The Godfrey Dean Art Gallery is celebrating its tenth anniversary, and for the next few months it's looking back. Treasures from the Vault showcases a wide spectrum of art from Saskatchewan's history, bringing selections from the Saskatchewan Art Board's permanent collection to show a variety of work from the past 65 years.
Peter Sametz, Associate Director of the Saskatchewan Arts Board, says that this is just a small selection of the work in the board's permanent collection of 3,000 art objects which represent all of the different media from traditional forms such as paint and sculpture to work that's in new media.
"This is our mission statement, to cultivate an environment where the arts thrive. Why? For the benefit of everyone in Saskatchewan," Sametz says.
The selection at the Godfrey Dean is a small selection of the larger collection, but Sametz says that it gives a taste of what the Arts Board tries to do, and the way art in the province has changed over the decades.
"As you survey the collection, from the early days to the modern day, you see that evolution of art making processes in the province by the province's artists. We have over 600 whose work is included in the collection, and the artists whose work is included today, as you might expect, is not the same kind of work that they were making 60 years ago, and you get a taste of that in this exhibition," Sametz says.
The show was curated by Don Stein, executive director of the Godfrey Dean, and Sametz credits him with starting the ball rolling to get the one-off show together for the gallery. He admits that it is rare to have a one-off show like this one, but that they're proud to work together with the gallery to have a show that celebrates its success.
"Yorkton is a burgeoning, growing community here in the eastern part of the province. We enjoyed very much working with the city on the creation, commission and installation of Lionel Peyachew's work in Shaw Park, that was our project, and it's been a few years since we had a major project here in the city. We're very pleased this project came up, and we're looking forward to the next one," Sametz says.
Given the work on display, Sametz says that he hopes everyone makes a stop at the Godfrey Dean while Treasures of the Vault is on display. The show itself runs until December 14, 2012.
