March 21, 2016
SHARE
CANADALAND
#126 Failing Up
Jeff Melanson was the Canadian arts & culture institution’s golden boy,  a “rock star arts administrator,” feted by the press and given prestigious positions at Canada’s top art institutions. Then he made a mess during his tenure at the Banff Centre, and has since been accused by his estranged wife of all sorts of professional misconduct. What is happening at these institutions, and do we reward failure in Canada? David Silcox was the Globe & Mail’s art critic, president of Sotheby’s Canada, Arts Officer of the Canada Council, and author of several books about Canadian art. CORRECTION: Jesse misstates that Marsha Lederman’s profile of Melanson ran in 2012, when in fact it ran in 2014. 

Jeff Melanson was the Canadian arts & culture institution’s golden boy,  a “rock star arts administrator,” feted by the press and given prestigious positions at Canada’s top art institutions. Then he made a mess during his tenure at the Banff Centre, and has since been accused by his estranged wife of all sorts of professional misconduct. What is happening at these institutions, and do we reward failure in Canada?

David Silcox was the Globe & Mail’s art critic, president of Sotheby’s Canada, Arts Officer of the Canada Council, and author of several books about Canadian art.

CORRECTION: Jesse misstates that Marsha Lederman’s profile of Melanson ran in 2012, when in fact it ran in 2014. 

More from this series
“The people who want to play morality police and decide who does or doesn't get to speak, they're not qualified arbiters of anything.” - Caryma Sa’d
December 9, 2024
Are dentists defrauding the Canadian government?
December 2, 2024
The Millenium Bug was supposed to bring the world to a halt, but governments claimed they squashed the problem. Was it all a panic over nothing?
November 28, 2024
“My job is to smuggle black market babies out of Canada and into the US. I’ve been at it off and on for the past 5 years. Maybe there’s an easier way to make a bankroll, but I don’t know it.” - Eugene Moyneur (ex-wrestler, ex-bodybuilder, baby-smuggler)
November 25, 2024
“Elon flipped out. He saw Substack as sort of like the number one competitor to X at the time. He banned discussion of the word Substack. And to this day, there's a lot of people who when they want to talk about Substack on Twitter, they write like, S star star B, like, like we're Voldemort or something.” - Chris Best, Substack co-founder and CEO
November 18, 2024
Is he a terrorist? Or a scapegoat?
November 11, 2024
Documents reveal how Canada’s airline watchdog was pressured to bend the rules and leave Canadians holding the bag.
November 4, 2024
“In an effort to put everything into question, we run the danger of losing any kind of firm footing on which to build a more just and equitable society. So the logical end game of a certain project of questioning is total bafflement or the destruction of everything.” - Professor Mark Kingwell
October 28, 2024
all podcasts arrow All Podcasts
CANADALAND