Contact us
T (705) 743-9179
F (705) 743-8168
Director: Celeste Scopelites ext. 2027
cscopelites@peterborough.ca
Education/Programme Co-ordinator: Jane Wild - ext. 2025
jwild@peterborough.ca
Administrative Clerk: Susanne Lloyd ext. 2024
slloyd@peterborough.ca
Reception: Sarah MacKillican - ext. 2029
smackillican@peterborough.ca
Gallery Operations Assistant: Janice Fortune - ext. 2026
jfortune@peterborough.ca
Mandate
The Art Gallery of Peterborough, incorporated in 1974, is a non-profit public gallery dedicated to exhibiting and collecting visual works of art. Information about artists and exhibitions is offered through educational programmes and publications. Funds generated from memberships, private and corporate sources, government grants and volunteer hours sustain all art gallery activities.
Our goal is to present contemporary visual art by artists from the immediate area, region and nation. Some historical and international work is also shown. The exhibitions are augmented with programmes of films, lectures, workshops, art history studies, extended labels and publications. We make curatorial choices in selecting the work for each particular exhibition whether it is featured in the main gallery or in the smaller exhibition areas.
History
Samuel de Champlain and his team are said to have been led by Native guides through this area. Following the early 19th Century settlement, it was know as Hospital Point, for it was here that quarantine was established when typhus broke out among the settlers. For generations there was a sawmill here, until the area was gradually turned over to park use.
The house was built in the early 20th century, with many additions until 1977 when The Art Gallery of Peterborough acquired what then called the Foster house. The surrounding parkland, home to the summer Festival of Lights, was itself modified in 1994 under a municipal-federal infrastructure project.
The Art Gallery of Peterborough received the house and land from the City of Peterborough in 1977 and the Board of Directors and Volunteers raised the funds to build the new wing, which opened in June of 1979. The Heritage Department of the Federal Government contributed funds for the environmental systems and the Province of Ontario contributed to making the building wheelchair accessible. The entire building is now 11,000 square feet.
Our Collection
The collection of The Art Gallery of Peterborough began in 1974, with a gift of historical European and Canadian Paintings from the Peterborough Teacher’s College. These works had been brought to Peterborough in 1910 when the regional Teacher’s College’s were first established, and had previously been part of the collection established for the Toronto Norman School by Reverend Egerton Ryerson in the 1950’s. So, from the beginning, there were both Canadian and international components.
The AGP Volunteers Committee initiated the first purchase made by the Art Gallery of Peterborough in 1977 when they raised funds, matched by the Province of Ontario, to buy a painting by Jack Shadbolt. They raised the money by “selling” one square inch of the painting at a time! With the opening of the new facility in 1979, other purchases and donations followed.
The policy of the AGP Acquisitions Committee has always been to devote purchase funds only to the works of living Canadian artists.
The collection numbers over 1,300 pieces. We have accepted gifts of paintings, sculptures, works on paper and photographs, emphasizing Canadian artists but we also accept work by internationally recognized artists if the work has a relationship to the AGP collection. Works from the collection are hung with certain themes in mind, often combining the Canadian and international work to present different relationships.
There is an emphasis on works on paper, drawing and prints, which includes silk screens, serigraphs, lithographs, etchings, woodcut and linocut prints. The work of such local printmakers as, George Raab (Millbrook), Jean Nind (Peterborough) and Sheila Laidlaw-Radford (Buckhorn) are augmented by many from other regions.
In 1988, there was a major gift of 82 drawings by Ronald Bloore, including significant works from the early 1960’s, some done at Emma Lake in Saskatchewan at the time when artists of the Prairies came to the forefront of the artistic avant-garde and Bloore was a member of the Regina Five. Through gifts we have acquired works by other artists from that time period. Manitoba artist Ivan Eyre has donated a significant group of his drawings and last year Bill Vazan, an artist who lives and works in Montreal, added a comprehensive group of photo-maquettes to this collection.
We have also given particular attention to the work of artists of our region. Work by painter David Bierk of Peterborough is a major part of our collection, as well as textile artist Dorothy Caldwell of Hastings who are exhibited internationally Acquired through purchase or gift, are works of artists like Dennis Tourbin, Sarah Nind who spent their early years in Peterborough. In 1995, a private collection of 44 pieces with landscape based subjects was donated by a Peterborough businessman; included were paintings by Paterson Ewen, Allan Mackay, Vickey Marshall, Jim Reid, and others, and photographs by Marlene Creates and Geoffrey James.
The purchases have been raised by the AGP Volunteers or have been donated and then matched through programmes, which were offered in the past by the Ministries pertaining to culture in Province of Ontario (no longer active) or the matching programme of the Canada Council. All purchases made are of work by Canadian artists. When funds were available we have opened the opportunity for acquisition through competitions, for an outdoor sculpture and a selection of works on paper.
Roberta Lynn Bondar – Granite Island in the middle of Beausoleil Island’s Fairy Lake, Georgian Bay Islands national Park, Colour photograph 2000
The Margaret L Heideman Reading Room
Margaret L. Heideman was a major benefactor to the Art Gallery of Peterborough. She was a board member and a devoted volunteer. The AGP has dedicated the Reading Room in her memory. Enjoy the view the Little Lake browsing our unique selection of art books, periodicals and catalogues.
Image of reading room/view
The Art Gallery of Peterborough 3 year Strategic Plan
Click here to view our 3 year strategic plan .pdf
2010 Board of Directors
President
Bill Shepherd
Vice-President
Cathy Wilson
Treasurer
David Hall
Secretary
Peter Frood
Pres. -Volunteers Committee
Ellen Trengrove
Trustees
Susan Apostle-Clark
Lynne Bullard
Paul Follett
Patricia Newson
Ann Talbot
David Tomlinson
Bronson Smith
Siobhan M. Tremblay
Artspace Representative
Michael Poulton
City Councillor
Bob Hall
City Representative
Beck Rogers
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