Burlington Art Centre

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The Burlington Art Centre is an art centre in close proximity to Spencer Smith Park in Burlington, Ontario. There are exhibitions and educational programs, studios and activities at the art Centre. The Centre is a non-profit registered charitable organization. It provides free admission seven days a week.

1 History
2 Facility
3 Programs
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] History

The Burlington Art Centre was founded in 1978. It is the seventh largest public art gallery in Ontario and attracts over 100,000 visitors from Burlington, the Bay Area, Toronto, and across Ontario and the United States.

It was formed by several active visual arts co-operatives and guilds in the Burlington region. It was opened in 1978 as a facility for art groups to develop dedicated studios, photography, hand weaving, spinning, sculpture, woodcarving, ceramics, fine arts, and hooking craft. The Centre expanded and it started to become a public art gallery with exhibitions, publications, and a collection (begun in 1983) of contemporary Canadian ceramic art and educational programs. The facility has undergone two capital expansions (1991 & 2001) in response to the increasing need for collection storage, studios, and revenue generation.

[edit] Facility

The Art Centre operates a 4,100 sq. m. (44,000 sq. ft.) facility with exhibition spaces that include the 400 sq. m. (4,200 sq. ft.) AIC Gallery, the 40 sq. m. (400 sq. ft.) F.R. (Bob) Perry Gallery, a collection atrium, multiple display cases throughout the facility for works in the collection, and a 225 sq. m. (2,400 sq. ft.) exterior courtyard for site-specific exhibitions. The educational programs have 10 studio/classrooms. Meeting rooms, gallery shop, café and offices account for 1,400 sq. m. (15,000 sq. ft.).

[edit] Programs

There is an exhibition program, which has contemporary Canadian ceramists and regional artists including the BAC's guild members. There is an education program which trains professional development for artists and craftspeople.

There are also seven guilds at the Centre, the Burlington Fine Arts Association, Burlington Handweavers and Spinners Guild, Burlington Guild of Sculptors and Woodcarvers, Burlington Potters Guild, Burlington Fibre Arts, Hooking Craft Guild of Burlington, and Latow Photography Guild.

The Itabashi, a sister city of Burlington, Art Museum in Tokyo, Japan and at public art galleries across Canada recognize the Centre's large ceramic collection, which is also the largest in Canada. The centre has a "Fire + Earth" exhibition through Virtual Museums Canada.