Barry Finkelman
Board Member
Barry is a retired educator and administrator, and a specialist in cultural heritage, tourism and media. His career has included service to the Medicine Hat Public Schools, Olds College and Medicine Hat Regional Hospital. He has also been a private sector business owner in the entertainment and tourism industry.
From 2005 to 2017, as Executive Director of the Medicine Hat Clay Industries National Historic District, Barry led the re-development of the Medalta Potteries, the Medicine Hat Brick & Tile and the Hycroft China factories in the creation of a major museum, arts, education and tourism complex for Southern Alberta, and the establishment of the Shaw International Centre for Contemporary Ceramics. From 2015 to 2017, he also served as Chair of the Board of the Plainsman Clays Ltd. group of companies, which mines and processes clays for artisanal and industrial use across North America.
Barry currently sits as a member of the Medicine Hat Subdivision & Development Appeal Board, volunteer director on both the Medicine Hat Education Foundation and the Medicine Hat Games Society, and serves as Treasurer for the Western Canada District of Kiwanis International. Provincially, he has served as a council member for the Alberta Order of Excellence, President of the Alberta Museums Association, public member on both the Premier’s Council on Culture and the Alberta College of Medical Laboratory Technologists. He is a past Chair of the City of Medicine Hat’s Arts & Heritage Advisory Board and Economic Development Advisory Board, as well as a past member of working committees of the Alberta Teachers’ Association and the Calgary Exhibition & Stampede. Barry was also a board member and regular contributor to the award winning Expression magazine and wrote a weekly independent column for the Medicine Hat News from 2001 to 2008. He is a Mel Osborne Fellow, awarded by the Kiwanis Foundation of Canada.