New U of A gallery to host unseen work opening in 2027

The Telus Centre on campus is being renovated to create a new gallery space on its first floor. The gallery, called The Kenneth and Sandra Wong Gallery, is estimated for a 2027 opening. 

“We’re just finalizing some of the final design details, things that will come late in the construction,” Dale Askey, University of Alberta vice-provost and chief librarian said. 

Once open and operating, the gallery will be holding exhibitions displaying works recently shown on campus. But, the gallery isn’t just for art. “The first rule of the gallery is that we don’t call it an art gallery … it’s actually intended for all of our museum collections, of which a fraction are art collections. The rest of them are scientific and other collections we have at the university,” Askey said. 

These collections have been built over time, allowing for a wide range of important historical and thought provoking works to be on campus. “Over the history of the university, a lot of faculty and a lot of curators of these collections have done a fantastic job bringing together a really world class collection to the U of A. We’re a major western institution when it comes to being a museum. We’ve just never had the capacity to show it to anyone,” he explained. 

The collections and their range of works cross along all disciplines at the U of A, there being something for everyone. “We have 30 registered collections at the [U of A],” Askey said. “And a big number of them, probably the majority, are in the faculty of agriculture, life, & environmental sciences (ALES) and the faculty of science.”

Askey said some of the notable collections are the meteorology, vertebrate zoology, textile, and paleontology collections. 

New gallery will be host to all collections the U of A has

Currently, exhibits and displays of works are shown across campus in smaller spaces. “We’ve had a really small museum scour over in the Telus Centre, in Gallery A. There’s Bruce Peel’s Special Collections over in Rutherford South, and then some of the scientific collections have their own display spaces. But, they’re really small and they’re really not bound well in terms of being able to invite a large group of the public in,” Askey explained. “The gallery is going to change that so all these things that have been happening in pockets can now come up to a bigger level.”

The new gallery’s size will also allow for the inclusion of all pieces within a collection. Past spaces have forced some works to be excluded due to their size. “For example next year before the gallery opens we have another exhibition coming. It’s about early civil engineering books, like the 15th, 16th century. They’re fascinating.”

“And in my mind’s eye, I can imagine a future exhibition [in the new gallery] that would have these books on display, but also mockups to scale of some crazy designs that they came up with in the 15th or 16th centuries. Some were mockups for fortification, weaponry, water supply, and early machines. Some of which were never built because they actually didn’t work, but they’d be fun to look at,” Askey said. 

Southern Inspection Scroll to be shown for the first time in Canada

Another highlight that is going to be able to be shown in the new gallery is one of the Southern Inspection Scrolls, which is a part of the MacTaggart Art Collection. The scroll is 100 feet long and is a survey of the Grand Canal in Dezhou for Emperor Qianlong from 1770. “The curator of the Asian art collection at the Metropolitan Museum [of Art] (MET) referred to it once on a phone call with me. He goes ‘you know you have, like, [United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization] (UNESCO) world heritage stuff.’ It’s a must-see,” Askey said. 

The showing of the scroll in the new gallery would be the first time it has ever been presented in Canada.

To fund the gallery, there’s an intention to have an endowment in place, tied to the gallery so that it can stay operating and provide programming. “[We want] to put cool things on. You need to have things outside of school to go do. And, it allows us to hire students who work for museums. This funding will help us get those kinds of opportunities to students,” Askey said.

For the gallery’s grand opening, student job opportunities, and to see some unseen works, check in with the gallery in 2027.