Above: OAG Director and CEO Alexandra Badzak and Canadian Film Institute Executive Director, Tom McSorley signing the agreement with OAG Board Members and Curators.
“We knew we weren’t just building a building but growing an institution for art…" said Ottawa Art Gallery Director and CEO, Alexandra Badzaz just months ago. On Thursday, the Ottawa Art Gallery (OAG) showed signs of continued growth when they announced a new partnership with the Canadian Film Institute (CFI).
The OAG will now serve as the new home to many of CFI's festivals including the Ottawa International Animation Festival, EU Film festival, and the Latin American Film Festival. To further solidify the partnership, on September 29 the Ottawa International Animation Festival will host an event at the OAG called Night Owl, an interactive party that will take over the gallery for a night of activities, performances and exploration.
The OAG and CFI started working together on the design and components of the Alma Duncan Salon at the beginning of the OAG’s recent redevelopment. It was the CFI that recommended that Paul Davis and Markus Lemm be brought in to consult on moving image technology purchases for the room.
“The OAG’s mandate is to be the most vital visual arts institution in Ottawa, and that certainly includes the medium of film. We are pleased to embark on this partnership with the CFI and to begin the relationship in the Alma Duncan Salon,” says Ottawa Art Gallery Director and Chief Executive Officer, Alexandra Badzak. “It is the perfect space for the partnership, emphasizing visual imagery in all its formats and paying tribute to a pioneering female Ottawa filmmaker, animator, and artist.”
"The art of the moving image is especially at home in this incredible new Ottawa Art Gallery," says Canadian Film Institute Executive Director, Tom McSorley. "The CFI is honoured to have its annual ongoing public film festivals, Canadian and international, presented in partnership with the Ottawa Art Gallery in the magnificent, state-of-the-art screening venue, the Alma Duncan Salon."
The Alma Duncan Salon is a 4,000 sq ft multipurpose room with state-of-the-art digital and analog projection capability, seating for 245 guests and an outdoor terrace. The Salon is named after Alma Duncan (1917-2004), an artist and animator who worked in the Ottawa region for most of her 60-year career.
Alma Duncan’s artistic practice included painted portraits and abstract compositions, graphite and ink illustrations of nature, and acclaimed charcoal drawings of wartime industries and munitions factories. Using handmade puppets, she created stop-motion short films for both the National Film Board and for Dunclaren Productions, a company she founded with partner Audrey MacLaren.
OAG is Ottawa municipal’s art gallery and cultural hub. Located in Ottawa’s downtown core, the expanded Gallery is a contemporary luminous cube designed by KPMB Architects and Régis Côté et associés.