As Ottawa marks its 200th anniversary, the Ottawa Art Gallery is proud to help shape a year that honours the city’s layered histories while looking confidently toward a creative, world-class future. This milestone invites reflection, celebration, and renewed investment in the cultural life of our capital.
In June, OAG will launch the Arts Corridor, a new initiative that activates downtown through bold public art. Connecting the ByWard Market and the cultural spine linking the National Gallery of Canada, the National Arts Centre, and OAG, the Corridor will transform shared civic spaces—fueling the creative economy, drawing people back downtown, and creating vibrant, shareable moments that signal a capital city alive with culture and care.
Central to our bicentennial work is 200+: Culture to the Core, developed in partnership with the Bytown Museum. This collaborative, year-long initiative reflects on the many communities, cultures, and individuals who have shaped Ottawa since 1826 while honouring the Host Nation who have lived on and cared for this land since time immemorial. Through exhibitions, public art, storytelling, and participatory programming, 200+ centres lived experience and community voice.
Launching in the spring, the Bytown Museum exhibition What’s in a Frame? 200+ Years of Community Portraits showcases the people who have lived, worked, and built community in Bytown–Ottawa across generations, and OAG presents Faith Fyles: In Full Bloom, a partnership with Ingenium that celebrates the remarkable legacy of Ottawa’s first woman botanist and scientific illustrator. Furthering our partnership with the National Gallery of Canada, we are also presenting Leah Decter: becoming | un | becoming inviting visitors to rethink familiar national stories and symbols through powerful artworks that spark conversation about our shared histories, our relationship to the land, and how we move forward together.
A cornerstone of the year is the exhibition In Motion: The History of Animation in the Ottawa–Gatineau Region, presented with the Ottawa International Animation Festival during its 50th anniversary year and coinciding with Ottawa’s official bicentennial this fall. Highlighting the region’s global impact on animation, the project extends beyond gallery walls through public installations and projections, including a new outdoor animation by Kitigan Zibi artist Jay Odjick on OAG’s Cube façade and the NAC’s Lantern.
We begin this landmark year with our Winterlude offerings and our annual Firestone Day: Art + Tea @ OAG, featuring a new Firestone Collection display celebrating the artists whose names grace the street signs of Ottawa’s Beaverbrook District—a fitting starting point for a year rooted in local stories and creative momentum.
As Ottawa looks to its next 200 years, OAG remains committed to championing artists, centring community, and creating cultural experiences that belong to everyone. We invite you to celebrate and imagine the future with us.
Alexandra Badzak, Director and CEO
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