The Ottawa Art Gallery is the city's municipal gallery and houses collections of modern and contemporary art. It features permanent and changing exhibitions, and a full program of talks, lectures and outreach programs.
The permanent collection has over 200 contemporary works of art featuring Canadian artists, in a variety of media including painting, installation, photography and media art. Artist represented include Lynne Cohen, Kenneth Lochhead and Jeffrey Thomas. The Gallery continually adds to its collection and recent acquisitions include works by Chantal Dahan, Lorraine Gilbert and Gunter Nolte among others.
The Firstone Collection of Canadian Art was the private collections of O.J. And Isobel Firstone, who collected the works between the 1950s and 1970s, and comprises over 1,600 works. The collection covers the majority of the 20th century, and features many influential artists including Emily Carr, Jack Shadbolt, Rita Letendre and Alfred Pellan. The private collection was donated to the Ontario Heritage Foundation and then to the Ottawa Art Gallery for public display in the early 1990s.
The Gallery runs many programs to involve the local community, including talks and walkarounds about changing exhibitions by the artists involved. There are various events such as Door Open Ottawa and ArtBus. The children's summer camp has a range of fun art activities and workshops and school groups regularly visit and make their own artwork in collaboration with local artists. The Art Rental and Sales Service is offered within the Gallery which showcases emerging and established artists and provides a platform for their work to be rented out or sold.
