TORONTO – Starting in September, a $10-million art collection including some of Canada’s most famous works, such as Tom Thomson’s Autumn Scene, will be available for public viewing at the Art Gallery of Ontario.
A deal between the Toronto District School Board and the AGO is currently in the works to showcase part of the collection, which consists of one million paintings, sculptures and artifacts once locked away in dusty principal’s offices and in storage, in a special wing currently under construction at the gallery.
Meanwhile, a curator with the National Art Gallery said Friday there are no plans to inquire about showing the remaining pieces in Ottawa. Some of the works, include paintings by the Group of Seven and other influential artists, such as Emily Carr, Norval Morrisseau, Alex Colville and Mary Pratt.
"If the (school) board has determined that it is unable to dispose of the collection, it seems most appropriate that it stay in Toronto where the collection originated," Charles Hill, a Canadian art curator at the National Art Gallery, said in an email.
The pieces have been donated and collected by the school board since the 1860s, and hung in hundreds of public schools in the system with minimal security.
In the last year, the collection has been slowly rescued and stored at an undisclosed location while officials figured out what they wanted to do with it.
Some of the most famous paintings include Franklin Carmichael’s Cranberry Lake, Lawren Harris’s Rossport and Emily Carr’s Young Pines in Light.
The majority of the works cannot be sold, at the requests of the artists who donated the pieces. The profits of the ones that can be sold, must be returned to the artists. It’s a dilemma that is ironic for the cash-strapped school board with a reported $42-million deficit.
Kelly McKinley, the director of education and public programming for the AGO, said the gallery feels fortunate to enter into this unique partnership with the school board. Meetings were scheduled for later in January to determine which paintings will be picked for the gallery’s new $19.5-million Weston Family Learning Centre, slated to open in the fall of 2011.
"We haven’t determined the list yet, but paintings by the Group of Seven and Tom Thomson are among the most valuable works," she said. "We also haven’t determined how long we will have the selection but we would be delighted if the partnership continued for an extended period of time."
The art will be accessible to school groups who attend the gallery on field trips, and free to the public on weekends.
The school board said it is considering loaning the remaining historical to schools for study.
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