Barbara Cole

Barbara Cole is the founder and Principal of Cole Projects. She is an artist, curator, educator, and curatorial consultant in public art. In recent years, she has specialized in developing frameworks to support changing programs of public art that require the cooperation of multiple partners. She is the founder and a producing member of Other Sights for Artists' Projects, a non-profit society that collaborates and shares resources to present artworks that consider the aesthetic, economic, and regulatory conditions of public places and public life. Cole is also the Curator of Outdoor Art at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery at the University of British Columbia. She oversees the University’s Outdoor Art collection, commissioning new projects in public space and stewarding the existing artworks sited across the Vancouver campus. 

Cole has led workshops, lectured widely and published articles on the subject of art in public space. She taught at Emily Carr University from 1984 to 1999 and worked as a consultant to the City of Vancouver’s Public Art Program from 1999 to 2004. Throughout her career, she has been actively involved in the Vancouver art community, serving on gallery and art society boards and has participated as a jury member for numerous art initiatives. In 2011, Barbara received the Mayor’s Award for her contributions to the advancement of public art in Vancouver and in 2013, was a curatorial resident at ZK/U Center for Art + Urbanistics in Berlin, Germany.

Cole Projects, 2023