Ottawa Art Gallery

The
Ottawa Art Gallery is an indepen­dent non-profit public art gallery com­mitted
to the presentation, interpreta­tion, dissemination and acquisition of
contemporary and modern art for the benefit of the local arts community. Our programs
explore a variety of issues and include exhibitions, publications, talks,
lectures, tours and youth programming.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

 The Ottawa Art Gallery (OAG) was founded in
the late 1980s in response to years of lobbying and organizing on the part of
Ottawa artists who felt the need for a municipal gallery to better represent
the local artistic energy. It was finally achieved in September 1988, with its
opening as the Gallery at Arts Court. In 1992, the City of Ottawa acquired the
Firestone Art Collection (now called the Firestone Collection of Canadian Art),
an important local private collection of national twentieth-century artworks.
Custodianship of the Collection was transferred to the recently renamed Ottawa
Art Gallery, which received designation as Ottawa’s municipal art gallery as
part of the agreement.

Innumerable
compelling exhibitions have taken place since its opening. Organized over the
years by the Gallery’s dynamic curators, as well as renowned guest curators,
exciting, and at times daring, exhibitions have presented the work of local,
national and international artists in both group and solo shows. Works from the
Gallery's growing Permanent Collection as well as the Firestone Collection of
Canadian Art are regularly exhibited at the OAG, borrowed by other museums
across the country for exhibitions, and loaned for special display in
institutions such as the Senate of Canada, Rideau Hall and the Ottawa
Convention Centre.

The OAG’s
current focus is to establish itself in a new building that will allow it to
better serve the local artistic community.