Agnes Etherington Art Centre

Coordinates: 44°13′31″N -76°29′47″E / 44.22528°N 75.50361°W / 44.22528; -75.50361

Rembrandt: Head of an old man in a cap - thought to be Rembrandt's father. Donated to the Art Centre by Alfred and Isabel Bader

The Agnes Etherington Art Centre is in Kingston, Ontario, Canada and is operated by Queen's University. The centre holds 12-15 exhibitions annually, as well as artists' talks and performances, public lectures, symposia, workshops, and school and family programs. Although primarily funded through the university, the Gallery Association raises awareness of and funds for the gallery through the activities of its volunteer committees, the Gallery Shop and the Art Rental & Sales Gallery.^[1] The Art Centre belongs to the Ontario Association of Art Galleries reciprocal program, through which members of participating galleries receive free admission to all galleries.^[2] The gallery has received a number of awards for its exhibitions from the Canada Council,^[3] Ontario Association of Art Galleries^[4] and others.

History

The Art Centre has its roots in the Kingston Art and Music Club, founded in 1926, and owes its existence to Agnes McCausland Richardson Etherington (1880–1954), a driving force behind the club.^[5] Agnes Etherington's grandfather had founded the grain dealer James Richardson & Sons in 1857 and the family had become very wealthy. Agnes's brother George Richardson, who died fighting in World War I in 1916, left a legacy for her to use as she felt fit to stimulate development of the arts at Queen's University. She used this to found the George Taylor Richardson Memorial Fund, which still provides an important source of arts funding to the university.^[6]

In her will, Agnes Etherington bequeathed her house, an elegant Neo-Georgian mansion, to Queen's University for use as a university and community art gallery. The Art Centre opened to the public in 1957. The building was extended in 1962, 1975, 1978 and 2000, and now has an area of 1720m².^[7]

Exhibits and exhibitions

Tête-de-pont barracks, Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston, Ontario

The Art Centre has a permanent collection of 14,000 pieces ranging from the 14th century to the present, making it the third largest provincial gallery in Ontario. The collection includes paintings, sculptures, and graphics by major Canadian artists, European old master paintings, costumes, quilts, silver and other decorative objects, Inuit art, and one of the largest public collections of African art in Canada.^[8] In 2006 a remarkable portrait thought to be of Isabella Clark Macdonald, painted around 1830, was acquired by the Art Centre.^[9] Recently U.S.-based philanthropists Alfred and Isabel Bader made their second donation of a painting by 17th-century Dutch artist Rembrandt van Rijn, Head of a Man in a Turban, to the Art Centre.^[10]

Major artists who are represented in the collection or have exhibited at the Art Centre include Rebecca Belmore, Shary Boyle, AA Bronson, Ian Carr-Harris, Sarindar Dhaliwal, André Fauteux, Harun Farocki, Vera Frenkel, General Idea, Robert Houle, Luis Jacob, Fernand Leduc, Kim Ondaatje, Annie Pootoogook, David Rokeby, William Ronald, Horatio Walker, Norman White and Bill Vazan.

Recent exhibitions include^[11]:

• Sep 5, 09 - Dec 13, 09 Diane Laundry: The Defibrillators
• July 4, 09 - Sep 13, 09 Liz Magor: Military Through the Ages
• May 23, 09 - Aug 16, 09 Michael Campbell: Field Recordings of Icebergs Melting
• May 9, 09 - Oct 25, 09 Bright Colours, Big Canvas: Jack Bush

Selected publications

The Art Centre has issued many publications over the years. A selection follows:

References

External links

• Agnes Etherington Art Centre - official site

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