The Mendel Art Gallery was a major creative cultural centre in

City Park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a municipal park (North America) or a public park, public open space, or municipal gardens ( UK), is a park in cities and other incorporated places that offer recreation and green space to resi ...

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

. Operating from 1964 to 2015, it housed a permanent collection of more than 7,500 works of art. The gallery was managed by the city-owned Saskatoon Gallery and Conservatory Corporation, which also managed the Mendel's sister institution, the Saskatoon Civic Conservatory. In 1999, it was the 16th largest public art gallery in Canada by budget size and had the sixth highest overall attendance in the country. By 2010, it had more than 180,000 visitors. Plans to expand the Mendel Art Gallery began in the 2000s, although they were later abandoned by the City of Saskatoon government in favour of establishing a new art museum. The Mendel Art Gallery was closed on 7 June 2015, with its assets divided between the City of Saskatoon government and the new art museum. The permanent collection of the Mendel Art Gallery was transferred to the new art museum, the

Remai Modern Remai Modern is a public art museum in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. The art museum is situated along the west bank of the South Saskatchewan River, at the River Landing development in Saskatoon's Central Business District. The museum's build ...

, after its opening in October 2017.

History

The Mendel Art Gallery grew out of the Saskatoon Art Centre, which opened in 1944 in the Standard Trust Building and moved several times, the last time in 1963 to a back room on Fourth Avenue North. It was endowed by Frederick "Fred" Salomon Mendel, a refugee from

Nazism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

who founded Intercontinental Packers (now Mitchell's Gourmet Foods, a unit of

Maple Leaf Foods Maple Leaf Foods Inc. is a Canadian consumer packaged meats company. Its head office is in Mississauga, Ontario. History Maple Leaf Foods is the result of the 1991 merger between Canada Packers and Maple Leaf Mills. Canada Packers was f ...

) and announced in 1960 that in celebration of his 20th anniversary in Saskatoon, he would give the city money to establish a public art museum. His gift was matched by the Province of Saskatchewan. In 1965 he also donated 15 works by the

Group of Seven The Group of Seven (G7) is an intergovernmental political forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States; additionally, the European Union (EU) is a "non-enumerated member". It is official ...

which became the nucleus of the permanent collection. The

modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

building, which opened on October 16, 1964, was designed by the Winnipeg architectural firm Blankstein, Coop, Gillmor and Hanna of

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

(now numberTEN architectural group), led by partner-in-charge Al Hanna and design architect Doug Gillmor, who won the design contest. The Civic Conservatory was built as part of the same project, at the suggestion of the then mayor, S. L. Buckwold. The building was extended in 1975. On September 18, 2006, the gallery suffered smoke and water damage from an early morning fire in the loading dock area. It reopened nine weeks later with increased focus on national and international art. In 2009, the Board of Trustees of the Mendel Art Gallery decided to replace the building, which had come to be too small and needed expensive upgrades, with a larger facility on a different site. A new gallery, associated with the

Remai Arts Centre Frank & Ellen Remai Arts Centre is a performing arts centre in the River Landing area of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. The centre is owned by and the main venue for the Persephone Theatre. Constructed in 2007 at a cost of $11 Million Canadian, ...

, was opened at River Landing, in south downtown Saskatoon, named the Remai Modern Art Gallery of Saskatchewan for the Frank and Ellen Remai Foundation, the major donors. The design, by Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects and Smith Carter Architects and Engineers, won the 2011 Canadian Architect Award of Excellence. The opening date was originally to be 2015 but was later postponed to 2017. The decision to close the Mendel Gallery and replace it, which superseded earlier plans for expansion, was controversial. Former mayor

Henry Dayday Henry Dayday (born October 8, 1939) is a Canadian politician who served as the mayor of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan from 1988 to 2000. He was elected mayor four times, tied for the most since mayoral terms were extended beyond one year in 1954, althou ...

called for a plebiscite on the new gallery, and made it part of his short-lived bid for re-election in 2012. The gallery closed its doors on June 7, 2015, to begin the transition to the

. The City of Saskatoon approved plans for the Children's Discovery Museum to move into the Mendel Art Gallery Building after the new art gallery opens. In early 2019 the Children's Discovery Museum was rebranded as the Nutrien Wonderhub and opened in the old gallery's space in June 2019.

References

External links

* * {{authority control Museums in Saskatoon Art museums and galleries in Saskatchewan Art museums established in 1964 1964 establishments in Saskatchewan Greenhouses in Canada Art galleries established in 1964

History

References

Further reading

External links