Canadian art and stories – through a distinctly Canadian art experience.
The McMichael Canadian Art Collection offers its visitors a unique and truly Canadian experience. From the art within its walls to the surrounding landscape, the McMichael is the perfect gallery for an introduction to Canada’s art, its peoples, their cultures and their history.
Renowned for its devotion to collecting and exhibiting only Canadian art, the McMichael permanent collection consists of almost 6,000 artworks by Tom Thomson, the Group of Seven, their contemporaries, and First Nations, Inuit and other artists who have made a contribution to Canada’s artistic heritage.
The gallery welcomes on average 120,000 visitors annually.
100% Canadian Content
The McMichael Canadian Art Collection is the only major public art gallery devoted solely to the collecting and exhibiting of Canadian art. The gallery offers visitors the unique opportunity to enjoy Canadian landscape paintings in the woodland setting that inspired them.
Built of fieldstone and hand-hewn logs, the McMichael houses thirteen exhibition galleries and is situated amid 100 acres of serene conservation land. Floor-to-ceiling windows enable visitors to enjoy marvellous views of the densely wooded Humber River Valley.
Through a network of outdoor paths and hiking trails, visitors can discover outdoor sculptures and wander the McMichael Cemetery where six Group of Seven members and gallery co-founders Robert and Signe McMichael have been laid to rest.
See. Do. Discover.
The McMichael displays a wide range of exhibitions each year, and offers a stimulating array of programs and events for people of all ages. They include curators’ lectures, tours, music performances, kids’ camps, workshops, school programs and hands-on art activities.
Experience Canada in a day at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection.
A WORD FROM OUR INTERIM CEO
As many of you may already be aware, Thomas Smart has resigned as Executive Director and CEO effective July 29, 2010. Tom has done an outstanding job over the past four years and as a result of his leadership, the McMichael has flourished and achieved many successes. I am honoured to have been named Interim CEO and I look forward to working with Tom to ensure an orderly transition of leadership prior to Tom’s departure in early October. I have been with the McMichael for eight years overseeing the areas of development, marketing and communications and I look forward to carrying on the significant work and momentum that is taking place at the McMichael. I hope you will join me, the McMichael staff, Board of Trustees, and Foundation Board in wishing Tom the very best. The McMichael Board of Trustees, working with an executive search firm, will begin the search for a new CEO shortly.
This last year we have also had several changes to the Board of Trustees with new appointments and retirements. I am very pleased to welcome Mr. Upkar Arora as our new Chair. Upkar, who has been a Trustee since 2008, replaces Noreen Taylor, whose outstanding service to this institution assured its stability and commitment to excellence. Upkar is a strong supporter of the gallery and Canadian art, and he will provide strong leadership and stewardship into the next phase of the gallery’s history. I am also looking forward to working with Tina Tehranchian and Linda Rodeck, both of whom have also been appointed to the Board. These new Trustees replace Joyce Frustaglio, Paul Ladouceur, Don McCutchan and Betty Steinhauer, whose terms expired. I would also like to extend a warm welcome to Ted Dance, new Chair of the McMichael Volunteer Committee.
As the magnificent, colourful season of autumn approaches, I am eagerly looking forward to the spectacular sights we are about to see outdoors at the McMichael. There is no better place to appreciate the Group of Seven’s artistic legacy and their source of inspiration than in the galleries and natural 100-acre woodland setting of the McMichael.
The grounds and the galleries are undergoing changes. This past spring we were very pleased to receive $4.2 million from the Province of Ontario and the federal government through the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund to upgrade our grounds. Work is well underway to complete this project by March 2011.
Indoors, you will also see changes to the gallery spaces. Over the course of the year we have been renovating the galleries and reinstalling the permanent collection in dynamic ways to introduce new themes and rarely seen artworks from the collection!
This fall we are very proud to present the groundbreaking exhibition, Defiant Spirits: The Modernist Revolution of the Group of Seven, guest-curated by international award-winning author and art historian, Ross King. Ross paints a lively and compelling portrait of the members of the Group and their international modernist influences. We are very pleased to have worked with our co-publisher, Douglas & McIntyre, to publish a book also entitled Defiant Spirits: The Modernist Revolution of the Group of Seven, written by Ross King.
I am also very proud to write that our collection was significantly enhanced recently with a tremendously important donation of photographs of the Arctic by internationally recognized ethnographer, author and photographer, Norman Hallendy. As well, our Volunteer Committee just celebrated its 25th anniversary, and the McMichael is the first gallery in North America using LED lighting in gallery spaces!
The McMichael is building for the future. Come see the changes to the galleries and the grounds at this beautiful time of year. Make it the first of many more visits in the coming years.
Peter Ross
Interim CEO and Director of Development, Marketing and Communications
