Please note that the Gallery will be closed for annual maintenance from January 6 to 10, 2025. We look forward to welcoming you back soon.
National Engagement
Providing Canadians with access to art in their own communities
By exploring community-identified needs and how the NGC can be of greater service, this initiative strives to increase the visibility and accessibility of art throughout the country’s provinces and territories.
In addition to established means of sharing the collection of the National Gallery of Canada — whether it be through multiple travelling exhibitions, digital programs, or the successful Loans Program — National Engagement is aimed at developing unparalleled new collaborations, including commissions, long-term loans, and co-stewardships. Following extensive dialogue between community members and Gallery staff, opportunities are being developed to connect people with art that reflects and amplifies their own stories, voices and experiences.
National Engagement is designed to build meaningful new regional relationships, while also expanding cultural engagement from coast to coast to coast. The multi-year initiative focuses on highlighting both Canadian and international artists, and will include one large-scale commission per year.
The first three years of National Engagement have been generously funded by Canadian philanthropist Michael Nesbitt, a Distinguished Patron of the National Gallery of Canada.
Ai Weiwei, Forever Bicycles, 2014. 1254 Bicycles. Stainless steel, 728.6 × 1603.8 × 397.9 cm. Collection of the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Photo: David Lipnowski, 2021. © Ai Weiwei. Courtesy of Ai Weiwei Studio
Ai Weiwei and Forever Bicycles
Ai’s artworks are often ambitious in both scale and scope and engage directly with contemporary geopolitics: from global issues of human rights violations to the realities of exile and dislocation, to government corruption and the abuses of power.
Forever Bicycles, a monumental archway, is reminiscent of the traditional Chinese paifang or commemorative gate found in Chinatowns around the world.
© Liam Gillick
Liam Gillick and A Variability Quantifier
Launched on October 3, 2022 on Fogo Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, A Variability Quantifier is an art installation incorporating an operational weather station.
Nicknamed “The Fogo Island Red Weather Station,” the work is part of the World Weather Network, an array of weather stations conceived by artists and writers around the world.
Lacey Prize
Established in 2019, the Lacey Prize recognizes the activities and impact of small organizations and artist-run spaces in Canada – in particular their contributions to emerging and experimental practices, and the role they play within their local communities.