Tea with the Queens

featuring David Bierk’s “Portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II”

June 7 – 29, 2023

Special Project: Tea with the Queens is a short-run project that has been developed to offer the public an opportunity to see David Bierk’s painting, “Portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II” before it goes into collection storage joining the Permanent Collection.

Made for the Peterborough Memorial Centre, the painting was installed on January 9, 1980, where it presided over countless sports games, concerts, and events until the State Funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on September 19, 2022. The original commissioning documents, which are held at Trent Valley Archives, state that if the painting ever needed to be removed it should be donated to the Art Gallery of Peterborough, or the Peterborough Public Library, whichever was preferred. The Art Gallery of Peterborough acquired the painting for the Permanent Collection earlier this year.

“Growing up, I saw my dad’s massive painting of the Queen at Pete’s games, high in the Memorial Centre. My brother Zac told me how players tried to aim for it with pucks during practice. I find it special how the painting intersects my dad’s love of sports and his life as an artist, and how it hung over my brother Zac’s head in goal as he played for the Petes. The public reacted strongly when it was taken down. I’m so happy that it ended up in the collection of the Art Gallery of Peterborough to be kept safe and continue to live on in our community.” – City Councillor, Alex Bierk

From the evening of June 7 to June 29, it will hang in the gallery alongside works by artists who are Indigenous, queer, and living with disabilities.

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Opening Reception: June 7, 2023 from 7:00 – 9:00 pm

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Afternoon Tea with the Queens