News

Visual Arts Centre’s 75th Anniversary 

Clay Roots is a unique and exciting fundraising event to be held in-person and online, celebrating the Visual Art Centre’s 75th anniversary. Founded in 1946, the Visual Arts Centre began as the Potters’ Club, a women-run, ceramic-focused art collective. 75 years later, the Visual Arts Centre is now the largest bilingual independent art school in Canada, with a renowned contemporary art gallery (the McClure Gallery) and a dynamic outreach education program for youth and adults in difficult social or economic situations. Clay Roots will celebrate this history through an exhibition of artists who are part of our creative community. There will be a wide variety of artworks celebrating the Centre’s history, many of which will be inspired by the Clay Roots theme. All of the works will be available for auction online. Additionally, the Centre will launch the Clay Roots book, written by Victoria LeBlanc, which provides a rich visual and written exploration of this Centre’s history.

The online and in-person exhibition will run from September 2 until September 15, 2021. On the evening of September 9th, following the launch and signing of the Clay Roots book, the online auction will open. The online and in-person events will bring together artists, friends, and eager buyers to admire and purchase art and celebrate and support this 75-year old artistic hub. As a not-for-profit charitable organization, the Visual Arts Centre relies on fundraising to be able to continue to offer high quality art education programming. We are proud of our rich 75-year history and, with the support of our community, we are looking forward to continuing to nurture creative practices for the next 75 years!