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The Faculty of Arts and Science has named Dr. Tomasz Grusiecki the new Bader Chair in Northern Baroque Art. The academic position focuses on the study of art in Northern Europe during the Baroque period, spanning 1600 to 1750.

The Chair was established through a generous endowment by Dr. Alfred Bader and provides unique opportunities to engage with the , a distinguished collection of European art housed at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, including four paintings by Rembrandt. The position is intended for a scholar who is recognized internationally for their contributions to the field of Northern Baroque art history.

is joining FAS during an exciting time as the project is well underway.

Dr. Grusiecki comes to Queen’s University from Boise State University where he is currently an Associate Professor of Early Modern European Art and Material Cultures. His primary field of research is early modern art and material culture, with an emphasis on the diffusion of Baroque art and ideas through Germanic and Slavic Europe (1500–1700).

“I’m really looking forward to taking up the Bader Chair in Northern Baroque Art next term,” Dr. Grusiecki says. “It’s a rare professorship in North America dedicated specifically to seventeenth-century Northern European art, which makes it especially meaningful. I’m also excited to be joining a department that’s one of the best in Canada. It’s an ideal environment for teaching, research, and for developing new projects that grow out of the synergy of everyone working and thinking together.”

He adds that he is particularly thrilled to have access to the Bader Collection, which ranks among the finest holdings of seventeenth-century art in North America.

With regard to his teaching, Dr. Grusiecki plans to develop and offer courses that place Northern European art in a broader global context, while also highlighting regions often overlooked, such as Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, and Britain, alongside the better-known Netherlands and Germany.

“What I’m particularly interested in is using Baroque art to get students thinking about the world around them. We live in a time of competition and struggle over resources, and many of our new technologies depend heavily on access to critical minerals and other raw materials. Against this backdrop, I want to approach Northern Baroque art through the prism of resource extraction and what it actually takes to make art. That line of thought leads us to ask how we see our own place in the world, not only as viewers of art, but as users of the earth’s resources. Baroque art, then, isn’t only about the past; it’s equally a way of thinking critically about our own time.”

Dr. Grusiecki also reflects on the contributions of Alfred Bader and the entire Bader family, whose generosity allowed the creation of this Chair position and many others at Queen’s. “His story is deeply moving. He overcame great adversity to build an extraordinary life and to give back in transformative ways. Through his donations, Queen’s has become a recognized leader in North America for the study of early modern art. I see the Bader Chair as a platform for positioning Canadian art history at the centre of global conversations about Northern Baroque art. That legacy reminds us why the past matters so urgently today—and why history has never felt more relevant.”

“The Bader Chair in Northern Baroque Art is one of the most significant legacies of Alfred Bader’s vision, helping Queen’s attract exceptional graduate students and international collaborators, strengthening our role as a global leader in Baroque studies,” said Dr. Norman Vorano, the Head of the Department of Art History and Art Conservation. “With Dr. Tomasz Grusiecki’s appointment, we proudly carry this legacy forward - expanding our understanding of Rembrandt and his contemporaries across Northern and Eastern Europe and exploring how Baroque ideas about nature still shape our world today.”  

Dr. Grusiecki is teaching a class in the Winter Term called Extracting Art: 1492–1769. The course examines how artistic materials were sourced, transformed, and circulated during that time period, from Christopher Columbus' arrival in the Americas to James Watt’s patenting of the steam engine. “We’ll be thinking about the past but asking questions that speak directly to the present.”