Director Janet M. Brooke. Credit: www.bernardclarkphoto.com

The Art Centre

Director's Message

Many supporters - from Queen’s University to the Canada Council, Canadian Heritage, the Ontario Arts Council and the Kingston Arts Council, to private foundations and individual donors and lenders - are fundamental to our work here, from intensive research on works of art, exhibition production and publications to film screenings, art camps and tours. This season we welcome a new member to this family: TD Bank Group has generously sponsored two major new exhibitions: Annie Pootoogook: Kinngait Compositions and The Constantine Collection of Northern Indigenous Art. TD Bank Group’s philanthropic commit - ment to Arctic environmental research is well-known, and these shows - which explore cultural change and trans mission over time in the North - bring visual dimensions to these same crucial issues. I take this oppor tunity to thank TD Bank Group for its support, which helps us bring these projects and accompanying publications into the public sphere.

This September we proudly host participants in the Revisioning the Visual Arts colloquium, as special guests at our Pootoogook and Constantine Collection receptions. Organized by the Visual Arts Alliance, this prestigious national event is being held in Kingston to mark the 70th anniversary of the landmark Kingston conference, organized by artist André Biéler (the Art Centre’s founding director) in 1941. Now, as then, artists, curators, collectors and dealers come together to discuss and debate the current state and future prospects of Canada’s art world, and to take measure of the role of the artist and the art work in our social fabric.

Five new exhibitions and a host of special programs join our roster this season, and I invite you to peruse this issue to learn more about them. As you do, I know you’ll find great reasons to visit us in the coming months. We look forward to welcoming you.

Janet M. Brooke