Independent Curator of Photography, former Director of the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography (1993 - 2010), National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Martha Hanna has an M.A. in Art History from York University and over thirty-five years of experience working in the museum field. Formerly, Director of the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Ottawa (1993 - 2010), she was responsible for the care and development of the collection of photographs and its presentation in exhibitions, publications and other programmes. As Director of the CMCP she was also a member of Senior Management at the National Gallery of Canada, contributing to the Gallery’s corporate planning for the visual arts.
Early in her career, she was curator for numerous touring exhibitions for the National Film Board, Still Photography Division, including Contemporary Canadian Photography: From the Collection of the National Film Board, 1984 (with M. Langford and P. Dessureault). The international touring exhibition Evergon 1971 - 1987 was exhibited at the National Gallery, and across Canada in 1988/89 and in England and Germany in 1990/91. Other major exhibitions and catalogues have included Suzy Lake: Point of Reference,1993; Orest Semchishen: In Plain View, 1994: Eldon Garnet: The Fallen Body, 1998; Ken Lum: Works with Photography, 2002 (with Kitty Scott); Confluence: Contemporary Canadian Photography, 2003; John Massey: The House that Jack Built, 2004, and the 2010 exhibition Angela Grauerholz: The inexhaustible image … épuiser l’image.
A specialist in contemporary Canadian photography, Hanna has represented the museum nationally and internationally, through lectures, panel discussions, and articles on photography. Upon leaving the National Gallery of Canada she was appointed Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Arts, University of Ottawa (2010 - 2013).