Burnaby Art Gallery facts for kids
Exterior facade of Burnaby Art Gallery in 2012
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| Established | 1967 |
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| Location | 6344 Deer Lake Avenue Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada |
| Type | Art museum |
| Architect | Robert Percival Sterling Twizell |
| Owner | City of Burnaby |
The Burnaby Art Gallery (also known as BAG) is an exciting art museum located in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. You can find it near Deer Lake Park, a lovely area in Burnaby. The museum is housed inside a beautiful old building called Fairacres Mansion, which is considered a historic site.
The museum first opened its doors in 1967. It was started by the Burnaby Art Society, who worked with the City of Burnaby to show their art collection in the Fairacres Mansion. The society managed the museum until 1998. After that, the City of Burnaby took over running the museum and looking after its art collection.
The Burnaby Art Gallery has a huge collection of over 6,500 artworks. What makes it really special is that it's the only public art collection in Canada that focuses mainly on art made on paper.
Contents
What Does the Burnaby Art Gallery Do?
The Burnaby Art Gallery, which started in 1967, is all about art! Its main goals are to collect, protect, and show amazing art. They feature both new and old art from artists who are well-known locally, across Canada, and even around the world.
The City of Burnaby runs the Burnaby Art Gallery. The gallery takes care of more than 6,500 pieces of art in the City of Burnaby Permanent Art Collection. They also help manage the City of Burnaby's Public Art Collection, which includes art displayed in public places.
The gallery also has art shows in other places, like two of Burnaby's public libraries. If you're interested in learning more about art, they offer fun programs for adults, teens, and kids. These programs often happen at the Burnaby Art Gallery Barn Studio, which is right next to the main gallery building.
History of the Museum Building
The Burnaby Art Gallery is located in a grand house called Fairacres Mansion. It was designed by an architect named Robert Percival Sterling Twizell. This mansion, also known as Ceperley House after its first owners, was built in 1910. It cost about C$150,000, making it the biggest and most expensive house in Burnaby at that time!
The house was built in the Edwardian Arts and Crafts style. This means it had many handmade details, beautiful wooden carvings, and special tiled fireplaces. The original property was huge and included a garage, horse stables, a birdhouse, a gazebo, strawberry fields, greenhouses, and even a steam plant. Many of the tiles inside the house came all the way from England.
In the old billiards room and living room, there's a large oak fireplace mantel. It has a quote carved into it by a famous writer, Ralph Waldo Emerson, that says: "The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it." This means that having friends visit makes a house truly beautiful.
After the first owner, Grace Ceperley, passed away, the house was sold to different private owners. In 1939, it was bought by Benedictine monks, who made it an Abbey in 1953. The monks moved out in 1954 to Westminster Abbey (British Columbia) in Mission.
After the monks, the house was used by a group called the Canadian Temple of the More Abundant Life. It was also a fraternity house for students from Simon Fraser University.
In 1966, the Burnaby Art Society, led by people like Jack Hardman and Polly Svangtun, worked with the City of Burnaby to buy the property. It was about 8.4 acres (3.4 hectares) and cost C$166,000. Finally, the Burnaby Art Gallery officially opened its doors on June 10, 1967.
What Kind of Art is in the Collection?
The Burnaby Art Gallery has a collection of over 6,500 artworks, mostly made on paper. Most of these pieces are by Canadian artists. This collection is very special because it's the only public art collection in Canada that focuses specifically on works on paper.
Some of the important artists whose works are in the collection include Anna Wong, Ernest Stephen Lumsden, Jack Shadbolt, Takao Tanabe, Susan Point, Gordon A. Smith, BC Binning, Roy Henry Vickers, Laurence Hyde, Gathie Falk, Sylvia Tait, Ann Kipling, and Alistair Bell.
The Burnaby Art Gallery also organizes and hosts many temporary art shows. These shows sometimes travel to other places. Some past exhibitions have included:
- 4th National Print Show (1967)
- Feather Power (1971)
- Due West (1972)
- Mystic Circle (1973)
- Traces (1973)
- Douglas J. Cardinal: Architect (1978)
- Northwest Renaissance (1980)
- In the Beginning was the Word: Dutch, Prussian and Russian Mennonite Manuscripts in North American Collections (1983)
- Northern Exposure: Inuit Images of Travel (1986)
- A Quarter Century of Collecting (1992)
- Counterpoint: The Prints of Jack Shadbolt (1996)
- New Media: Artwork from the 60s and 70s in Vancouver (2002)
- Ernest S. Lumsden (2003)
- Shirley Bear: Wibhun (2007)
- Aganetha Dyck: Collaborations (2009)
- Gordon Smith: The Printed Pictures (2010)
- The Solitudes of Place: Recent Drawings by Ann Kipling (2011)
- Micah Lexier: Working as a Drawing (2012)
- Terrance Houle: National Indian Leg Wrestling League of North America (2012)
- Chronicles of Form and Place: Works on Paper by Takao Tanabe(2012)
- Gathie Falk: Paperworks (2014)
- Eli Bornowsky: All is Unmentionable, Up in the Air (2014)
- Tania Willard: dissimulation (2017)
- The Ornament of a House: 50 Years of Collecting (2017)
- Sylvia Tait: Journey (2018)
- Anna Wong: Traveller on Two Roads (2018-2021, touring)
- Gary Lee-Nova: Oblique Trajectories (2021)
- Lyse Lemieux: Trespassers/Intrus (2021)
See also
- Burnaby Village Museum, another cool place in Deer Lake Park
