OAG launches pop-up initiative

By Caitlin Galipeau

The Ottawa Art Gallery is connecting to the broader community while its expanded Arts Court location is under renovation.

The gallery recently launched an initiative called “Out There,” which will bring art-related activities to venues all across the city. Marie-Renée Vial, coordinator of education and interpretation at the gallery, said the program should build lasting relationships with Ottawa communities.

“It’s our pop-up initiative that we’re partnering with different communities and institutions around town so we stay visible during the period where we have no actual home for the artwork or exhibition space,” Vial says, describing Out There.

The gallery does have an “annex” location at City Hall, which is currently showing an exhibit linked to the upcoming Juno Awards.

But the main OAG space will be out of commission for most of 2017 during the multimillion-dollar Arts Court reconstruction now under way.

The pop-up events will not be limited to exhibitions, said Rebecca Basciano, the OAG’s curatorial assistant: “It’s exhibitions, talks, workshops, a wide variety of things.”

The program was launched with the idea of not only staying visible, but also strengthening the relationships the city’s resident gallery has with groups and individuals throughout the Ottawa-Gatineau region.

Vial said Out There is an introduction to how the gallery plans to operate in its new space, with a greater emphasis on collaborations with other communities in the capital region.

“In our new building, we’re going to have much more actual physical space to have more of these partnerships with the community, invite more people in, and have larger programming than we’ve ever been able to have.”

She added that the gallery also plans to have more travelling exhibitions.

“I think the partnership aspect is certainly key,” Vial said, “and this is the lead-up to what we are going to be doing on a much bigger, grander scale in our new building.”

Basciano said the Ottawa Art Gallery is striving toward better representing minorities in art, with efforts to feature more Indigenous art and putting up an exhibition with a focus on accessibility, called “Open Access.”

“It’s a direction we’re going to work on and flourish in the new space,” she said.

The Ottawa Art Gallery is the city’s resident gallery.Vial said this is why it’s important to remain visible throughout the region.

“We’re the municipal gallery, so we’re really there for the people in town,” she said. “We’re a free gallery so it’s important for us to remain and be accessible for everyone.”

Vial said some of the pop-up locations will be based on existing partnerships, such as those with Carleton University and the University of Ottawa. Others, she added, are being chosen to specifically engage communities that do not receive enough attention, including several in Gatineau. To start engaging the Quebec side of the capital, the OAG will be hosting a discussion with the artist Valérie Yobé in Gatineau on March 24, the first in a series of events dubbed “Seriously Creative.”

Basciano said she hopes Out There will create more opportunities for feedback from the public. “It’s also about getting responses back,” she explained. “What do they want to see happen and how can we make that grow?”

After the new building is open, Vial said the Ottawa Art Gallery will continue its pop-up initiative because it is important to have more presence in the community. She said OAG officials are not only focusing on outreach, but also “inreach” – curating a gallery based on the needs of the city.

The gallery’s expanded facility is set to open in the fall.