Fault Lines | works from the Permanent Collection

The Art Gallery of Peterborough (AGP) was founded by a group of volunteers in 1973 establishing a Permanent Collection in the same year with a gift of historical paintings donated by the Peterborough Teachers College. The AGP received its Letters Patent from the Province of Ontario on March 15, 1974, incorporating the AGP as a not-for-profit charitable organization, “To establish an art gallery in the City of Peterborough to preserve, maintain, exhibit and display works of artistic interest,” creating an anchoring institution in Peterborough to ensure the vibrancy of culture in the region.

The AGP Volunteers Committee initiated the first purchase made by the Gallery in 1977 when they raised funds, matched by the Province of Ontario, to buy a painting by west-coast based abstract artist, Jack Shadbolt, solidifying the AGP’s intention to focus its collection on works by contemporary Canadian artists.

The Gallery received designation as a Category A Institution (Object Category V: Objects of Fine Art) from the Department of Canadian Heritage on December 21, 1981. This designation demonstrates an organization’s professional capacity to ensure the long-term preservation of cultural property and a recognition for their professional standards or best practices in their operations and in the care of their collections.

The Permanent Collection now numbers over 1,800 works of art including paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, photographs, and mixed media works, both Canadian and international in origin. Exhibitions developed from the Permanent Collection are curated to reveal threads, connect themes, and create resonance with concurrent exhibitions. There is an intention to share as much of the Collection as possible, bringing forward rarely seen works as well as familiar favourites.

The AGP’s Permanent Collection holds many stories, this is just one.