Vancouver Art Gallery Confirms Respini and Rao as Co-CEOs
The Vancouver Art Gallery in Vancouver, Canada has given its top job to two people.
Eva Respini and Sirish Rao will serve as Co-CEOs. That means they share the chief executive role and its final decisions. In practice, both names sit at the top of the organisation chart.
The gallery confirmed the titles on September 28, 2026, in an announcement headed 'The Vancouver Art Gallery Confirms Eva Respini and Sirish Rao as Co-CEOs,' as reported by ARTnews.
Rao knows the building well. The gallery first named him Director of Public Engagement and Learning on October 27, 2022. That job covers learning and public programmes, the workshops, talks and school visits that run alongside exhibitions. Public engagement, in museum language, means work that invites people in and helps them use the galleries.
Gallery pages had listed Rao as Interim Co-CEO, Director of the Art of Wellbeing Lab and Director of the Centre for Global Asias. The Art of Wellbeing lab looks at links between art and health. It is led by Rao with Paula Toledo, Lead Wellbeing Consultant.
The confirmation follows a crowded programme calendar. The gallery publishes its decisions and openings through its online media room, which lists each notice by date and title, according to the Vancouver Art Gallery.
On March 18, 2026, the gallery opened its first dedicated collection floor in more than two decades. A collection floor is gallery space reserved for works the museum owns, rather than loans. On April 22, 2026, it launched a major exhibition addressing climate change through contemporary art.
On July 29, 2026, it launched Vancouver Now!, a new exhibition series designed to take the pulse of the local art scene. On September 3, 2026, it welcomed students, teachers and families for another season of art, learning and creativity. Each date marks a separate opening in a single spring-to-autumn run.
A larger project sits in the background. On September 29, 2025, the gallery said it had selected Formline + KPMB to design its new home. An architect selection of that kind fixes who draws up the future building.
What makes this stand out for a casual visitor is simple. For visitors, this means continuity. The same leadership that oversaw classrooms, collection displays and new commissions will now steer what comes next.
