Director’s Message

Dear OAG Members, Friends, and Supporters,

OAG’s growing permanent collection is a record of the art of our time and place reflecting a diversity of practices and subject matter. Purchasing artwork by artists, primarily of the Ottawa-Gatineau region, is also a seminal way that OAG supports contemporary artists’ practices.

Based on our strategic plan, and ongoing collection audit work, we set acquisition priorities focused on equity-seeking and under-represented artists along the career spectrum, from emerging, to mid-career to established.

We are, therefore, so pleased to acquire significant artwork for our permanent collection, by the following artists this year: nichola feldman-kiss, Silas Qayaqjuaq, Kosisochukwu Nnebe, and Faisa Omer.

The purchase of these powerful and important artworks would not have been possible without the support of generous donors including Mark Schaan, our Board Chair, who generously engages his friends and colleagues to join in acquisition support, and the Stonecroft Foundation who have continued to entrust OAG to do this important work.

Now, as we come close to wrapping up 2021, OAG will embark on the launch of our first online, public acquisition fundraiser—from November 28 to December 3— to help us purchase they by Cara Tierney for our collection, which will benefit generations to come! This monumental piece is a perfect example of an artwork that captures a defining moment in time, in this case, when the pronoun they entered into public consciousness and has reshaped the way we consider gender. Since its installation at OAG in 2019, it has become a beloved and iconic piece that educates as much as it literally dazzles.

I hope that you engage with us during this campaign. Follow our story on social media; check your in-boxes to find out how you can donate and track our progress; and, to be a part of something big at OAG— where connection happens between Art and City.  

Ottawa, Your Art is HERE.

Sincerely;

Alexandra Badzak
Director and CEO