Winnipeg Art Gallery ARTWORKS TRAVELLED 64,000 KM TO WINNIPEG 100 MASTERS HIGHLIGHTS MASTERS 100 ANNUAL REPORT 2013/14 The Winnipeg Art Gallery is a cultural advocate for understanding and VISION experiencing art and art-making, and their vital place in our lives, work, and society. As the premier art museum in Manitoba, the Winnipeg Art Gallery MISSION plays a vital role in the community—enriching, inspiring, and engaging people with the world of art. As Canada’s oldest civic art museum, the WAG presents its collections and programs to local, national, and international audiences, maintaining the highest standards in current museum practices. The WAG is a place—a creative, relevant, and accessible forum—where people of all ages and backgrounds gather to experience art and the cultural well-being of their communities. The WAG is the lens that enables people to see more of life and society through the experience of art and artistic innovation. I. ART STRATEGIC Building a collection of the highest standards and supporting its presentation and promotion to local and global audiences, and PILLARS complementing this artistic enterprise with world-class exhibitions, programs, and collaborations. II. EDUCATION Engaging individuals and communities with the values of art, art-making, and artistic innovation as it informs and enriches lives and society, building a legacy of understanding and enlightenment. III. PLACE Providing a dynamic meeting place for people, art, and ideas within an environment that fosters creativity, learning, and fun. IV. FINANCE Leveraging support from both public and private sectors while utilizing resources responsibly and cultivating new partnerships to ensure sustainability and growth. V. TEAMWORK Aligning individual talents with a collective understanding to reach our strategic position on all fronts and to continue moving forward. CONTENTS Chairman’s Report 4 Director & CEO’s Message 5 Board of Governors 6 WAG Foundation 7 Staff 8 Volunteer Associates 10 Centennial Committee 13 Exhibitions 14 Publications 18 Acquisitions 22 Loans to Other Institutions 34 Programs and Events 38 Inuit Art Centre 42 Partnerships 46 Financial Highlights 58 Summary Financial Statements 59 EDITORS Heather Mousseau Tammy Sawatzky PROOFREADER Joan Padgett DESIGN Mike Carroll PHOTOGRAPHY Ernest Mayer, Eric Au, Martin Lussier Cover and inside cover: Michiel Sweerts. Self-Portrait with PRINTING Skull (detail), c. 1661. Oil on canvas. Esdale Printing Agnes Etherington Art Centre. Printed in Canada CHAIRMAN’S REPORT lthough our Centennial year to put together Dali Up Close, a second was 2012, the celebrations exhibition that will feature a number carried over into this past fiscal of defining Dali paintings, such as Ayear, particularly with 100 The Madonna of Port Lligat, and a Masters: Only in Canada. As you will selection of prints of Dali taken read in the Director & CEO’s message, in collaboration with American the exhibition was phenomenally photographer Philippe Halsman. successful, and our thanks goes to Stephen who spent two years criss-crossing the Over the year, we acquired many notable country, meeting with curators and directors of artworks through donations and purchases. 30 galleries and museums, and convincing them Highlights include superb paintings by Jules to lend us some of their finest works, many of Olitski and Larry Poons; a suite of iconic which had never been loaned out before. Thank photographs by “Doc” Harold Edgerton; and you also to the Gallery staff and management a significant drawing by Shuvinai Ashoona. whose hard work and dedication made this the The WAG commissioned a major bronze best attended exhibition in WAG history. sculpture from Winnipeg artist Eva Stubbs for our Rooftop Sculpture Garden. The latter One of the WAG’s strategic pillars is to provide a was secured with the support of the Canada dynamic meeting place for people, art, and ideas, Council for the Arts, the Jewish Foundation of and 100 Masters certainly achieved that. It was Manitoba, and through the generosity of over very exciting for all of us at the WAG to see the one hundred private donors. Gallery bursting at the seams, overflowing with people looking at art and talking about art. On behalf of the Board of Governors, I thank all the donors, sponsors, Gallery visitors, The momentum will continue into the 2014-2015 volunteers, and members who made the past fiscal year when Masterworks from the Beaverbrook year such a milestone in the Gallery’s history. Art Gallery and Dali Up Close open in September It has been my privilege to serve as Chairman 2014. The former will bring to the WAG 75 of the WAG Board during this momentous works from one of North America’s unparalleled time in the Gallery’s history. art collections, including Salvador Dali’s monumental Santiago El Grande. This inspired us BRIAN BOWMAN CHAIR, BOARD OF GOVERNORS 4 WINNIPEG ART GALLERY DIRECTOR & CEO’S MESSAGE t was the great communicator, Outstanding Achievement in Marketing Marshall McLuhan, who said: for the 100 Masters exhibition. The “Art at its most significant is a 275-page illustrated publication Idistant early warning system that accompanying the exhibition received can always be relied on to tell the old the Manitoba Book Awards’ Manuela culture what is beginning to happen.” Dias Book Design of the Year award. The WAG exhibition was announced Art is one of our oldest languages, one as the runner-up for a Winnipeg of the first and last ways we communicate with Tourism Award of Distinction in Marketing and each other. Before words, before the assemblage was also the runner-up for the Winnipeg Free Press of vocabularies, there has been a visual means in Entertainment Story of the Year, as voted by its which thoughts and emotions are made known. readers, coming in second to the Paul McCartney For centuries art has been the cultural expression of concert at Investors Group Field in Winnipeg. humankind, central to our survival and well-being. Most recently, 100 Masters was nominated for the 2014 Tourism Industry Association of Canada’s The material we call art is an integral part of the Tourism Awards in the Marketing Campaign of the history of civilization tied to the idea of living. Art Year Award category. penetrates all sectors of our society. We may only see or understand part of the work, but we cannot Beyond the record attendance, school outreach, deny its impact and place. Beyond the idea of membership growth, huge revenues, national beauty, meaning, or even truth art is an expression media attention, and honours for 100 Masters, of the human spirit. Albert Einstein once said he what was most rewarding for me was to see how was enough of an artist to draw freely upon his the public responded to seeing and experiencing imagination. Left to our own imagination, we tend the original works of art. In an era filled with to thrive, and art is part of this life-giving exercise. reproductions and replicas of all kinds in all places, The WAG plays an important role in this exercise. it is a powerful reminder that people still want to see the real thing —masterworks created by men Our blockbuster exhibition 100 Masters: Only in and women over the ages. Canada, which ran from May to September, 2013, is just one example of what an exhibition can do Once again the WAG team, led by our staff for a community in the expression of the human and volunteers, and supported by the Board, spirit. Featuring 100 artworks borrowed from 30 Foundation, and membership, came together to museums across the country, and spanning 500 embrace and embolden the Gallery’s place as a years of art-making, the exhibition was the most creative, relevant, and accessible forum where successful in the WAG’s 100-year history, attracting people gather to experience art and the cultural over 60,000 visitors—and a few awards! well-being of our community. The WAG was honoured with the Canadian STEPHEN BORYS DIRECTOR & CEO Museum Association’s national award for ANNUAL REPORT 2013/14 5 BOARD OF GOVERNORS Chair Ex Officio (WAG Director & CEO) Brian Bowman Partner, Pitblado Law Stephen Borys Vice-Chair Members at Large Alex Robinson Business Development Manager, Ernest Cholakis Dentist, Cholakis Dental Group Graham Construction Hennie Corrin Curwin Friesen CEO, Friesens Corporation Past Chair Dwight MacAulay Chief of Protocol, Naomi Z. Levine Lawyer Government of Manitoba Scott McCulloch Chair, Building Committee Ovide Mercredi Kevin Donnelly Senior Vice President & General Manager, James A. Ripley Lawyer, Thompson Dorfman Sweatman LLP MTS Centre, True North Sports & Entertainment Ltd. Winnipeg Art Gallery Chair, Development Committee Foundation Inc. Appointment Alex Robinson Business Development Manager, Tom Carson Senior Fellow and Director, Graham Construction Canada West Foundation Chair, Finance and Audit Committee Province of Manitoba Appointment Hans Andersen Senior Manager, Audit and Assurance Group, Manju Lodha Artist, Creative Writer, and Multicultural/ PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP Multifaith Educator and Learner Valerie Shantz Council on Post-Secondary Education Chair, Governance and Nominating Committee Naomi Z. Levine Lawyer City of Winnipeg Appointment Paula Havixbeck City Councillor, Charleswood-Tuxedo Ward Chair, Human Resources Committee Tom Carson Senior Fellow and Director, Canada West Foundation President, Volunteer Associates Committee Judy Kaprowy Chair, Works of Art Committee Doneta Brotchie FUNdamentals Creative Ventures 6 WINNIPEG ART GALLERY WAG FOUNDATION he Winnipeg Art Gallery Foundation Inc. President continues to play an essential role in the Richard L. Yaffe Partner, life of the Winnipeg Art Gallery, both in Aikins, MacAulay & Thorvaldson LLP sustaining the Gallery and in helping it to T Vice-President/Treasurer grow. Our early commitment to the Inuit Art Tom Carson Senior Fellow and Director, Centre is reflected in the substantial sums already Canada West Foundation transferred to the Gallery to cover preliminary campaign costs. The Foundation is now ready Secretary to enter a new phase of raising and growing José Koes endowment funds to benefit the WAG, including Chair, Audit Committee the Inuit Art Centre, over the long term.