Celebrating the oldest university art gallery in Canada

The Owens Art Gallery at Mount Allison University in Sackville, N.B., is celebrating its 130th anniversary.

It started out on a stipulation – an art collection in exchange for a gallery to house it – and 130 years later the Owens Art Gallery still stands tall at Mount Allison University.

“When the Owens was built it was pretty much in a field. I think that that says a lot about Mount A and its aspirations and the things it can accomplish,” said director and curator Emily Falvey.

The sign on the outside of the building reads 1894, which is when construction started, but the official opening date is May 28, 1895.

It’s a milestone on its own, but it’s made even more impressive by the fact that it also holds the title of the oldest university art gallery in Canada.

“I’m very proud,” said Falvey.

“I graduated from Mount A myself. I studied Fine Arts and Art History here. My whole family, there’s lots of generations back, of people graduating from Mount A so I think it’s really interesting that the first university art gallery in Canada is located in a place like Sackville, which is a quite rural community.”

The Owens is a part of history that helped create history.

“Originally the collection was used to teach women studying at the ladies’ college here at Mount A, including Grace Annie Lockhart who was the first woman in the British Commonwealth to graduate with a BA,” said Falvey.

“From it’s very beginning the Owens has been a place for the mentorship of women […] and it’s something that we continue to do today through internships, apprentice style internships all paid to the students, all of the staff at the Owens are alumni so I’m also extremely proud of the legacy of the Owens as a training ground from Canada’s cultural workforce.”

Originally, the gallery housed around 300 works of art and statuary.

Today, the collection has grown to more than 4,000 different works spanning over multiple centuries.

It’s also shifted from being just a university space to a welcoming environment for both students and the community at large.

“I think that change, when it’s changed to be for the public, is a really important part of the history,” said digital engagement curator Rachel Thornton.

“Everybody who’s been to the gallery and has maybe a little bit of a relationship with Mount Allison and the Owens Art Gallery will have special memories about being here.”

In celebration of 130 years, two new exhibitions are being displayed: the Salon Hanging which features works from the Owens original collection and Jon Sasaki: Homage which features photographs of bacteria cultures that came from pallet swabs of the Group of Seven.

“I think when we were programing the thought was that the Salon Hanging was like a macro representation of our art and the bacterial cultures was sort of like a micro,” said Falvey.

The gallery is holding a special 130th anniversary celebration – complete with a birthday cake – on May 28th at 5 p.m. The hope is to give a nod to its history while welcoming people into a space that is still just important to this day.

“To me the most important thing in my role is sharing the stories of artists, sharing stories of the history of the building and being apart of that bridge that connects people to the art is really special,” said Thornton.

“Learning and connecting with people here definitely still happens and I think the idea that art has a source for increasing empathy is a large part of the gallery’s role and just being able to experience the world through different artists eyes or different people’s perspective is just as relevant now as it was in the past.”

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