About the Nonprofit
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The Ottawa Art Gallery (OAG)’s mission is to tell the story of our community’s evolution through art, and to create a positive vision for our city’s future. The OAG is a cultural anchor in the downtown core, and a sustainable and innovative institution that is a positive economic contributor to the City of Ottawa. The OAG holds a world-class collection of art for the people of the region, and the programs at the OAG reach patrons and participants from toddlers to seniors. The OAG offers free admission to their exhibitions and public programming, which present regional art within a national and international context.
The OAG fosters an inclusive, welcoming environment for everyone to engage with and enjoy, including taking active steps to recruit and retain staff and board members from the Black, Indigenous, racialized, francophone, 2SLGBTQQIA+, and disability-identified communities, as well as conducting an annual audit of our collections, programs, and operations to identify gaps, systemic barriers and challenges throughout all areas of operations. The OAG also “holds space” for the local community and actively seeks out interdisciplinary collaborations and partnerships as a means of achieving an accessible, inclusive space.
The OAG is committed to supporting artists across their life cycle, with specific approaches for emerging, mid-career, and mature artists, along a spectrum of strategies and resources including mentorship, exhibition support, profile building, and other means to enhance an artist’s continued evolution. The OAG is also committed to the resilience of the communities that they represent and serve, including an ongoing focus on art for mental health support and wellness therapy, as well as efforts to further environmental practices throughout the building and the OAG’s operations, which consists of a net-zero audit and plan to minimize waste produced by the OAG’s programs and administration.
