The MacLaren Art Centre (MacLaren) is a free public art gallery with over 4,000 works of contemporary and modern Canadian art in the permanent collection, and the gallery serves an immediate community of approximately 300,000 people across Barrie and Simcoe County.

The MacLaren Art Centre’s mission is to engage and enrich the immediate and larger community by providing innovative and relevant contemporary visual arts programming at the Centre. The MacLaren is currently preparing a new strategic plan to develop a framework to guide its future initiatives for the next 5 years. The consultation process includes many opportunities for the community to provide feedback through the City of Barrie survey, community events, focus groups and interviews.

The Steering Committee is a critical aspect of the development of the strategic plan that is inclusive, responsive, and reflective of the diverse communities we serve as we move forward into the future. Selected are a group of individuals that offer a wide range of diversity in community representation, institutional knowledge, and collaborative efforts in and out of their field. The strategic plan goal is to have these members help guide and offer insight into how we progress in the innovation of the organization,

The Osborne Group is providing consulting services to the MacLaren Art Centre with a team of consultants well suited for this work with their extensive strategic planning experience, community engagement skills, and their familiarity with both the arts gallery sector, and their knowledge of current trends in the arts and culture community.

It is expected that a new plan will be presented to the steering committee and the Board in late 2024.