Village Squire, 1980-02, Page 4The eye-catching London Regional Art Gallery, designed by architect Raymond Moriyama, which Is located between the Labbatt's
restoration and the Middlesex County courthouse on Ridout Street, in the city's core area. (Photo by Darlene McLean)
London's new gallery
Art joins history at the forks of the Thames
BY DARLENE McLEAN
London, Ontario has long been celebrated as a centre for
artistic development, considered second only to Toronto by many
art lovers.
This spring, London will be receiving even more recognition
from art lovers with the opening of the exciting new London
Regional Art Gallery, located at the city's heart, the forks of the
Thames. The new gallery will replace the present gallery,
located upstairs in London's Central Library on Queens Avenue.
The campaign to build the new regional art gallery was the
centre of controversy between Londoners who wanted to keep
the forks of the Thames as open space to compliment the nearby
park and historic buildings like Eldon House and the Middlesex
County courthouse, and gallery supporters who telt the city
deserved expanded public gallery space in a central location.
Barry Fair, registrar at the London Regional Art Gallery, said
PG. 2 VILLAGE SQUIRE/ FEBRUARY 1980
"in the beginning, the controversy over the site was a vocal
minority because of the open sp and in the end the art
gallery won."
The new gallery, which officially opens on May 3, is one of the
high points in London's artistic history. May.
At the time the gallery achieved independence in 1976
William Forsey was hired as the gallery's new director, after a
decade as the director of education and extension services in the
Art Gallery of Ontario. The assistant director and curator of the
gallery is Paddy O'Brien, an artist herself ,who first joined the
gallery in 1952.
Over the years, the 'London Art Gallery has originated a
number of shows which have travelled across the province to
other galleries. Some of these shows have been Young
Contemporaries, devoted to showing the work of younger artists
in Canada; Kanadian Kitsch From Koast to Koast; the R.P.D.
Hicks Memorial Exhibiton, Tony Urquhart's Reunion and a Clare