1989
January
Charles R. Pike, Senior Management Consultant for CP Rail, becomes Board President.
Linda Dooley is elected President of the Volunteer Committee.
Manitoba First Nations artist and curator Robert Houle is hired on a two-month contract as the WAG’s first Artist-in-Residence.
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Out of Tradition: Abraham Anghik/Ruben Piqtoukun opens on January 15. The work in the exhibition, by two Inuit brothers living in southern...
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April
The WAG Volunteer Committee receives the Mayor’s Volunteer Service Award for Arts and Humanities.
Also in April, the Gallery acquires 100 works of contemporary Inuit sculpture, work produced since 1970, from University of Saskatchewan English...
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July
The WAG receives its largest single donation. The Department of Indian and Northern Affairs gives a collection of over 1,400 Inuit graphics,...
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September
On September 2, the WAG mounts the first of its new Studio Series, month-long exhibitions focusing on the work of contemporary Manitoba artists....
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Bill Viola: Installations and Videotapes, an exhibition of the work of the well-known American video artist organized by the Museum of Modern Art...
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October
In October and November, and January 1990, Manitoba sculptor Marcel Gosselin is Artist-in-Residence at the WAG.
His residency is unique for...
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The WAG marks the bicentenary of the French Revolution with the exhibition L’image de la Révolution Française, borrowed from...
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1990
January
John Greene becomes Board President.
The exhibition The First Passionate Collector opens, featuring work from Ian Linday’s 1985 donation of Inuit sculpture.
February
Dutch Curator Els Hoek spends two months at the WAG as the institution’s second Curator-in-Residence.
March
An exhibition of artist Eric Cameron’s “thick paintings” opens.
Cameron is a conceptual artist and an active proponent of...
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The public forum Art and Outrage, organized by and held at the WAG, addresses issues of artistic controversy and censorship in public galleries....
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April
The Holman Eskimo Co-operative donates over 600 graphics produced at its print shop.
Founded in 1961, the print co-op was a means of...
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June
On June 6, the Volunteer Associates of the Winnipeg Art Gallery presents A French Country Picnic on the Rooftop, an auction of picnic tablecloths...
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September
Nine WAG employees are laid off and six positions are reduced to half time. Programming initiatives are significantly reduced. The move reflects,...
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November
Robert McKaskell is hired as the WAG’s Academic Curator, a post he maintains in conjunction with an Associate Professorship at the...
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December
On December 15 Colin Campbell: Media Works 1975–1990, an exhibition of work by this pioneering Manitoba-born video artist...
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The first major retrospective exhibition of Winnipeg watercolourist and printmaker H. Valentine Fanshaw (1878–1940) opens on December...
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1991
January
Heather Beecroft is elected President of the Volunteer Committee.
April
An installation by internationally acclaimed Yugoslavian artist Braco Dimitrijević opens at the WAG. An installation of another international...
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The WAG acquires, through funds made available from an anonymous donor, the Cotter Collection. The collection, comprising almost 60 objects,...
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An exhibition showcasing a selection of works donated to the WAG from Samuel B. Nitikman (1899–1982) opens.
Nitikman was a...
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UnNatural Acts, an exhibition exploring Canada’s modern, city-based existence and the urban environment, opens at the Barbican Gallery in...
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May
A WAG-organized solo exhibition of the work of contemporary Canadian installation artist Kim Adams opens. Kim Adams had already travelled...
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Maxine Ratner (left) and Betty Searle, of the Winnipeg Art Gallery Volunteer Committee, hold two of 65 works by Manitoba artists on display in a...
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September
British curator James Peto becomes the WAG’s third Curator-in-Residence.
October
Pudlo Pudlat: Thirty Years of Drawing opens on October 6.
Organized by the National Gallery of Canada, the exhibition of the Cape Dorset master...
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November
The blockbuster exhibition Spirit of Ukraine: 500 years of Painting, bringing in over 20,000 visitors by the time it closes in November.
In...
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December
An exhibition exploring the depiction of animals in contemporary art, Wild Things, opens. Billed as a “family-oriented exhibition,” it...
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1992
January
Longtime community activist and WAG volunteer Valerie Fraser (1930–2002) becomes Board President.
Colleen Cutschall becomes the WAG’s fourth Artist-in-Residence.
The WAG’s first Family Sunday event is held. Supported by the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba, the program provides the opportunity for...
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On January 19, Eleanor Bond: Social Centres opens, a WAG-organized solo exhibition of one of Winnipeg’s best-known painters. In this...
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February
As part of the Manitoba Studio Series, the WAG screens the controversial and comical 1990 video We’re Talking Vulva by Winnipeg performance...
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March
The WAG newsletter announces that Kathleen Richardson, longtime supporter of the arts in Winnipeg, had been awarded the Edmund C. Bovey Award for...
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April
Dr. Ferdinand Eckhardt (1902–1995), WAG Director from 1953 to 1974 celebrates his 90th birthday at the Gallery.
August
Carol Phillips resigns as Director.
December
The exhibition Achieving the Modern: Canadian Abstract Painting and Design in the 1950s opens.
The exhibition is an innovative survey of...
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1993
January
Michel V. Cheff, previously Chief Curator at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, becomes the WAG’s new Director.
The WAG purchases the Mall Medical Building, located south of the Gallery within the same plot of land. The building would be transformed into the...
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The WAG’s long-serving and distinguished Director of Development, Geraldine Wilson (d. 2003), retires.
Jasmina Jovanovic-Vlaovic becomes the Gallery’s Paper Conservator replacing Cynthia Ball.
February
Thomas Hoving (1931–2009), former Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, delivers a lecture in the WAG’s Muriel...
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March
Masters of Craft, an exhibition of 71 works by 10 artists who had won the nationally coveted Saidye Bronfman Award for Excellence in Crafts since...
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Cartographies: 14 Latin American Artists opens.
The exhibition is curated by Brazilian curator Ivo Mesquita, former WAG...
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April
The Volunteer Committee donates an important four-piece fabric wallhanging, Four Seasons of the Tundra, by Baker Lake artist Ruth Qaulluaryuk.
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Multiple Realities: Images of Shamanic Transformation opens on April 17. The exhibition draws from the WAG’s collection of 90 Inuit...
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May
Brazilian sculptor Iole de Freitas becomes the WAG’s fifth Artist-in-Residence. Her work Winnipeg can be seen displayed permanently in the...
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June
José Koes becomes President of the Volunteer Committee.
September
Kate Davis (1951–2010) becomes the WAG’s Deputy Director.
October
On October 9, the WAG mounts a retrospective of the work of Ojibwa artist Jackson Beardy (1944–1984) titled Jackson Beardy: A Life’s...
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1994
January
A Portrait of David, a photographic exhibition by the Winnipeg-born conceptual artist Micah Lexier, opens on January 30.
The exhibition...
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April
Design and Product: C. R. Ashbee and the Guild of Handicraft opens at the WAG, an exhibition exploring the work of English architect, designer,...
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April 21 to 24, the Board of Governors and the Volunteer Associates of the Winnipeg Art Gallery present Art in Bloom, a popular WAG fundraiser...
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September
A new studio class is offered exploring various forms of Chinese calligraphy. It is taught by the WAG’s latest Artist-in Residence, Joseph...
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October
The group photography exhibition Quotation: Re-presenting History opens. It explores contemporary artists mining the cannon of Western art history...
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December
The WAG acquires Deeds #5, August 19–22, 1991 its first (and to date only) work by Canadian iconoclast Greg Curnoe (1936–1992), with...
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One of the WAG’s cherished 16th century Bisham Abbey tapestries, part of its magnificent Gort Collection, is returned after having been...
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1995
January
A pool table autographed by the Rolling Stones, the main prize for a fundraising raffle for the United Way, goes on display at the WAG.
February
To mark Manitoba’s 125th anniversary, as well as the 25th anniversary of the Manitoba Arts Council, the WAG organizes the exhibition...
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March
Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Verona, Italy, hosts an exhibition of Inuit art curated by WAG Curator of Inuit Art, Darlene...
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The WAG hosts lectures by a number of national and internationally renowned scholars, including political philosopher Arthur Schafer, artist and...
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May
The WAG honours longtime active volunteer Marjorie Tadman Drache (1905–1998) on the occasion of her 90th birthday.
Live bees in the Gallery! Aganetha Dyck, a major solo exhibition of the nationally renowned Manitoba artist, opens. The exhibition, which is...
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June
Toronto artist Alan Belcher displays Complex ’95 (Winnipeg) in the Gallery’s Eckhardt Hall. The architectural installation...
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The exhibition Women’s Art/Women’s Lives: Women Artists in Manitoba Prior to 1955 opens at the WAG.
Part of the province’s...
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July
The Gallery’s newsletter reports on the architectural challenges that result from Manitoba’s harsh climate.
“Winnipeg’s...
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September
Mary Jo Hughes becomes Curator of Historical Art.
A call is printed in the WAG newsletter asking people to protest federal government funding cuts to museums in Manitoba; the notice includes a...
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November
A-Dress: States of Being opens. The group exhibition explores the social construction of the dress, the dress as something more than just an...
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1996
January
Business executive Robert C. Hain becomes Board President.
Judith Hall becomes President of the Volunteer Committee.
The internationally renowned Mexican artist Helen Escobedo (1934–2010) becomes the WAG’s eighth Artist-in-Residence.
To see...
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With over 20,000 works of art in its permanent collection, the WAG finds itself in need of greater storage space. Director Michel V. Cheff...
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June
The WAG hosts a memorial exhibition of work by the late Canadian iconoclast Greg Curnoe, organized by the National Gallery of Canada.
July
The WAG begins hosting ArtWalk, a walking tour of the “hottest galleries in town.”
October
Famed actor, writer, director, and humanitarian spokesman Sir Peter Ustinov (1921–2004) visits Winnipeg to launch the WAG Studio Building...
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The Art of Mary Pratt: The Substance of Light opens at the WAG.
Organized by the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in New Brunswick, the exhibition brings...
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Art & Soul proves the most successful to date, with a record attendance of over 700 guests and 150 volunteers. The event, which included a...
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November
The WAG receives 20 works of late 19th century to early 20th century glass from Arthur King of Montreal. The acquisition adds to the 50 works King...
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The WAG displays 73 works by Manitoba photographer David McMillan documenting the artist’s trip to Ukraine a decade after the nuclear...
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The WAG hosts an artist’s forum exploring the question of what role a public art gallery plays within its community.
Facilitated by Ralph...
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December
The WAG launches the Dr. Ferdinand Eckhardt Memorial Fund to commemorate the life of the Gallery’s longest serving director. Donations to...
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Kathleen Campbell, the WAG’s former Curator of Decorative Arts, is named Curator Emerita in recognition of her significant curatorial...
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1997
January
Dr. George R. Fuller, faculty member in the University of Manitoba’s Department of Interior Design, becomes Board President.
February
The WAG acquires Wharf, Beaupré by Maurice Cullen (1866–1934) as a gift from Dr. Leonard and Hope Kahane.
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April
Tom Smart joins the Gallery as Chief Curator.
A record flood during exerts great strain on southern Manitoba and the citizens of Winnipeg. The WAG provides free admission to flood victims and...
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Wanda Koop: Paintings for Dimly Lit Rooms/Paintings for Brightly Lit Rooms opens on April 6. The WAG-organized large-scale painting installation...
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June
With financial support from Dr. Robert T. Ross and the Winnipeg Art Gallery Foundation, the WAG acquires its first painting by Canadian artist...
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October
The WAG exhibition Inuit Woman: Life and Legend in Art opens in Thessaloniki, Greece, on October 1, as part of that city’s celebrations as...
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December
The Art and Expression of the Netsilik, a major WAG-organized exhibition surveying the art of the Netsilik Inuit, opens on December 7.
With...
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On December 10, the WAG publishes the first of its five Focus series. Each publication examines a distinct strength of the Gallery’s...
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1998
January
Lawyer Richard Yaffe becomes Board President.
February
The first solo exhibition of Inuit artist Germaine Arnaktauyok opens. Also in that month, Arnaktauyok becomes the WAG’s ninth...
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Andrew Hunter becomes the Gallery’s fourth Curator-in-Residence. His exhibition Up North: A Northern Ontario Tragedy, which explores the...
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March
Director Michel V. Cheff leaves the WAG, and Chief Curator Tom Smart becomes the Gallery’s Acting Director.
April
The WAG becomes the first recipient of the Canada Council for the Arts York Wilson Endowment Award.
Created in 1997, the $10,000 award is...
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September
The Volunteer Committee celebrates its 50th anniversary.
The anniversary is marked by a series of events beginning in the fall, including...
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November
The WAG acquires its own collections management software.
Previously, many public galleries in Canada, including the WAG, had relied exclusively...
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