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53 B C B U S I N E S S . C A S E P T E M B E R 2 0 24 S h e n g H o How George Macintosh and Jessica Yan Macintosh's $1-million donation will transform the Vancouver Art Gallery's educational programming AS A SOPRANO from China, Jessica Yan Macintosh holds a deep passion for the arts. Her husband, George Macintosh—who was a judge on the Supreme Court of Brit- ish Columbia—says it was her idea to donate $1 million to the Vancouver Art Gallery ear- lier this year. "It was to support, in a small way, the new gallery, but our primary focus was to help disadvantaged and underserved kids— to enable them to perhaps be better able to connect with art," he explains. About a decade ago, the City of Van- couver donated a prime plot of land to the gallery through an in-kind lease. The non- profit started fundraising to develop a big- ger home for itself, and different levels of government, as well as philanthropists and organizations, stepped forward to support the $400-million project. According to the VAG, over $190 million came from private donations, with developer, art collector and philanthropist Michael Audain donat- ing $100 million in 2022. Within the Macintosh household, Jes- sica studied music at the Beijing Central Conservatory of Music. She joined the VAG board of trustees in 2019. One day, she came to the museum for a meeting and saw some school groups touring the exhibitions on display. Sirish Rao, the gallery's senior director of public engagement and learn- ing, remembers the moment well. "When you see a school group going through, you can't fail to notice it," he says. "There's this energy that's going through— they're bubbling, you can see their eyes opening, their perspectives changing. You can see it in their faces; it's so tangible. And Jessica said, 'I would really like to see my donation go towards creating access for young people.'" Prior to his role at the VAG, Rao ran the Indian Summer Festival in Vancouver for 12 years. In his eyes, educational program- ming is an "unheard of, under-sung part of what the VAG does," but it's the most regu- lar part of it, too. Every day, he explains, about four school groups will make their rounds through the gallery, which works with 130 different schools in B.C. At the end of each in-person tour, students can create their own art in the gallery's designated studio—a sculpture, for example, if that's the exhibition on show. It also hosts long-distance learning opportunities through programs like Con- nected North. "If we're contacted by a school in another region, we always work with them to see what we can do to facili- tate learning opportunities," says VAG CEO and executive director Anthony Kiendl. He's excited about the potential of build- ing out the gallery to be more of a learning resource. "Here we have one room that's used as a classroom. In the new building, "It was to support, in a small way, the new gallery, but our primary focus was to help disadvantaged and underserved kids— to enable them to perhaps be better able to connect with art." CREATIVE ENSEMBLE Pictured below (from left): Vancouver Art Gallery CEO Anthony Kiendl, philanthropists Jessica Yan Macintosh and George Ma- cintosh, and Sirish Rao, senior director of public engagement and learning at the VAG

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