January 16- February 26, 2015
The UNB Art Centre starts the New Year with a look at UNB’s Permanent Collection on view January 16 through February 26. Numbering over 2000 artworks, these works have been acquired through donation, bequest and purchase, some dating back to the 19th century. The UNB Permanent Collection is unique in that it is a working collection, allowing faculty and staff at UNB to borrow works for their conference rooms and offices. As a result, very few works remain in storage. Artworks remain on view, creating an aesthetic environment that contributes to the education of members of the community and engendering pride in our rich cultural heritage of New Brunswick.
The West Gallery features a display of recent acquisitions to the collection by artists such as Ann Manuel, Cliff Turner, Michael McEwing and others. This diverse range of emerging and established contemporary New Brunswick artists demonstrate their facility with a variety of media, such as sculpture, painting, printmaking, drawing, photography and collage.
In the East Gallery, we take you behind the scenes for a look at conservation of artworks in the collection, care and handling of artworks, framing, and the UNB loan program. Of particular interest is the digitization project that the UNB Art Centre is undertaking with the assistance of the Centre for Digital Scholarship and the Faculty of Arts at UNB. Known as ArtCan.ca, this multi-year project is in partnership with the University of Toronto, the Banff Centre, Carleton University, and Concordia University. Works from the UNB Permanent Collection will be photographed with a finely calibrated and colour balanced tri-linear CCD large format camera at 300 to 400 ppi and 16 bits per channel. The exceptionally high level of image resolution will allow the web-site browser to interact with artworks at an unprecedented level, giving them the ability to manipulate a range of functions such as magnification, rotation, and navigation. This website will be launched during the 75th Anniversary celebration of the UNB Art Centre in 2016.
The UNB Art Centre is located at Memorial Hall, 9 Bailey Drive, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton. The galleries are open 9 am – 4 pm weekdays and for special events. Admission is free to members of the public. Everyone welcome!
