NICHOLAS R. BELL is President and CEO of the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, Alberta. A Vancouver native, Bell led major transformations of two US museums before returning to Canada. Previously he was Senior Vice President of Curatorial Affairs at Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut, the preeminent American maritime museum, where he launched a globally significant exhibitions program that has set attendance records. Prior to Mystic, Bell was the Fleur and Charles Bresler Curator-in-Charge at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC, where he guided the museum through a major renovation and led a change in program that saw attendance increase from 150,000 visitors/year to one million. Bell is author or editor of ten books on the role arts, culture and museums play in contemporary life. He is a graduate of the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture at the University of Delaware, and Simon Fraser University.