Canadian art and stories – through a distinctly Canadian art experience.
The McMichael Canadian Art Collection offers its visitors a unique and truly Canadian experience. From the art within its walls to the surrounding landscape, the McMichael is the perfect gallery for an introduction to Canada’s art, its peoples, their cultures and their history.
Renowned for its devotion to collecting and exhibiting only Canadian art, the McMichael permanent collection consists of almost 6,000 artworks by Tom Thomson, the Group of Seven, their contemporaries, and First Nations, Inuit and other artists who have made a contribution to Canada’s artistic heritage.
The gallery welcomes on average 120,000 visitors annually.
100% Canadian Content
The McMichael Canadian Art Collection is the only major public art gallery devoted solely to the collecting and exhibiting of Canadian art. The gallery offers visitors the unique opportunity to enjoy Canadian landscape paintings in the woodland setting that inspired them.
Built of fieldstone and hand-hewn logs, the McMichael houses thirteen exhibition galleries and is situated amid 100 acres of serene conservation land. Floor-to-ceiling windows enable visitors to enjoy marvellous views of the densely wooded Humber River Valley.
Through a network of outdoor paths and hiking trails, visitors can discover outdoor sculptures and wander the McMichael Cemetery where six Group of Seven members and gallery co-founder Robert McMichael have been laid to rest.
See. Do. Discover.
The McMichael displays a wide range of exhibitions each year, and offers a stimulating array of programs and events for people of all ages. They include curators’ lectures, tours, music performances, kids’ camps, workshops, school programs and hands-on art activities.
Experience Canada in a day at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection.
A Word from Our Executive Director
Autumn is one of the most beautiful seasons at the McMichael. The grounds and the forest are transformed into a blazing palette of colour, reminding us of the source of inspiration for many of our country’s finest landscape artists. The relationship of art and nature lies at the heart of the McMichael experience and we invite you to visit the Collection and experience the transformation for yourselves. In addition to our beautiful surroundings and marvellous permanent collection, we have an exciting fall exhibition and programming schedule ahead of us.
This October, we are pleased to present The Drawings and Paintings of Daphne Odjig: A Retrospective Exhibition, organized by the National Gallery of Canada in collaboration with the Art Gallery of Sudbury. This exhibition traces the artistic career of one of Canada’s finest First Nations artists. Odjig’s visual poetry links the natural with the human, the human with the spirit, and calls us to probe the animating spirits that infuse the natural world and the human heart.
Continuing on a natural and spiritual theme, we are also presenting the extraordinary cross-cultural exhibition, Contemporary Canadian Inuit Drawings /Chinese Drawings from Huxian, Jinshan and Qijiang, organized by the MacDonald Stewart Art Centre at the University of Guelph. This exhibition is a wonderful examination of the similarities in cultural lifestyle, spirituality and art practices of Canadian Inuit and Chinese artists.
Please join us on October 16 to celebrate the opening of our wonderful fall exhibitions and programs. Special invitations for this event will be arriving in members’ mailboxes sometime in September.
If you’ve been thinking about purchasing a piece of art, you’ll find a wide selection to choose from at our ever popular Annual Autumn Art Sale, presented by our Volunteer Committee. Held at the McMichael from October 24 to 26, 2008, this year’s sale features a wide range of works from outstanding local and regional artists. The sale supports our educational programming, so I encourage you to come out and purchase some wonderful artwork.
The McMichael’s Docent Corps—a dedicated group of volunteer art educators who animate the collections, temporary exhibitions, and offer programming to enhance our understanding of the art on view in our galleries—is celebrating its twentieth anniversary this September. Please join us in commemorating this special occasion by participating in our Docent Open House on November 1, 2008.
I have the pleasure of welcoming three new Trustees to the McMichael’s Board— Neil Harris, Upkar Arora and Diana MacKay— whose enthusiasm and skills will be put to good use as we build for the future. I also want to congratulate the Board, and in particular, the Spring Fundraising Committee, co-chaired by Regional Councillor Joyce Frustaglio and Felice Sabatino, which organized The Art of Musik, a very successful fundraising event in May featuring a delightful concert by the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and a delicious meal courtesy of Via Allegro Ristorante. I wish to thank most sincerely our co-chairs and all the sponsors and supporters of this event. It was a memorable evening that brought together art, music and wonderful food.
We were very sorry to learn of the passing of James Reaney, one of Canada’s most accomplished poets, playwrights and visual artists who mined our collective myths and gave us a rich and complex iconography of the imagination. We were proud to have presented his first exhibition in a public gallery this past spring—an exhibition that will be seen in his hometown of London, Ontario, in November of this year.
In all, there are many reasons to visit and
support the McMichael and I encourage you to
become a member and to visit us during this
most beautiful of seasons.
Tom Smart
Executive Director and CEO
Image Credit: Tom Sandler
