The entrance to Allyson Mitchell's Killjoy's Kastle installation. Photo: Emelie Chhangur.
The Ontario Association of Art Galleries announced the winners of its 37th annual awards this evening at at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto.
Twenty-three awards and two honourable mentions recognized 14 galleries from 11 cities across Ontario.
The annual juried awards for Ontario’s public art galleries are presented in nine major categories: Exhibition of the Year, Curatorial and Art Writing, Public Program, Education, Art Publication of the Year, Design, Partnership, Colleague and Volunteer.
Projects associated with the Art Gallery of York University won the greatest number of awards—seven—including the Public Program Award for “Killjoy’s Kastle: A Lesbian Feminist Haunted House” (an offsite project led by artist Allyson Mitchell which garnered international media attention) and the Art Publication of the Year Award (for the “Will Munro: History, Glamour, Magic” catalogue).
Other notable awards included Exhibitions of the Year, which were divided into monographic and thematic categories, as well as (for the first year ever) budget over $20,000 and budget below $20,000.
Two of the four Exhibition of the Year awards were won by projects associated with the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery. Charles Stankievech’s project “CounterIntelligence” at the Barnicke won Exhibition of the Year (thematic, exhibition budget over $20,000), while “Coming to Terms,” curated by John G. Hampton at the Barnicke and the Jackman Humanities Institute, won Exhibition of the Year (thematic, exhibition budget under $20,000),
“Myfanwy MacLeod, or There and Back Again” at Museum London (co-produced with the Vancouver Art Gallery) won Exhibition of the Year (monographic, budget over $20,000), while “Jimmy Limit: Recent Advancements,” curated by Marcie Bronson at Rodman Hall, won Exhibition of the Year (monographic, budget under $20,000).
A new award for Innovation in a Collections-Based Exhibition went to “Other Electricities: Works from the AGW Collection” at the Art Gallery of Windsor, which was curated by cheyanne turions.
The award for Lifetime Achievement went to Marnie Fleming, who recently retired from Oakville Galleries as its curator of contemporary art.
A full list of award-winners is available on the OAAG’s website.
