[11][12] Although offered a Fellowship at Columbia University in New York, she chose to marry Jack Shadbolt in 1945.
From 1967 to 1975, Shadbolt served as the senior curator, then associate director, and was responsible for the Vancouver Art Gallery's collections and exhibition program.
[13] The following year in 1967, a pivotal exhibition called "Arts of the Raven" opened with the intention to "nourish, sustain a regional culture.
[13] This was a particularly difficult exhibition to curate as it was designed for international travel, subsequently opening in Copenhagen, London, Paris, Moscow, Leningrad, Philadelphia and Montreal.
"[12] This exhibition introduced Vancouver to contemporary artists, including Robert Morris, Jasper Johns, Claes Oldenburg and Andy Warhol.
[16] Shadbolt's books are considered important reference material for these British Columbian artists.
In addition to becoming an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1976, she received the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts in 1990.
Doris Shadbolt received numerous additional awards for her contributions to literature and the arts: Longtime residents on Capitol Hill in Burnaby, the Shadbolts also maintained a summer home on Hornby Island where they were active in the artists colony there.
ceramics, she bequeathed her 170-piece collection of pottery by Wayne Ngan, Glenn Lewis, Tam Irving, and others to the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery.