The Kanata Civic Art Gallery, with approximately 40 juried members, has been around for 29 years. As a juried gallery, the standards are set high; you will see some of Ottawa’s finest artists showcased.
A little Gallery history: in 1992, Elizabeth Potvin (President of the Kanata Art Club at the time) was looking to find a space to hold their annual juried show. When Elizabeth noticed an empty space in the Mlacak Centre (vacated by a skate sharpening shop) she went to the City Manager to obtain permission to use it for their juried show. After fellow artist Susan Goold saw how well that space lent itself to the art show, she thought “why not have an art gallery here?”. Susan, along with Beth Mlacak and Cathy Edmonds, proposed to City Hall that the space in the Mlacak Centre be used as an art gallery to be run by member artists.
While the City wanted a gallery, it was not in the budget, so this solution was a win/win both for the City and the artists, with the City providing space and the artists running the Gallery. This model was then used by the City of Ottawa after amalgamation to create the Foyer Gallery in Nepean. Photograph shown here is the ribbon cutting for the Kanata Civic Art Gallery’s official opening in 1996.
Several founding artists are still participating in the Gallery: Susan Goold, Elizabeth Potvin, Margrit Jorgensen, Dorothy Hayter and Janis Miller Hall.