Michele Hardy is an academic Curator with Nickle Galleries, Libraries and Cultural Resources and an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Art and Art History.
Hardy studied textiles and craft before turning to cultural anthropology (PhD. UBC’03). Her ongoing ethnographic research examines the changes affecting rural Muslim embroiderers in India as well as changing textile traditions across Asia.
Hardy’s teaching and curatorial work seek to interrogate museums’ contemporary relevance and forge new creative connections between collections—especially textiles—and community. Recent publications include Embroidering Development: The Mutwa and Rann Utsav in Kutch, India (Nakatani, ed., 2020) and Textiles from Uzbekistan in the Collections of Nickle Galleries, University of Calgary (Gyul et al, 2017).
Hardy is one of the co-curators of the Heritage Canada supported, travelling exhibition, Prairie Interlace: Weaving, Modernisms and the Expanded Frame and co-editors of a publication of the same name (anticipated fall'23).