduate of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (Bachelor of Fine Arts) and the University of Windsor (Master of Fine Arts). The author of several catalogue essays, as well as numerous articles for Canadian and American art magazines, he was the Visual Arts Columnist for the Daily Gleaner (Fredericton) and Here (Saint John). In 2000 he received the Christina Sabat Award for Critical Review in the Arts.
Prior to 2001 Ray Cronin was a freelance writer, curator and artist based in Fredericton, New Brunswick. In 2001 he assumed the position of Curator of Contemporary Art at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. He was the founding curator of the Sobey Art Award and served as chair of the Sobey jury until 2008. He currently serves on the Sobey Art Award Governance Committee.
In 2006 he was appointed Senior Curator at AGNS, and in December of 2007 he added the position of Acting Director and Chief Curator to his duties. He was named Director and CEO of AGNS in June of 2008. His recent and upcoming curatorial projects include survey exhibitions of the work of Thierry Delva, Nancy Edell and Chris Hanson and Hendrika Sonnenberg, as well as the nationally touring exhibitions Graeme Patterson: Woodrow and Arena: The Art of Hockey. Ray Cronin has taught at the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design and NSCAD University, as well as having delivered lectures and talks at galleries across Canada.
He is married to the artist Sarah Maloney, and lives with her and their three daughters in Halifax.