Overview
Under the custodial care of the Anna Leonowens Gallery, NSCAD University also has a Permanent Collection of fine art, craftwork, and cultural artifacts including a large inventory of prints from the historic NSCAD Lithography Workshop. The Anna Leonowens Gallery also houses and is the guardian to four significant archives: a large, extensive and ongoing Exhibition archive from 1968 to the present day; the Mezzanine archives; the Lithography Workshop archives and the NSCAD NOW bulletins from 1969.
NSCAD Lithography Workshop
The NSCAD Lithography Workshop was a contemporary printmaking venture for visiting artists from 1969 through to 1980. This specialized collection, a sub-set of the Permanent Collection, consists of 121 editions by visiting artists to the College from 1969-1980. All of the hand-pulled editions were executed in average runs of 50 print impressions each and placed for sale on the market as per terms established with the artists. The Lithography Workshop, a significant program most active during the 1970s, invited famous contemporary visual artists such as Dan Graham, John Baldessari, Michael Snow, Joyce Weiland, Guido Molinari, Vito Acconci, Sol LeWitt, Emmett Williams, David Askevold, Claus Oldenburg, Carol Conde, and Eric Fischl among others. The entire archive of prints is available to view and purchase at litho.nscad.ca.
Since 2007, with support of the Young Canada Works program and the NSCAD Library, the Anna has been digitizing the Lithography Workshop archive which will be available on the NSCAD Library Repository.
Mezzanine Gallery Archive
A very significant part of the archive holdings are the exhibition files of the Mezzanine, which operated out of the Anna Leonowens Gallery from 1970 – 1973 by director Charlotte Townsend-Gault. This remarkable program produced ground-breaking contemporary art projects and exhibitions by famous contemporary visual artists such as Eleanor Antin, John Baldessari, Daniel Buren, James Lee Byars, Dan Graham, On Kawara, N.E. Thing Company, Ger van Elk, Lawrence Weiner, Martha Wilson, and many more. The materials in these files demonstrate a very active period in the exhibition history at NSCAD. With the support of the NSCAD Library and Young Canada Works program we have successfully digitized the Mezzanine Gallery Archive and is available in the NSCAD online repository here.
ALG Exhibition Archive
The Anna Leonowens Gallery Exhibition Fonds contains mainly support materials for exhibitions and events held at the Anna Leonowens Gallery. These are items such as: press releases, exhibition applications, invitations, photographs, documentation, press material, exhibition catalogues, insurance lists, CVs, bios, press clippings and correspondence. The Anna maintains a database of the over 4650 exhibitions in our 54-year history.
Research & Loan Requests
The Anna's physical archives can be accessed by appointment. Individual requests for physical access will be considered case by case, upon review of a completed Research Access form. Specific holdings or use copies are generally available for review or retrieval by appointment.
The digital holdings can be found on NSCAD's Institutional Repository here.
Work to digitize the NSCAD Permanent Collection is ongoing. To request a loan for exhibition please contact the Gallery Director.
To view the Gallery's Policy of Access & Use of Gallery Archives click here.
