When Nadine Saint-Amour first visited the National Gallery of Canada in the mid-1970s, it was still housed in the Lorne Building on Elgin Street. Its concrete exterior wasn’t quite as inspiring as the glass palace in which it resides today, but that didn’t matter to a 10-year-old Saint-Amour.
“At the museum, I fell in love at first sight - close to Stendhal syndrome - for the black and white spots of Paul-Émile Borduas and the irises of Vincent van Gogh,” she says. “At that time these names were completely foreign to me.”
Nearly 40 years after that first visit to the gallery, Saint-Amour graduated this spring with a Major in History and Theory of Art from the Faculty of Arts. It has been a long journey to convocation, but her passion for both art and her studies is fuelling her through one of the most challenging periods of her life.
A difficult diagnosis
Saint- Amour first started her degree art history, combined with communications, in 1990. She didn’t finish on her first go-around; instead, she decided to quit her studies and focus on work. She went on to have a successful career in the arts and communications, including some time as an art critic for CBC-Radio Canada. In 2007, she took on a position in the Communications Directorate at the University of Ottawa, where she received the nudge she needed to pick up her studies again.
“After two years on campus, my colleagues encouraged me to take advantage of this great perk we have as employees: to study without having to pay tuition,” says Saint-Amour.
In 2010, she completed her first degree in communications. It was then her plan to continue her studies in art history.
“At that time, work and life were perfect and normal,” she says. “And then in 2012 – bang. Cancer.”
The sweet gift of time
A diagnosis of stage 4 colon cancer forced her to give up many of the things she loved, but in 2014, she was given the gift of time: remission.
“It gave me wings,” she says. “During those two years, I resumed my work and visited museums in Chicago, Paris, London, Los Angeles, and here at home,” she says. “Furthermore, I managed to create a new group of friends. At my age, 52, that’s not easy!”
Most importantly, she says, she decided to take care of some unfinished business – the art history degree she started in 1990.
“I got such a taste for life after being so sick. I felt so lucky to be alive,” she says. “I don’t want to sound too mushy or sentimental, but when you are hit with such an aggressive cancer and are so lucky to be alive two years later … I decided to finish my degree once and for all.”
“I was a real machine because I wanted to finish,” she says. “Not knowing what awaited me during my remission, and in the future, I gave my studies all my heart.”
Art is everywhere
Saint-Amour’s cancer did return. She now lives with stage 4 colon cancer with metastasis that has now spread to her lungs. For Saint-Amour, it’s one day at a time – and so many of those days are lit up with memories from her studies.
“Just the joy of attending my art history lessons, always sitting in the back row, dark as a cocoon so that we can see the works projected on the screen in front, taking notes, and chatting with the professors –these will all remain unforgettable memories,” she says.
Not only does she look back at her time in the classroom with fondness, but also she says that what she learned during her studies has enriched the way she experiences the world around her.
“I can say this: my studies in art history have changed my way of seeing, of perceiving things,” she says. “The artists, artistic trends, architecture, the history of costume and design, all tell the story of life and that of humans,” she says.
One day after her 52nd birthday, Saint-Amour received her degree in History and Theory of Art from the Faculty of Arts. Now, her passion for art is something she loves to share with those she loves.
“I visited a wing of the National Gallery of Canada with a friend this winter and I felt that graduating gave more credibility to my explanations,” she says. “It’s never too late for a drop-out!”