The Beaverbrook Art Gallery: Long-waited Comeback
On April 2nd, 2022, the Beaverbrook Art Gallery reopened to the public after 2 years of complete renovation.
“It’s really exciting to have people back here. We’re not quite through the day yet; we’ve had over 500 people through. People are really happy to see the exhibitions, and we’re really happy to have people back,” said Curtis Richardson, the gallery’s Marketing and Communications Specialist.
The gallery was opened in 1959 with the Permanent Collection of 300 works assembled by Lord Beaverbrook. Since then, the gallery now has over 7,000 objects, making it the art and culture center of New Brunswick and Atlantic Canada.
“We’ll have six exhibitions on display. They range from Indigenous to LGBTQ+ representation,” said Richardson. “We also have our permanent collection on display and will be changing things up as the months go on, so there ‘ll always be something new to check out at the gallery.”
Some of the new exhibitions are Larry Fink vs. Gary Weekes: The Boxing Portfolios, Isolated//Together, and Cathy Ross: Ministers Island in Small Pieces.
One of the new exhibitions, Len and Cub: A Queer History, is about Leonard “Len” Keith and Joseph “Cub” Coates, a queer couple living in New Brunswick during the early 20th century. This historical photography exhibition expresses the art early of “personal portable camera” photography.
“Len’s photos, even though Len was an amateur photographer, the composition of them and the way that they were opposed and styled have a very artistic nature about them […]. There was a style that tried to imitate paintings and portraiture, and some of that is visible in his photos,” said Meredith J Batt, co-author of Len and Cub: A Queer History.
This photography collection is also a representation of the hidden LGBTQ+ history.
“I think the exhibition is important because when I grew up in rural New Brunswick, I didn’t really see LGBT people in our history or media […], and so in many ways, I felt like I didn’t quite belong. So, the photos helped me represent this idea that queer people have always been in New Brunswick,” said Dusty Green, co-author of Len and Cub: A Queer History.
Besides collections and exhibitions, the Beaverbrook Art Gallery also brings some interactive art experiences to visitors. The Bruno Bobak Artist-in-Residence studio will host art professionals and provide them with space to undertake their projects. April’s artist-in-residence is Kim Vose Jones and her project Life Boat: message in a bottle.
“It’s about human precariousness. We’ve all been in this sort of lifeboat for the last couple of years. One of the things I was thinking a lot about during the height of the pandemic were immigrants and people without homes just because while the whole world shut down, these people still didn’t have a home or a place,” Jones shared about her project.
Visitors are welcomed to interact with the artist and participate in their work.
“I’m asking is members of the public to come and write messages in the bottle, said Jones. “It can be absolutely anything. It’s a private message, and it will become part of the boat structure.”
