16 Jan 2019
Ontario’s Thunder Bay Art Gallery plans CA$33m move to new waterfront site
BY Luke Cloherty
Thunder Bay Art Gallery in Ontario, Canada is to move from its current site at Confederation College to a new building on the city's waterfront.
Six separate exhibition spaces will sit across 37,000sq ft (3,437sq m) and two storeys in the gallery’s new home, with construction set to begin soon.
It's hoped that the move to a new waterfront site will help boost tourism in the city as well as visitor numbers to the museum, which will be designed based on the theme of a sleeping giant with views of Lake Superior.
The new home will have climate-controlled storage spaces that officials say will allow the gallery to expand its permanent collection.
The project is set to cost around CA$33m (US$24.9m, €21.8m, £19.4m). Funding has been all but secured through a combination of federal, provincial and municipal levels of government financing totalling CA$27.5 million (US$20.8m, €18.2m, £16.2m) and some local private donations.
"It's really for everyone," said local MP Don Rusnak. "For families, for people that aren't or that haven't maybe been involved in art in their entire life.
"I know the art gallery works with other community groups across northwestern Ontario to bring them in and allow them to use their spaces."
Another local MP, Patty Hajdu, added: "The art gallery, where it is now is far away, it's not necessarily accessible and many people don't know it exists.
"If you see the designs, it's designed to take advantage of the incredible beauty of this region and it will be a much more welcoming space."
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