The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (AGGV) is an
art museum
An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own Collection (artwork), collection. It might be in public or private ownership and may be accessible to all or have restrictions in place. A ...
located in
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
,
British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
, Canada. Situated in
Rockland, Victoria, the museum occupies a building complex; made up of the Spencer Mansion, and the Exhibition Galleries. The former building component was built in 1889, while the latter component was erected in the mid-20th century.
The institution was established in 1946 as the Little Centre in
downtown Victoria
Downtown Victoria is a neighbourhood of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada that serves as the city centre and the central business district for the City of Victoria, and the Greater Victoria regions.
Characteristics
The downtown area is an e ...
. In 1951, the institution was gifted the Spencer Mansion in the neighbourhood of Rockland, and moved into the building in the same year. The institution was renamed the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria when it opened at the Spencer Mansion. From 1955 to 1978, the museum underwent a series of expansions to the building in order to expand the viewing space of its building.
Its collection works from Canadian artists,
indigenous Canadian
In Canada, Indigenous groups comprise the First Nations in Canada, First Nations, Inuit and Métis people in Canada, Métis. Although ''Indian'' is a term still commonly used in legal documents, the descriptors ''Indian'' and ''Eskimo'' have fal ...
artists, and other artists from across the
Pacific Rim
The Pacific Rim comprises the lands around the rim of the Pacific Ocean. The ''Pacific Basin'' includes the Pacific Rim and the islands in the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific Rim roughly overlaps with the geologic Pacific Ring of Fire.
List of co ...
. The museum has also organized and hosted a number of travelling arts exhibitions. The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria has the largest collection of works out of any art museum in British Columbia, with approximately 20,000 works in its permanent collection.
History
The art museum was established by former members of the
Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are o ...
branch of the
Federation of Canadian Artists
The Federation of Canadian Artists (FCA) is an association of artists in Canada founded in Toronto in 1941. The FCA soon had chapters across the country, and was one of the main forces behind formation of the Canada Council in 1957. After this, the ...
, and other members of the local arts community in 1946 as the Little Centre. The Little Centre operated at a former
car dealership
A car dealership, or car dealer, is a business that sells new or used cars, at the retail level, based on a dealership contract with an automaker or its sales subsidiary. Car dealerships also often sell spare parts and automotive maintena ...
in
downtown Victoria
Downtown Victoria is a neighbourhood of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada that serves as the city centre and the central business district for the City of Victoria, and the Greater Victoria regions.
Characteristics
The downtown area is an e ...
from 1946 to 1951. In 1951, the museum moved into the Spencer Mansion, which was donated to the institution in the same year by Sarah Spencer. The institution was renamed the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria when it reopened at the Spencer Mansion. While the building has been used as an art museum since 1951, it continued to serve as a residence for the building's caretakers through the 1960s.
Shortly after moving into the Spencer Mansion, the museum undertook a series of renovations and expansions, constructing an expansion wing known as the Exhibition Galleries. The Exhibition Galleries were built in several phases, with the first gallery in the building expansion opened in 1958, and the last opened in 1978.
In 2012, the museum announced it was looking for architects to design its expansion of the Exhibition Galleries.
In 2015, the municipal government approved the expansion, which included an additional of exhibition space, as well as the construction of a new cafe, and lecture hall.
Construction was originally planned to begin in late 2019, although rising materials and construction costs led to the development to be postponed.
[ The museum plans to close its building during construction, and exhibit its collection at off-site locations throughout Victoria.][
]
Architecture
The building of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria is made up of two components, the Spencer Mansion, and the Exhibition Galleries. The former is a re-purposed Victorian style residence built in 1889, whereas the latter is a modernist style expansion wing of seven galleries, built in phases from the 1950s to 1978. The combined museum building takes up of space.
Spencer Mansion
The Spencer Mansion was built in 1889, and was designed by William Ridgeway Wilson. The Spencer Mansion was once a part of a larger property, originally stretching from Fort Street to Rockland Avenue; incorporating a garden, two tennis courts, stables and a coach house. The Spencer Mansion had a belvedere Belvedere (from Italian, meaning "beautiful sight") may refer to:
Places
Australia
*Belvedere, Queensland, a locality in the Cassowary Coast Region
Africa
* Belvedere (Casablanca), a neighborhood in Casablanca, Morocco
*Belvedere, Harare, Zi ...
, with a view of the ocean. The Victorian era home was originally built for the Green family, who named the building ''Gyppeswyk'', the Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
name for Ipswich
Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...
. When Cary Castle
Cary Castle stood on Lodge Hill overlooking the town of Castle Cary, Somerset, England. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument.
Details
The motte and bailey castle was built either by Walter of Douai or by his son Robert who also built Bampton ...
, the original Government House, was destroyed by fire in 1903, Gyppeswyck served briefly as the residence of the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia
The lieutenant governor of British Columbia () is the viceregal representative of the , in the province of British Columbia, Canada. The office of lieutenant governor is an office of the Crown and serves as a representative of the monarchy in ...
. The building was donated in 1951 by Sarah Spencer to the institution that became the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.
The exterior of the building has been painted in several different colour schemes since its construction. In 1975 it was painted cream
Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this process ...
in order to coordinate with the brick used for one of the Exhibition Galleries. The building was re-painted back to its original colour scheme of dark red, dark green, and pale salmon in 2004. The original colour scheme was ascertained after peeling through the building's 15 layers of paint. The building's eastern facade, and portions of the northern facade were largely destroyed with the construction of the first galleries of the Exhibition Galleries during the 1950s. The loss of the porte-cochère
A porte-cochère (; , late 17th century, literally 'coach gateway'; plural: porte-cochères, portes-cochères) is a doorway to a building or courtyard, "often very grand," through which vehicles can enter from the street or a covered porch-like ...
, and the installation of a north-side glass-enclosed staircase during the construction of the Exhibition Galleries makes Spencer Mansion inadmissible for designation as a heritage building.
The interior of the building has undergone significant changes since its construction, either conducted by the museum, or by previous owners of the building. However, the building still retains a number of features from its original construction, including its original fireplace, ornate tiles and woodworking on the southeast corner of the second floor. In 2004, several renovation works undertaken on the building, including the reconstruction of the rooftop Palladian
Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...
window, and providing a seismic retrofit
Seismic retrofitting is the modification of existing structures to make them more resistant to seismic activity, ground motion, or soil failure due to earthquakes. With better understanding of seismic demand on structures and with our recent exp ...
to the building's chimney.
The first floor of the Spencer Mansion houses the museum's gift shop, and art rental and sales office. The former bedrooms on the second floor serve as the museum`s offices, and library, while the museum's archives are located in the building's attic.
Exhibition Galleries
From 1955 to 1978, the museum expanded the building by constructing seven galleries in a modernist expansion wing adjacent to the eastern portion of the mansion, collectively known as the Exhibition Galleries. The first two fireproof galleries were opened in 1958 and 1959, and were known as the Centennial Galleries. Its namesake commemorates the centennial of the establishment of the Colony of British Columbia The Colony of British Columbia refers to one of two colonies of British North America, located on the Pacific coast of modern-day Canada:
*Colony of British Columbia (1858–1866)
*Colony of British Columbia (1866–1871)
See also
*History of Br ...
. The final renovations during this period occurred in 1978, which saw the renovation of two of its larger exhibition galleries, as well as repairs to the Spencer Mansion.
Renovations to the Exhibition Galleries were conducted from 2001 to 2003.[ Work on the Exhibition Galleries included the installation a new climate control system,][ enabling the museum to host ]travelling exhibition
A travelling exhibition, also referred to as a "travelling exhibit" or a "touring exhibition", is a type of exhibition that is presented at more than one venue.
Temporary exhibitions can bring together objects that might be dispersed among sever ...
s that include works which need a climate controlled environment. Work on the museum's entrance at the Exhibition Galleries, and its corridors was also conducted during these renovations.[
]
Permanent collection
As of September 2019, the museum has approximately 20,000 works in its permanent collection,[ providing the institution with the largest collection of works of any art museum in British Columbia.] However, because of the limited size of the museum building, only five per cent of the permanent collection is able to be exhibited in the museum's exhibition galleries. Its collection is divided into a number of departments including Asian art, Canadian art
Canadian art refers to the visual (including painting, photography, and printmaking) as well as plastic arts (such as sculpture) originating from the geographical area of contemporary Canada. Art in Canada is marked by thousands of years of hab ...
, contemporary art, decorative art, and indigenous Canadian art.
Asian art
The museum's collection of Asian art is made up of approximately 8,000 works, comprising 40 per cent of the museum's total collection. With approximately 8,000 Asian works, the museum holds the second largest collection of Asian art in Canada, after the Royal Ontario Museum
The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is a museum of art, world culture and natural history in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is one of the largest museums in North America and the largest in Canada. It attracts more than one million visitors every year ...
.[ While the collection of Asian works includes items from all over Asia (including ]South Asia
South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.;;;;;;;; ...
, and Western Asia
Western Asia, West Asia, or Southwest Asia, is the westernmost subregion of the larger geographical region of Asia, as defined by some academics, UN bodies and other institutions. It is almost entirely a part of the Middle East, and includes Ana ...
), the focus of the Asian collection is primarily on works from China, and Japan. The museum's collection of Chinese works is believed to have increased significantly in value in the first decades of the 21st century, due to China's economic growth, and renewed interests for art from that region.[
The museum's collection of Asian art features old and new works, including bronze objects, ceramics, textiles, and amber and ivory carvings.][ The museum's Asian collection was started in 1973 by the museum's first director, Colin Graham.][ Two Japanese prints, acquired by the museum in the 1950s, were the first two items that formed the Asian collection.][ Other works from the exhibit includes a Chinese painting valued at C$6 million in 2016, and a Japanese ]byōbu
are Japanese folding screens made from several joined panels, bearing decorative painting and calligraphy, used to separate interiors and enclose private spaces, among other uses.
History
are thought to have originated in Han dynasty C ...
created by Kanō Sanraku
was a Japanese painter also known as Kimura Heizō (his birth name), Shūri, Mitsuyori, and Sanraku. Sanraku's works combine the forceful quality of Momoyama work with the tranquil depiction of nature, and they have a more refined use of color ...
.[ The byōbu features a depiction of a peacock displaying its ]plumage
Plumage ( "feather") is a layer of feathers that covers a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage differ between species and subspecies and may vary with age classes. Within species, ...
next to a pine tree, painted on a gold leaf.[ The by byōbu was donated to the museum in 1995, and was restored with cooperation from the ]Government of Japan
The Government of Japan consists of legislative, executive and judiciary branches and is based on popular sovereignty. The Government runs under the framework established by the Constitution of Japan, adopted in 1947. It is a unitary state, c ...
for approximately C$150,000.[ The byōbu was valued at C$500,000 in 2016.][ The museum's outdoor Asian garden includes the only Meiji era ]Shinto shrine
A is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more ''kami'', the deities of the Shinto religion.
Overview
Structurally, a Shinto shrine typically comprises several buildings.
The '' honden''Also called (本殿, meani ...
in North America.
See also
* List of art museums
Africa
Algeria
* Algiers: Museum of Modern Art of Algiers, Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions, National Museum of Fine Arts of Algiers
* Oran: Ahmed Zabana National Museum
----
Egypt
* Cairo: Egyptian Museum, Museum of ...
* List of museums in British Columbia
This list of museums in British Columbia, Canada contains museums which are defined for this context as institutions (including nonprofit organizations, government entities, and private businesses) that collect and care for objects of cultural, ar ...
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
*
{{authority control
Art museums and galleries in British Columbia
Museums in Victoria, British Columbia
Art museums established in 1951
1951 establishments in British Columbia
Asian art museums in Canada
Art galleries established in 1951