The Art Gallery of Guelph has launched a new season of exhibitions this month and people are making the visit, both in-person and virtually.
Since closing in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the gallery reopened its doors in July.
“Visitation has been strong. For many, the gallery is a safe environment and an open space for learning where individuals and families can explore new art and ideas,” says Shauna McCabe, director at the Art Gallery of Guelph (AGG).
Today, visitors explore the gallery with additional social distancing and health and safety precautions in place.
Attendance numbers are limited, and visitors will find signage, spacing, directional markers and hand sanitizers throughout the facility.
“Prior to the pandemic, events at the gallery offered an opportunity for community members to engage directly with art, artists, curators and fellow art lovers in conversation and hands on learning,” McCabe said.
“Since restrictions on in-person gatherings were introduced, the gallery has found new ways to share exhibitions and educational content online via the website, e-newsletter and social media platforms.”
With the return of in-person visitors, virtual programming has also grown in popularity
“Virtual programming has been well received. In July and August, the gallery offered a new virtual summer camp program, Camp-To-Go, that combined online learning with kits full of art materials. Campers and parents alike enjoyed the combination of live instruction and hands-on artmaking,” McCabe said.
“Since March, the gallery has made documentation of current exhibitions available online for visitors around the world to enjoy from home. In a sense, exhibitions are now available globally, 24/7.”
Online virtual school programs will continue to be offered at the gallery.
“We are introducing a virtual program for kids on Saturdays and hosting upcoming talks related to exhibitions as well. To support at-home learning, the gallery launched several programs available on our website as part of our #MuseumAtHome initiative,” says McCabe.
“Schoolhouse Studio Sheets, for example, is a series of fun at-home activities inspired by artworks in the gallery’s collection. In addition, the gallery has developed curriculum-based materials for teachers based on current exhibitions.”
Established in 1978 as the former Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, the AGG operates today with three sponsors – the University of Guelph, the City of Guelph and the Upper Grand District School Board.
“The new season of exhibitions speak to the possibilities for generative relationships with land and environment,” says McCabe.
“Featuring artists from across the Americas, the exhibitions on view offer a dialogue that connects decolonization with pressing issues of climate change, environmental sustainability and social justice.”
One of the new exhibitions, Sin Cielo / Skyless, depicts Clemencia Echeverri’s ongoing exploration of the social dynamics, cultural practice, and history of Colombia, specifically the after effects of mining in the county’s northwest.
Also, Carolina Caycedo’s A Landscape Is Never Natural, explores the interconnectedness of nature and social systems in the exhibition.
Grounding, curated by Maya Wilson-Sanchez, includes artwork made from the ground, work that uses as its material basis, the same valuable natural resources that drive world economies.
Visitors to the AGG can still catch Christi Belcourt’s exhibition, Uprising which continues until October 11.
Uprising is a mid-career retrospective of the work of Michif (Métis) visual artist Christi Belcourt. It brings together over 30 paintings, celebrating her creative achievements over 25 years of artmaking.
This exhibit is complemented by the work of knowledge holder, storyteller, and artist Isaac Murdoch, whose iconic images, such as Thunderbird Woman, are symbolic of the Indigenous resistance movement against resource extraction.
“The Art Gallery of Guelph offers compelling encounters with artists from around the world for visitors of all ages,” McCabe said.
And art isn’t only found inside the gallery.
“Extending the social space of the gallery beyond its walls, the AGG’s Sculpture Park is the most comprehensive contemporary outdoor art collection at the public gallery in Canada, with permanent installations by regional, national and international artists,” says McCabe.
Whether in person or on-line, education is at the heart of the all the gallery has to offer.
“As an educational organization, the gallery is always interested in exploring new tools that support online learning and research,” McCabe said.
The AGG continues to reflect issues that are important to the community.
“In the last few months, it has become clear that art institutions have a critical role to play in recognizing and challenging historic oppression, concerns reflected throughout our exhibitions, programs and collections,” McCabe said.
“The Art Gallery of Guelph aims to address issues that matter to our communities through our work with artists, with a vision focused on being an inclusive and participatory art museum at the heart of the community.”
LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”
It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.
“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.
