2016 Annual Report
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2016 ANNUAL REPORT Joanesie (possibly Qikiqtarjuaq or Pangnirtung), Testing One’s Strength, Pulling Game (Nusurautijuuq), steatite, 8 x 15 x 5 cm, Art Gallery of Hamilton, Chedoke Collection of Inuit Art, Anonymous Gift, 2016. Table of Contents Art Gallery of Hamilton Board of Directors 3 Message from the Chair and President & CEO 4 Exhibition and Collection Highlights 6 Programs and Education Highlights 10 Report from the Chair, AGH Volunteer Committee 13 Donor Support and Sponsorship 14 2016 Acquisitions 16 2016 Exhibitions 32 2016 Programming 33 123 King Street West Hamilton, Ontario L8P 4S8 T: 905.527.6610 F: 905.577.6940 E: [email protected] Facebook: Art Gallery of Hamilton Twitter: @TheAGH Instagram: @at_theagh www.artgalleryofhamilton.com Charitable registration number: 10672 3588 RR0002 2 Art Gallery of Hamilton Board of Directors Luigi V. Celli, Chair David Kissick, Secretary-Treasurer Charles P. Criminisi, Past Chair Dan Banko Paul Berton Dr. Brenda Copps Laurie Davidson Adrian Duyzer Craig Laviolette James Lefebvre Lisa Marcuzzi John Noestheden Councillor Maria Pearson Anna Ventresca Dr. Leonard Waverman Elizabeth Wensley, Chair, AGH Volunteer Committee Shelley Falconer, President & CEO, ex officio 3 Message from the Chair and President & CEO In 2016, we began to implement the four key priorities of the Art Gallery of Hamilton (AGH) Strategic Plan: 1. Renewed focus on the Collection and Program; 2. Community Engagement; 3. Learning through Art; 4. Long- Term Sustainability. This implementation included community consultations with our stakeholders and the public. We were pleased by the response of the many individuals who enthusiastically offered their insights and recommendations for increased access, diversity and continued engagement. Consultations will continue as we strive to create a more inclusive and dynamic AGH for all. Photo: Robert Brown Photography Photo: Mike Lalich Canadian art took centre stage in 2016 with exhibitions and programs highlighting demonstrates just how important the important historical and contemporary artists. exhibitions, programs and services we offer This balanced programming included such are to this region and province’s economic exhibitions as 1920s Modernism in Montreal: vitality. The Beaver Hall Group; Fearful Symmetry: The Art of John Scott; The Artist Herself: Self- Our visitors come, in great part, because of the Portraits by Canadian Historical Women Gallery’s Permanent Collection. In 2016, Artists; Imaging Phantoms: Catherine Heard; notable acquisitions enriched this Collection, Embracing Canada: Landscapes from which included a number of sizeable Krieghoff to the Group of Seven; Beyond the donations: over 140 works that comprise the Crease: Ken Danby; Last Folio: Yuri Dojc; and Chedoke Collection of Inuit Art; 33 works-- The Living Room, featuring a unique interactive primarily Canadian and French--donated by collaboration with award-winning writer, Pierre Karch and Mariel O’Neill-Karch; 49 multimedia artist and composer Gary Barwin. eigthteenth- and nineteenth-century British Once again this year, the majority of drawings donated by Clare and Michael exhibitions presented were curated by AGH Watson, among others. We are grateful to the staff and/or featured a number of key works artists and collectors whose generosity from our Collection. allowed the Gallery’s Collection to grow in breadth and strength. Purchased works Our visitors responded with near-record included those by Barry Pottle, Shelley Niro, attendance of 254,908 and an economic Hadley+Maxwell, Panchal Mansaram, Robert impact of $21,772,435, according to the Gibbons Foster, and Alexander McKenzie Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport Cunningham. Tourism Regional Economic Impact Model (TREIM). Yes, you read that correctly: that’s The Permanent Collection also allows us to almost $22 million in economic impact in strengthen our partnerships with galleries in Hamilton (and another $7.8 million in the rest Canada and abroad through loans and of Ontario). While we’ve always known that a travelling exhibitions. In 2016, these partner visit to the Gallery is good for one’s personal institutions included the Montreal Museum of growth and well-being, TREIM clearly Fine Arts; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; 4 Hammer Museum at UCLA; Art Gallery of research and programming of our Collections Windsor; Glenbow Museum; McMichael for years to come. Canadian Art Collection; Kelowna Art Gallery; McMaster Museum of Art; Surrey Art Gallery; The willingness of the AGH family to join us in and the Confederation Centre for the Arts in taking on this, our greatest challenge, is our Charlottetown. greatest strength. We are grateful to you, our Members, volunteers, and donors, for your In keeping with our strategic priorities, we’ve participation, your generosity, and your invested substantially in our public and support. educational programs to ensure we reach broader, new and diverse audiences. For Thank you to the members of our AGH Board example, the Gallery’s education department of Directors and Council of Governors for your consulted with several school board contributions of time, expertise and resources. departments to develop programs in response We are grateful to all of our partners whose to the new curricula now in use by the public, sponsorships, gifts and grants allow the private and Catholic school boards. We Gallery to offer the excellent programming for developed a new day-long symposium which we are known. Thank you to the program for high school students; in 2016, the dedicated AGH staff for their continued four symposia offered allowed grade 10 and professionalism and hard work. 11 students to explore the exhibition Last Folio: Yuri Dojc as part of their history studies We extend a special thank you to the City of related to the Holocaust. Hamilton, the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for their financial assistance The generosity of the incite Foundation for the and support. We are grateful to Orlick Arts, in addition to supporting other AGH Industries for providing free admission to the programs, allowed us to implement Art Smart exhibitions on Gallery Level Two, allowing visits: a program offering children from some members of our communities and visitors to of our community’s high-risk schools the the city to experience treasures from our opportunity to visit the Gallery and benefit Collection. In addition to their continued from our programs at no cost to them; even support of the AGH’s film program, support bus transportation was included. from the incite Foundation for the Arts allows school children, regardless of family income, Our visitors were able to explore The Living to visit the Gallery, take part in hands-on art Room, our new interactive and evolving making, and engage in creative endeavours installation in the Young Gallery, targeting that can make a lifelong difference to a child. family audiences with a collaborative, creative experience. We look forward to continuing to work with you all to build a stronger community and Perhaps the most important, and most Gallery. challenging, priority in our strategic plan is that of achieving long-term sustainability. From Thank you. reducing our deficit to ensuring ongoing stable base funding, the Board of Directors, Council Luigi V. Celli of Governors, staff and volunteers remain Chair, Board of Directors committed to pursuing a new financial model that will ensure the preservation, on-going Shelley Falconer President & CEO 5 Exhibition and Collection Highlights Exhibitions and Hamilton painter Daniel Hutchinson, a At the beginning of 2016, AGH opened two featured artist in the 2014 exhibition Painting banner exhibitions that exceeded expectations Hamilton, whose critical writing was also in terms of audiences and interest. highlighted in the exhibition pamphlet. Saga of a City: Hamilton at 200 Years, co-curated by 1920s Modernism: The Beaver Hall Group, Devin Therien and Hamilton historian and AGH organized and circulated by Montreal Museum docent Bill Manson, celebrated the founding of of Fine Arts, proved to have blockbuster the City of Hamilton in 1816. This project appeal as attendance and audience reach reflected important collaborations with the City rivalled that of our 2014 presentation of The of Hamilton collections, Dundas Museum, World is an Apple: The Still Lifes of Paul Hamilton Public Library and Six Nations of the Cézanne. Drawing large numbers from Toronto Grand River. and region, the exhibition proved immensely popular with new visitors and members alike. At the same time, Fearful Symmetry: The Art of John Scott also exceeded all expectations. We were thrilled to work with the artist who visited the exhibition several times and met with the docents, among other groups. The Art Gallery of Ontario’s loan of their Trans Am was a highlight given its power and the critical place it occupies in Scott`s oeuvre. A week’s program of active conservation on the car, with AGO conservator Sherry Phillips onsite, proved immensely popular and was a critical component in further engaging audiences in our behind-the-scenes work. P. Mansaram: 1980s Xerox and Mail Art opened at the Design Annex on the artist’s 82nd birthday. We were proud to showcase one aspect of the Burlington-based artist’s Collection Classics, installation. Photo: Mike Lalich. practice, which focused on Xerography and touched on his adept use of emerging technologies throughout his over 50-year The June 16th opening celebrated nine career. An in-house