Yukon artist Suzanne Paleczny has two pieces in the permanent collection. One, Snow Carver, is a painting that hangs in the lobby. Another, Icarus Descending, is a large-scale sculpture, also in the lobby.
She says being part of a permanent collection is a big deal for any artist. It’s even more significant if you work on the scale she does, she says, because she knows the work will be properly stored and taken care of. And having it available online means it will reach a broader audience, she says. Showing work outside the territory, especially when your work is as large as some of hers is, can be prohibitively expensive. Not only that, she thinks displaying it all in one place provides an important window into the Yukon for people who have never been.
“The artwork that’s in the collection really says something about the character of the Yukon and Yukon artists so for somebody to be able to collectively look at that, it really gives a sense of the place,” she says.
Ken Anderson also has two pieces in the collection, both done in the northwest coast style of his Tlingit heritage. He says it was an honour when YAC bought the works in 2004 and he thinks it’s fantastic the paintings, which hang by the staircase at YAC, are going to be more widely available via the online catalogue.
“With many art galleries or museums, most of the work isn’t seen so I think this is fantastic, especially in this day and age where everybody’s on their phones,” he says.
Bradshaw agrees. She says YAC is aiming to have the collection online and searchable later in the fall. It will be periodically updated as YAC acquires new work.
Funding for the project is provided by the Yukon Government’s Community Development Fund.
CAPTIONS
Top image: Photographer Cathie Archbould watches as Director of Visual Arts Mary Bradshaw, Scott Price (centre) and Patrick Amyotte help to move a piece by Joseph Tisiga, Untitled V from a Sacred Game: Escape is Perpetual, 2014. Paper collage, oil on canvas.
Centre image: A Jim Logan piece, A Rethinking on the Western Front (Acrylic on canvas, 1992), is moved back into the storage vault by Scott Price and Patrick Amyotte after being photographed.
Bottom image: Cathie Arcbould, Scott Price and Mary Bradshaw set up the next painting to be photographed: Landon McKenzie, Cluny II: An Anniversary of a Yukon Summer Solstice, 1983, Acrylic on canvas.
Photos by Mike Thomas