Cat’s out of the B.A.G.: New Exhibits at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery

The Beaverbrook Art Gallery recently announced the opening of six new exhibitions. In terms of topics, this collection of exhibitions is extremely varied. It covers the Omar Gandhi architectural firm, the New Brunswick internment camp, Indigenous cultures, wall paintings, and more. 

John Leroux, the Beaverbrook Art Gallery’s curator, commented on the current exhibitions and the state of the Gallery this year.

“For the remainder of this year, the plans are to let the exhibitions compel the audiences as best they can,” he said. 

“They just opened a few weeks ago, the recent exhibitions, so hopefully there will be a lot of interest in the next few months.”

For readers interested in seeing the exhibits, Leroux noted that:

“Most of them come down in the first week of January … but we are excited about them, they seem to be really resonating with the audiences so far, it’s quite exciting.”

Although Leroux says all the exhibitions are special, he highlighted the Omar Gandhi exhibit of architecture because Leroux used to be an architect himself.

“It’s the first time that his firm has had a major exhibition in an art gallery, and it’s a real privilege,” he emphasized. 

“Because it is one of the most respected young architecture firms in Canada, it’s a big deal for us to be able to host it and the work is fantastic,” Leroux continued.

“It has international recognition, and it’s a story of an architect in the Maritimes. So it’s great that we have a bunch of his models in the exhibition and some pretty astounding architectural photography.”

Another of the new exhibitions that seemed to catch Leroux’s attention is Escape: Art from New Brunswick’s Internment Camp, which he calls, 

“fascinating and pretty timely, now that the world is so fraught with conflict.”

“But also it was a real privilege because the curator of it is a good friend of mine, who I’ve known for decades,” he continued.

“He is on the board of the New Brunswick Internment Camp Museum and we thought we should really work on this together.” 

Leroux explained: 

“It’s a really significant story, both for Canadian history and international history, and it happened just miles outside of Fredericton.”

“The items that we have displayed in [the exhibition], they all belong to the museum in Minto which has a fantastic collection. One of the most important collections of … prisoner of war items in the country.”

2023 has been a good year for the Beaverbrook Art Gallery. “It has been a success, numbers are way up,” said Leroux.

“People are committed and membership numbers are good, and we have had all kinds of rentals for the space, you know, [there were] a bunch of couples getting married at the gallery over the last year.”

“People seem to be really connected to the exhibition’s we’re doing and the programming has been excellent. So it’s been a good year, our response has been nothing but positive,” he concluded.

The Beaverbrook Art Gallery is open all week, from 10-5 Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, 10-9 on Thursdays, and 12-5 on Sundays. Students benefit from free admission!