Winnipeg Art Gallery. The Winnipeg Art Gallery is an art museum in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Its permanent collection includes over 24,000 works from Canadian, Indigenous Canadian, and international artists. The museum also holds the world's largest collection of Inuit art. In addition to exhibits for its collection, the museum has organized and hosted a number of travelling arts exhibitions. Its building complex consists of a main building that includes 11,000 square metres of indoor space and the adjacent 3,700-square-metre Qaumajuq building. The present institution was formally incorporated in 1963, although it traces its origins to the Winnipeg Museum of Fine Arts, an art museum opened to the public in 1912 by the Winnipeg Development and Industrial Bureau. The bureau opened the Winnipeg School of Arts in the following year, and operated the art museum and art school until 1923, when the two entities were incorporated as the Winnipeg Gallery and School of Arts. In 1926, the Winnipeg Art Gallery Association was formed to assist the institution in operating its museum component. The Winnipeg Gallery and School of Art was dissolved in 1950, although its collection was loaned indefinitely to the Winnipeg Art Gallery Association, who continued to exhibit it. In 1963, the Winnipeg Art Gallery Association was formally incorporated as the Winnipeg Art Gallery by the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba. The museum moved to its present location in September 1971, with the opening of a purpose-built building designed by Gustavo da Roza. In 2021, the museum opened a Michael Maltzan-designed Qaumajuq building in order to house the museum's Inuit art collection. The city's first serious art gallery was first opened in the former Manitoba Hotel, located at Main and Water Ave. An area of the hotel was set aside for an art studio. The art gallery was organized by Cora Moore, who upon return from a trip to Toronto, organized a Winnipeg branch of the Women's Art Association of Canada and subsequently an artists group for men. The first art exhibit took place in February 1895. The art gallery featured art from artists from Manitoba, as well as Toronto, Montreal, New York, London, and Paris. The art gallery was shut down after the Manitoba Hotel burned down in 1899. Efforts to create another art museum began in 1902, after the Manitoba Society of Artists was formed, and its members began to lobby for the creation of a provincial civic and arts institution. In addition to the Manitoba Society of Artists, the Winnipeg-branch of the Western Art Association adopted a mandate that promoted the creation of an art museum to art from Manitoba, and the rest of Canada in 1908. After the first phase of the Board of Trade building was completed in April 1912, the Winnipeg Development and Industrial Bureau unveiled plans for its second phase expansion of the building, which featured a space designated for an art museum. The art museum, named the Winnipeg Museum of Fine Arts, was formally opened by the Mayor of Winnipeg Richard Deans Waugh, the Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba Douglas Cameron, and the president of the Winnipeg Development and Industrial Bureau on 16 December 1912. The first exhibition held at the museum featured 275 works from the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. Building upon the success of the art museum, the bureau opened the Winnipeg School of Arts in the same building on 21 June 1913. The art school, and museum operated as separate departments of the same institution, initially controlled by the bureau. The institution became independent of the bureau in April 1923, when it was formally incorporated as the Winnipeg Gallery and School of Art by the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba. However, by the mid 1920s, the institution faced financial difficulties, and was forced to suspend most museum operations in 1926, with its remaining expenses for the museum being paid towards insurance, campaigns to increase membership, and sundry repairs. The museum's permanent collection was held by the School of Art in trust while the museum was closed. In August 1926, the Winnipeg Art Gallery Association was formed to assist the museum in its operations. The gallery resumed normal operations on 22 April 1932, when it was reopened at the Civic Auditorium's western wing. The School of Art remained in the Board of Trade building until its demolition in 1935, and was relocated twice, in 1936, and 1938. In June 1950, the Winnipeg Gallery and the School of Art was formally dissolved, with the School of Art being incorporated into the University of Manitoba.
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