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National Gallery of Canada
By B. Mallett, photos courtesy the National Gallery of Canada
If you are in our nation’s capital of Ottawa this year, take the time to visit the National Gallery of Canada. After many years of planning and nine months of construction, the Gallery officially opened the new Canadian and Indigenous Galleries June 15 , 2017. It is the first major gallery transformation at the NGC since the building’s inauguration in 1988.
Internationally renowned museum design firm Studio Adrien Gardère reconfigured the galleries to create spacious rooms that are ideally suited to present close to 800 works of art from the NGC’s collections of Canadian and Indigenous art, and photographs, alongside loans of historical Indigenous sculptures and objects by Inuit, Métis, and First Nation artists. The transformed galleries incorporate the most up to date museum LED lighting technology, accessibility standards, and custom-made display cases that bring artworks closer to viewers, creating an enhanced visitor experience.
“The newly transformed galleries provide the ideal setting to tell a more complete story of artmaking in this land, which dates back thousands of years,” said National Gallery of Canada Director and CEO, Marc Mayer. “By the time the National Gallery was founded in 1880, the country was emerging as home to a rich mosaic of artistic practice. We worked closely with partner institutions and Indigenous communities to create a meaningful display, representative of Canada’s unique diversity and heritage.”
Canadian and Indigenous Art
The Canadian and Indigenous Galleries are home to a new presentation titled Canadian and Indigenous Art: From Time Immemorial to 1967 featuring some of the best examples of art made in Canada over the past ten centuries. The works are largely arranged chronologically, beginning with ancient Indigenous art objects and examples of the religious art of New France, and ending with modern Inuit sculptures and geometric abstract paintings.
Canadian and Indigenous Art: 1968 to Present, featuring more than 150 works of art by more than 100 artists, opened May 3, 2017. This major, year-long exhibition explores the many themes and movements that have shaped Canada’s visual arts landscape since 1968. It is part of the Gallery’s spring/summer programming titled: Our Masterpieces, Our Stories, which launched in April with the opening of the exhibition Photography in Canada, 1960-2000. Paintings, scultpures, photographs, video art, installation and drawings, are on display in 12 galleries located on two floors, until May 6, 2018.
“Canadian and Indigenous Art: 1968 to Present features outstanding works of Canadian artistic genius,” said National Gallery of Canada Director and CEO, Marc Mayer. “The public will appreciate the impressive legacy of our curators over the past 50 years and their diverse collecting approaches.”
The NGC’s Contemporary Galleries have been revamped to better show the variety, quality and depth of the collection – from the feminist art movement of the 1970s to present-day Inuit art.
Admission
Tickets: $15 (adults); $13 (seniors); $7 (age 24 and under and full-time students); $30 (families: two adults and three youth). Admission is free for children under the age of 11 and for members, and includes admission to the NGC Collection. Free admission on Thursdays from 5-8 pm.
About the National Gallery of Canada
The National Gallery of Canada is home to the most important collections of historical and contemporary Canadian art. The Gallery also maintains Canada's premier collection of European Art from the 14th to the 21st centuries, as well as important works of American, Asian and Indigenous Art, and renowned international collections of prints, drawings and photographs. In 2015, the National Gallery of Canada established the Canadian Photography Institute, a global multidisciplinary research centre dedicated to the history, evolution and future of photography. Created in 1880, the National Gallery of Canada has played a key role in Canadian culture for well over a century. Among its principal missions is to increase access to excellent works of art for all Canadians.
For more information, visit gallery.ca.
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