About the MacLaren Art Centre:
The MacLaren Art Centre is a free public art gallery located in downtown Barrie, Ontario. With over 4,300 works of Canadian art in the Permanent Collection, and with the support of a keen volunteer team, the gallery serves an immediate community of 450,000 people across Simcoe County and central Ontario.
We approach our work with a regional responsibility and an appreciation for the national sensibility, responding to issues that matter in our immediate community within the broader context of the provincial and national cultural framework. We offer a variety of historical and contemporary exhibitions that focus on visual art and visual culture by Canadian artists of national and regional significance. Our goal is to provide the community with an exciting range of art exhibitions, tours, lectures, and art programs that inspire curiosity, creativity, and interest in the visual arts.
The gallery receives funding from private donors, corporate sponsors, and ongoing public funding from the Ontario Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the City of Barrie, as well as occasional project-based funding from the Government of Canada, Ontario Trillium Foundation, and the Ontario Attractions Fund. Other revenue is generated through our events, memberships, and art programs.
Land Acknowledgement:
We acknowledge the traditional territory of the Anishinaabek, which include the Odawa, Ojibwe, and Pottawatomi Nations, collectively known as the Three Fires Confederacy. The local bands consist of the Chippewa Tri-Council, who are made up of Beausoleil First Nation, Georgina Island First Nation and Rama First Nation. We would also like to acknowledge the Wendat Nation (Huron) who occupied these lands prior to the middle of the 17th century. We also recognize the enduring presence of all First Nations, Métis and the Inuit peoples.
History:
The MacLaren Art Centre began in 1986 as the Barrie Gallery Project, a not-for-profit charitable organization, and opened a storefront gallery space at 17c Mulcaster Street in 1988. The Gallery found a permanent home in 1989 when local businessman Maurice MacLaren left his collection and residence at 147 Toronto Street to the City of Barrie and the Barrie Gallery Project. In recognition of this generous bequest, the Gallery was renamed the MacLaren Art Centre in 1990.
Throughout the 1990s, the MacLaren earned recognition for its innovative programming. In 1997, Joe Fafard’s Field Project drew 100,000 visitors to a 50-acre site, where local farmers and two hundred volunteers planted crops to form the image of a horse. That same year, the MacLaren launched VanGo, a program that continues today, employing regional artists to deliver subsidized in-class studio experiences across Simcoe County. In 1997, 1998, and 1999, the Gallery’s impact was acknowledged with the Lieutenant Governor’s Awards for exceptional private-sector and community support.
In 2001, the MacLaren moved into a new 24,000-square-foot facility in downtown Barrie. Designed by Siamak Hariri of Hariri Pontarini Architects, the building integrates the city’s 1917 Carnegie library with a striking contemporary addition. The design earned critical acclaim, including the 2003 Ontario Architects Association Award of Excellence for Best Building (under $10 million) and the National Post Design Exchange Award of Merit. Today, this landmark stands as a cultural and architectural anchor in the city’s core, and general admission remains free.
