The gallery focuses on contemporary art, featuring emerging and established artists active on the regional, national and international levels.
Constructed to National Gallery of Canada standards and opened in October, 1971, Saint Mary's University Art Gallery was the first purpose-built university art gallery in Halifax. It is located on the ground floor of the Loyola building at 5865 Gorsebrook Avenue. It is also accessible from Robie or Inglis Streets through the Loyola building.
The gallery focuses on contemporary art, featuring emerging and established artists active on the regional, national and international levels. Occasional historical exhibitions provide depth and context. New exhibitions open every 6-8 weeks, with a total of 10-12 exhibitions a year. The gallery produces publications for all the exhibitions it originates and hosts frequent panels, lectures and artists’ presentations. Recent exhibitions include Ed Pien: Tracing Night (see image, above right), Étoiles : art de la Baie Ste-Marie / art of St Mary’s Bay and Exhibit A: Photography from Atlantic Canada (touring nationally). Boasting one of the finest pianos in the region, the gallery also serves as a venue for performances, concerts and readings.
The gallery’s permanent collection currently comprises over 1,500 individual works, primarily by contemporary Canadian artists. The collection houses many works by Nelly Beveridge Gray, including watercolours and rubbings of historic reliefs in Mesoamerica, Europe and Asia. Gray’s collection of pre-Columbian ceramics is complemented by works of Nova Scotia ceramists such as Alma and Ernst Lorenzen. Many works from the collection are on display on campus, including commissioned pieces by John Greer and Mathew Reichertz. Recent acquisitions represent contemporary artists associated with the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University, such as Gerald Ferguson, Kelly Mark, Mitchell Wiebe, Lucy Pullen and Arthur Handy.
