On this day in 1931, the Edmonton Museum of Arts was closing due to major renovations.
The renovations aimed to enlarge the exhibition galleries, creating more space. Although the museum was shut down during the renovations, locals could still take a peek at the museum's exhibition — old French peasant costumes — by calling up the museum's director. The newspaper even helpfully printed her phone number.
The Edmonton Museum of Arts came from humble beginnings. It began in 1920 with the founding of the Edmonton Art Club, which worked on establishing a permanent collection for the city. Within five years, the museum was established. However, it would be a while before the museum had a permanent home. Instead, it bounced around: first in a room at the Hotel MacDonald, then held within existing civic buildings, and a late spell in Secord House.
Eventually, it was decided that the museum (now called the Edmonton Art Gallery) needed a proper home. In 1964, the city donated land near Churchill Square for a modern gallery. A significant part of the construction price was donated by Dr. William Newton and Abigail Edith Condell in memory of their son. The new gallery, designed by architect Don Bittorf, was created in the brutalist style that was popular for civic buildings at the time and was meant to be just as much a work of art as the exhibits it contained. The new building finally had all of the specialized equipment needed for a true art gallery, including temperature control and vaults.
By the early 2000s, there was a call to renovate the gallery. A bold, and at the time controversial, design by Los Angeles-based Randall Stout was chosen in 2005, which featured steel ribbons that wrapped around the exterior of the building, meant to invoke both the North Saskatchewan River and an aurora. On the same day that the new design was announced, the gallery received a new name: Art Gallery of Alberta.
The Art Gallery of Alberta's permanent collection now sits around 6,000 pieces, most of which focuses on artists from across the province and western Canada. As with many museums, it has been closed to the public during the majority of the pandemic. The AGA began the gradual process of reopening last week with new exhibits focused on Indigenous artists as well as events celebrating Pride Month.
This is based on a clipping found on Vintage Edmonton, a daily look at Edmonton's history from armchair archivist @revRecluse — follow @VintageEdmonton for daily ephemera via Twitter.