Winnipeg Art Gallery: Guide to the Collections

The Winnipeg Art Gallery was established in 1912 when a group of Winnipeg businessmen, recognizing the civilizing effect of art and culture on a community, opened an exhibition space in downtown Winnipeg. At its inception the WAG was the first civic art gallery in Canada, and today it ranks among the country's leading art museums. Celebrating its centenary in 2012, the Gallery has built an international.reputation for its rich collections and exhibitions. Housed, in one of the most significant modernist buildings in the country, designed by Gustavo da Roza, the-WAG is the flagship visual arts museum on the Canadian Prairies. Its impressive collection of over 24,000 works of art includes outstanding holdings in historical, modern, and contemporary Canadian art; European art highlighted by the Gort Collection of Northern-Renaissance paintings; modern and contemporary photographs; and a large decpratove arts amd studio collection. Of singular note is the collectionof Inuit art, the largest of its kind in the world, supported by a long-standing record of exhibitions and publications. With a heightened focus on Canadian art, and in particular the art of Manitoba, the WAG is at the forefront in promoting regional and national artists. Exhibitions and educational programs are at the heart of the Gallery's mandate, and its Studio art pragram, engaging artists of the ages, in one of th largest in the country. By developing and maintaining Manitobas visual arts heritage. the WAG ensures the preservation of this legacy for the benefit of future generations.

This new Guide to the Collections presents over 400 works from the WAG's permanent collection, with each object illustrated in colour and accompanied by an extended text. Represented here are works spanning ten centuries and featuring a range of media selected from the Gallery's holdings in European and Canadian art, works on paper, photography, decorative arts, contemporary studio and inuit art. Included in the Guide is an illustrated essay on the history of the Gallery, and a bibliography of selected WAG publications, including collection and exhibition catalogues.

Stephen Borys is the Director of the Winnipeg Art Gallery and holds the post of Scholar in Residence in the School of Art at the University of Manitoba. He was previously the Ull R. Searing Curator of Collections at The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida, at which time he held an adjunct teaching post at Florida State University, and was research Scholar at New College, Sarasoda. Prior to this, Dr. Borys was Curator at the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Ohio, where he taught in the Art History department. Before Oberlin, he was an Assistant Curator in European and American Art at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, and he has also worked at the Canadian Centre for architecture in Montreal. He holds a PhD in Art History from mcGill University, an MBA from lansbridge University and the University of South Florida, an MA in Art and Architecultural History from the University of Toronto, and a BA Honours from the University of Winnipeg.