An art gallery that's known for showcasing some of the region's most talented artists is going back to its roots this year.
An art gallery that's known for showcasing some of the region's most talented artists is going back to its roots this year.
Following a month of renovation work, the Leighton Art Centre is hosting a grand reopening of the centre's Heritage Home Art Gallery, launching the exhibition Leighton Rediscovered featuring never before exhibited works of art and artifacts belonging to founders A.C. (Alfred Crocker) and Barbara Leighton.
“We are putting more focus into our museum this year,” said curator Stephanie Doll. “In past years we focused a lot on contemporary artists and living artists and contemporary exhibitions. This year we decided to go back to our roots.”
Doll said the Leighton Art Centre received a $12,000 grant from the Alberta Museum Association that allowed the staff to create an exhibit featuring its own archives.
She said the money went towards developing the exhibit, framing, signage, supplies for the private opening reception and staff time to put the exhibition together.
“We just wanted to make A.C. and Barbara's work a little more accessible,” said Doll. “I wanted to make sure it was an overview of both A.C. and Barbara's careers.”
Dozens of works from the collection will be on display throughout the entire Leighton home, as well as the work of other historical artists such as Janet Mitchell, Illingworth Ker, Jim and Marion Nicholl, Stan Perrott, Roland Gissing and Barbara Gallachey, said Doll.
“We've got everything – we've got watercolours, oil paintings, textiles, ceramics, wood models, A.C. and Barbara's clothing, journal entries, maps,” she said. “We didn't have a lot of their work up before.
“I know a lot of people are interested in A.C. and Barbara's work so it's a chance to see an overview of their lives.”
More than half of the pieces on display belong to A.C., which Doll said includes his cityscapes and large mountain scenes in watercolour, an array of wood models, illustrated books and sketches.
“We have so much of A.C.'s stuff,” she said. “There's a huge range of his work from when he was younger to the end of his career in the '60s.”
Doll said the main gallery is filled with A.C.'s work as well, except it will only be on display from Feb. 4 to March 4.
“I was able to fill the bottom main gallery with A.C.'s work,” she said. “It's a good opportunity to see who A.C. Leighton was.”
The museum itself will feature artifacts that tells the story of the two founders' lives in a permanent display.
“Everything in the museum before was just a few pieces of work,” she said. “With the new hanging system we have been able to remap it up with all of Barbara and A.C.'s work and artifacts from their lives and photographs.”
With both A.C. and Barbara having been avid mountain adventurers, artifacts will also be on display representing that part of their life, she said.
Doll said renovation work on the house has included repainting and putting in a hanging system in the museum and improvements to the kitchen and shop. Expenses were covered by fundraising projects over the last two years, she said.
“It's been a huge project, probably one of our biggest projects,” she said. “It's so nice to see everything coming together after a month.”
