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Art Gallery of Peterborough
250 Crescent Street
Peterborough ON K9HJ 2G1
phone 705 743 9179
fax 705 743 8168
General information: gallery@agp.on.ca
Director: Celeste Scopelites ext. 2027
cscopelites@peterborough.ca
Curator: Carla Garnet ext. 2023
cgarnet@peterborough.ca
Education/Programme Co-ordinator: Jane Wild - ext. 2025
jwild@peterborough.ca
Administrative Clerk: Susanne Lloyd ext. 2024
slloyd@peterborough.ca
Visitor Services: 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, municipal support and 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
Following settlement in the early 19th Century 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, and the area was eventually turned over to park use by the City of Peterborough.
The house was built in 1880 by sawmill operator John MacDonald and his son. It remained a residential home with many additions to the building until 1977. At this time it was purchased by the City of Peterborough and the house and land were given to the recently formed Art Gallery of Peterborough. The Committee for an Art Gallery in Peterborough had formed in 1973, and was comprised of members of the University Women’s Club of Peterborough, the Women’s Art Association of Peterborough as well as other community members. Before the building was acquired, the collection was housed at the Peterborough Centennial Museum & Archives, with exhibitions presented at the Library.
Once the house was acquired, the Board of Directors and Volunteers raised the funds to build the Modernist 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 Art Gallery of Peterborough today
Collection
The collection of The Art Gallery of Peterborough began in 1973, with a gift of historical European and Canadian Paintings donated by the Peterborough Teachers College. These works had previously been part of the collection established for the Toronto Normal School by Egerton Ryerson in the 1850’s. 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.
The policy of the AGP Acquisitions Committee has always been to devote purchase funds to the works of living Canadian artists.
The collection now numbers over 1,400 objects including contemporary and historical paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, photographs, mixed media works, both Canadian and international in origin. There is an emphasis on works on paper, drawing and prints, which includes silk screens, serigraphs, lithographs, etchings, woodcut and linocut prints. Local printmakers such as George Raab (Millbrook), Jean Nind (Peterborough) and Sheila Laidlaw-Radford (Buckhorn) are represented in the collection. Among the strengths of the AGP’s holdings are a comprehensive collection of paintings by Peterborough artist David Bierk (1944-2002) and Ronald Bloore (1925 – 2009). Works of Canadian historic significance include paintings and drawings by William Brymner, Horatio Walker, A.J. Casson, Arthur Lismer, Lawren Harris and A.Y. Jackson.
In 1988, there was a major gift of 82 drawings by Ronald Bloore, which included significant works from the early 1960’s. The Art Gallery of Peterborough currently holds the largest collection of works by Ronald Bloore in Canada. Manitoba artist Ivan Eyre has donated a significant group of his drawings, and we have a comprehensive group of photo-maquettes by Montreal-based artist Bill Vazan.
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 and Jim Reid, as well as photographs by Marlene Creates and Geoffrey James.
There has been particular focus on collecting works by significant Aboriginal artists from the region as well as from across the country. Recent acquisitions include a sculpture by Mary Anne Barkhouse and a drawing installation by Michael Belmore. The works by these Minden-based regional artists will be a significant addition to the AGP’ s collection of work by First Nations artists, which includes Carl Beam, Jane Ash Poitras and Michael Robinson.
In 2009 the gallery purchased works by artists with a recent exhibition history, including Kristi Malakoff, Gary Blundell and Sheila Butler. We received a gift of early prints by Nobuo Kubota, as well as several bequests by significant Canadian artists including Ron Bloore, Louis deNiverville and Jack Shadbolt, and a significant donation of prints by senior printmaker Carl (J.C.) Heywood. The collection is available to students and scholars for formal study purposes.
Roberta Lynn Bondar –Granite Island in the middle of Beausoleil Island’s Fairy Lake, Georgian Bay Islands national Park, Colour photograph 2000. Donated to the AGP by the artist in 2009.
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 of 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
2011 - 2012 Board of Directors
President
Cathy Wilson
Vice-President
Peter Frood
Treasurer/Secretary
David Hall
Trustees
Lynne Bullard
Paul Follett
Patricia Newson
Ann Talbot
David Tomlinson
Bronson Smith
Siobhan M. Tremblay
City Councillor
Lesley Parnell
