Régis Côté et associés
An artist’s rendering of the design for the Daly Avenue entrance of the Ottawa Art Gallery. The Ottawa Art Gallery broke ground for their new building on Friday, Oct. 2 following feasibility studies, consultations with the arts community and with the help of the City of Ottawa.Artists of Ottawa will soon have a bigger and better location to showcase their work when the OAG finishes its large-scale expansion in 2017.
The Ottawa Art Gallery has been around for more than 25 years. The building itself was originally an old county courthouse and since the early days the OAG knew it would eventually expand.
Alexandra Badzak is the director and CEO of the OAG and contributed greatly to its development.
“It was very clear that I was hired to make the expansion happen,” she says. “It’s a very big moment for the institution and the arts community.”
Badzak outlined the features of the new building, which is expected to be five times the size of Arts Court. Currently, the OAG is bursting at the seams with small gallery and storage space along with limited accessibility and room for public programs.
The new gallery design has six levels and five times the exhibition and storage space. Public programming spaces fitted with art labs and studios along with a multi-purpose room with a 250-seat theatre are also part of the new building.
“As a municipal art gallery it’s our job to promote, to do the research, to do the interpretation, to showcase and to ultimately connect our local artists with the public,” Badzak says. “We’ll be able to do that in a far more substantial way in the new building.”
Badzak says the OAG hopes to bring in more exhibitions, including touring exhibitions from across Canada.
Its primary focus is still on displaying work by local artists like Lilly Koltun.
Koltun’s interest in art peaked when she was studying a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Ottawa from 2010-2014. Curiosity and the encouragement of her teachers sparked Koltun to pursue a career in creating art.
Currently she focuses on interactive performance pieces and has been featured at studios across Ontario.
Referring to her art pieces Koltun says, “It’s something that attracts people to come and participate but also gives them something to think about.”
One of her pieces titled, “In My Other Job,” was an exhibition at Nuit Blanche several weeks ago. Koltun covered the walls of a small room with short phrases beginning with “In my other job.” The phrases varied between desires and objectives such as “In my other job, I’m a legend” or “In my other job, I play guitar.” Sentences like “In my other job, I’m white” were included to make people think about the double meanings of the phrases. Attendees also threw darts at paint filled balloons that eventually dripped across the walls.
Not only is Koltun an active artist, but she also sits on the board of directors for the OAG.
Koltun says that only two
per cent of the OAG’s collection can be shown at the moment.
“That leaves a huge and wonderful collection that is almost never seen,” she says.
Koltun says the Ottawa Art Gallery is especially important for local artists since the National Art Gallery’s mandate is strictly international art.
“The OAG is a proving ground for artists who want to become better known nationally,” she says.
Badzak has similar sentiments and says she hopes Ottawa artists will start becoming household names.
She says the new building is for the community as well.
“Art makes us look at the world differently and elevates us to a place where we can find some common ground,” Badzak says.