Does Canada Need a National Portrait Gallery

Join four leading voices to imagine what could be one of Canada’s most significant cultural institutions yet to be built.

Canadians are experiencing a renewed sense of who we are and why it matters to be us – is now the time to respond to decades of demand for a National Portrait Gallery?

While the majority of countries include portraits of their 'great and good' in their history museums, art galleries, archives and monuments; some countries have chosen a more democratic path – creating stand-alone National Institutions in their capital cities that celebrate not only the political and military greats, but also the change-makers in every walk of life, age, ethnicity and talent. Canada has no institutional equivalent – is this a quiet statement about our national character and preference for practical leadership over hero-worship, or a decentralized sense of identity that resists a single national narrative? Or is it simply an overlooked institutional gap that deserves to be filled?

Acclaimed UK-based architect Jamie Fobert, celebrated Indigenous curator and historian Tim Johnson, and writer and activist Sarah Lazarovic join moderator Gail Lord for a wide-ranging conversation about what such an institution could mean for the country.

Together they’ll examine the case for a National Portrait Gallery: what it might contain, how it could meaningfully include and center Indigenous voices and communities, where it might be located, and how it could be funded and supported – including whether the political will currently exists to make it a reality. The panel will also consider what a distinctly Canadian portrait gallery might look like in contrast to its counterparts in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia, and what unique story it could tell about the nation and its people.

Event's guests:

Jamie Fobert, Jamie Forbert Architects
Tim Johnson, Niagara on the Lake Museum
Sarah Lazarovic, Pengiun Random House
Gail Lord, Lord Cultural Resources

Location: Bram and Bluma Appel Salon, Toronto Reference Library (789 Yonge Street), 2nd floor

Time: Doors open 6:00pm, Event starts 7:00pm.

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