Celebrating 130 Years of Art at the Owens Art Gallery
On May 28, 2025, the Owens Art Gallery turns 130! Since, for reasons we shall not mention, we missed our quasquicentennial in 2020, please join us this year to celebrate 130 years of the Owens as a place for connecting with art and artists.
Since its official opening on May 28, 1895, the Owens has played a central role in the cultural life of Mount Allison University and is the oldest university art gallery in Canada. The gallery was originally built to accommodate the teaching of fine arts at the Mount Allison Ladies’ College and to house a collection of approximately 300 works of art and statuary acquired by Mount Allison in 1893. The collection has now grown to about 4,000 works spanning the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.
Today, the Owens serves as the university art gallery for Mount Allison University and the public art gallery and museum for the Municipality of Tantramar. The Gallery has a long association with the education of women artists and continues to explore this important history through its exhibitions, research, publishing, education and community outreach, and the development of the Collection. As a teaching museum, it is also a training ground for the next generation of museum professionals in Canada.
To mark this important milestone, come enjoy a slice of cake and immerse yourself in two new exhibitions—the famous Salon Hanging and Jon Sasaki: Homage—as we celebrate our past and look forward to our future!
