NATHALIE BONDIL NAMED OFFICER OF FRANCE’S ORDER OF ARTS AND LETTERS

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has promoted Nathalie Bondil, director general and chief curator of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, to Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters of France. She was initially recognized in 2008 when she was named a Chevalier (Knight) of the Order.

Jacques Parisien, chairman of the MMFA’s board of trustees, also announced that the institution has extended Bondil’s contract five years. “Since her appointment as director, the museum has achieved great success,” Parisien said.

Under Bondil’s leadership the MMFA has doubled its annual attendance to one million people, added two pavilions, increased community participation in programming by 207 percent in three years, and added 8,472 works to its collections.

Born in Barcelona in 1967, Bondil was raised in Morocco and is a citizen of France and Canada. She studied art at the École du Louvre and the Institut national du patrimoine in Paris, served as the Montreal Museum’s chief curator for seven years, and was appointed director there in 2007. Bondil was awarded the Médaille de l’Assemblée nationale du Québec in 2016, appointed a member of the Order of Canada in 2015, and currently serves as vice chair of the Canada Council for the Arts.