The renditions shows the exterior composition for Agnes Reimagined, showing the new curvilinear addition to Agnes Etherington Art Centre from Bader Lane.KPMB
Agnes Etherington, the granddaughter of a wealthy grain dealer, bequeathed her neo-Georgian house to Queen’s University with the mandate that it be used to further the arts in Kingston and on campus. She died in 1954, and the Agnes Etherington Art Centre has remained a steady, if predictable, source of art programming since opening in 1957 – until now.
The centre is closed as it undergoes a multimillion-dollar reimagining that will expand the gallery space with a curvilinear addition, turn Etherington’s house into a live-in artist residence and challenge what it means to be an institution in the 21st century.
Leading the transformation, expected to be completed by 2026, is Emelie Chhangur, the director and curator of Agnes. (One of Chhangur’s early moves was to drop “the” from the gallery’s title – a clear sign of the changes to come.)
“I’m looking at these bequests papers of Agnes Etherington, and it’s a story of this beautiful Georgian home and beautiful historic campus. Her bequest was to further the cause of art and community. I’m like, ‘That is my job,’ ” Chhangur said.
But, she wondered, what does it mean to further the cause of art and community in the 21st century, and what would it mean to return the house back into a home?
The ethos guiding the multimillion-dollar renovation of the centre is hospitality.KPMB
The answer was to have the guiding ethos of Agnes Reimagined – the title of the construction project – be hospitality. As conversations within institutions worldwide focus on decolonization, the Agnes renewal centres marginalized voices to create a different type of museum from the ground up.
The first gesture of this spirit was to choose a community-engaged design process. Usually, a project of this scale includes a competition that architecture firms answer with fully drawn concepts and facades. Instead, Agnes Reimagined looked for collaborators.
“It needed a change in procurement practices. Not a design competition, but to do a call for design architects who would be willing to go on this adventure with us,” Chhangur said.
The architecture firm that stepped up was the award-winning KPMB, which has designed many art galleries, including the Remai Modern in Saskatoon and the Ottawa Art Gallery.
“This project is different,” said architect Bruce Kuwabara, a KPMG founding partner. “It’s a dynamic group of people who are engaged and have invested a lot in thinking through the building. It’s much more experiential. It’s not about how many square feet. It’s, ‘Where can I sit? Where can I talk?’ I’ve learned a lot doing it and think about it every day.”
The end result will include a three-storey pavilion that includes 5,000 square feet of exhibition space and an event area for performances and installations, as well as dinners and weddings. Depending on who you ask, the new building is shaped like a lily pad or mushroom – a metaphor for something sprouting up. It will also feature what are being called Indigenous self-determination spaces, which Indigenous community members, artists and staff can use for cultural practices and traditions.
This rendering depicts the concept for the ground floor. Architect Bruce Kuwabara, a KPMG founding partner said: 'This project is different. It’s a dynamic group of people who are engaged and have invested a lot in thinking through the building.'courtesy of KPMB Architects
Chhangur made a purposeful choice to hear directly from communities that have not been historically represented in institutional planning conversations. In 2022, Agnes Reimagined embarked on a two-year process modelled on Anishinaabe talking circles, led by Anishinaabe-kwe artist Georgina Riel, owner and chief executive officer of RIEL Cultural Consulting. The discussions included members of the community, with a focus on Indigenous, BIPOC and queer voices, which guided the architectural and design decisions to come.
“We went through a series of talking circles with Georgina. It was so powerful. People were really revealing about residential schools and the demolition of Indigenous language and culture,” Kuwabara said. “Here we are in the wake of Truth and Reconciliation, the 94 Calls to Action, and I think nine or 10 of them have been acted upon. This project, in a way, is one of those calls related to culture and our institutions.”
At the end of October, Canadian Heritage’s Canada Cultural Spaces Fund announced a $2-million contribution to the project. This is in addition to an astounding US$75-million from Bader Philanthropies Inc., an American non-profit with deep ties to Agnes. The late Alfred Bader, born in Austria, attended Queen’s University in the 1940s after being sent to a Canadian internment camp. Queen’s was the only school to accept him; other institutions told him their “Jewish quota” had been filled.
Agnes is now home to the world-renowned Bader Collection, and in 2021, Bader Philanthropies endowed a curator of Indigenous art and culture at the gallery. For Chhangur, Bader’s story is also one of hospitality – the act of inviting someone into a space unconditionally.
Emelie Chhangur, the director and curator of Agnes, made a purposeful choice to hear directly from communities that have not been historically represented in institutional planning conversations.KPMB
In that spirit, Agnes’s new welcome centre will act as a living room, allowing people to sit and hang out. Accessibility is key. Reil pointed out in one of the talking circles that there is no such thing as hospitality without it. For this reason, there will be two elevators, unusual for a building this size.
However, accessibility is about more than just physical limitations. Agnes Reimagined situates Western and Indigenous worldviews side by side as equals. For example, the new HVAC system is equipped to handle Indigenous smudging ceremonies. And rather than one temperature-controlled archive meant for paintings, there will be several, including some that prioritize objects.
“We can hold multiplicity,” Chhangur said. “I think a lot about the Haudenosaunee longhouse, where they add another rafter to the longhouse to accommodate other Indigenous nations and non-Indigenous folks into their home. They extend the rafters because their principle is that when you add something, something doesn’t have to be taken away.”
If Agnes Reimagined’s guiding principle is one of hospitality, generosity is a close second. People in the community were generous with their time during the talking circles, the Bader family was generous in their donations, and the architects, curators and designers were generous in their thinking and openness to change. In turn, Agnes will give back.
“Agnes Reimagined is not a container for old systems. It’s a proposition for new practices. This building is a gift to the future,” Chhangur said. Foregoing the typical groundbreaking ceremony, Agnes had a ground-awakening ceremony. They’re not breaking the ground, after all. Instead, they’re building a new way of doing something.