History

The MacKenzie envisions a world where art inspires and heals across generations.

The MacKenzie Art Gallery is a centre for art and culture that holds a collection in trust for the community. We present art and experiences that help us understand each other, the world, and who we want to be.

The MacKenzie is Saskatchewan’s oldest public art gallery and has one of the longest and most meaningful histories of championing Indigenous art of any public gallery in Canada.

We embrace our unique position within the Canadian and international art landscape, celebrating the diverse perspectives of all artists within the Plains region and Canada. We have a focus on Indigenous and contemporary art, contextualized through select historic and international work.

The MacKenzie receives its name from Norman MacKenzie, a Regina-based lawyer who had a passion for art. MacKenzie had a vision for an encyclopedic museum in the standard colonial model of that era, acquiring historical works from Europe and cultural artifacts from across the world. When he passed away in 1936, he bequeathed his collection to the Regina campus of the University of Saskatchewan (now the University of Regina), which led to the opening of the Norman MacKenzie Art Gallery in 1953. These early collecting practices and motives continue to influence our work as we confront the harmful ideologies underpinning modern museum practices while also building on their strengths by working towards renewed models for ethical, inspiring, and reciprocal cultural institutions.

In its early years, the MacKenzie had an intimate connection to the Fine Arts program at the University, including the famous Emma Lake Artists’ Workshops. The Gallery quickly became a hub for the avant-garde and a driving force in sharing the stories of Saskatchewan through its collections, exhibitions, and programs. The Gallery’s first director was Ronald Bloore, who later became a founding member of the Regina Five and an influential figure in Saskatchewan’s artistic landscape. The MacKenzie became independent from the University in 1990 when it moved to its current site in the TC Douglas Building, fully renovated to Class A Museum standards. It continues to have a close relationship with the University of Regina through the care of its collection, cross-appointments, work studies, and other ongoing partnerships.

In 1973, the MacKenzie hired its first educator, the late Métis artist Bob Boyer, who opened the gallery up to new ways of understanding art rooted in this territory. He began curating for the gallery in 1975 with 100 Years of Saskatchewan Indian Art 1830-1930 (often cited as the first exhibition in a public art gallery to present customary/traditional Indigenous art as fine art). In 1982, Robert Houle curated the groundbreaking exhibition New Work by a New Generation for the occasion of the World Assembly of First Nations. The world’s largest gathering of Indigenous peoples to that date, this event saw 20,000 – 35,000 Indigenous peoples from 33 countries convene in Regina. Since then, the MacKenzie has presented approximately 100 exhibitions dedicated to Indigenous art, placing a great importance on Indigenous curation and leadership for Indigenous art.

This activity has continued over the years, with the appointment of Lee-Ann Martin (Mohawk, Tyendinaga Territory) as the first Indigenous Head Curator at a public art museum and the continued appointment of Indigenous curatorial staff, including Patricia Deadman (Mohawk, Tuscarora Territory), Michelle LaVallee (Ojibway, Chippewas of Nawash unceded First Nation), Janine Windolph (Atikamek Cree/Woodland Cree, James Bay Treaty), Curator Felicia Gay (Muskego Inninew, Cumberland House), and John G. Hampton (Citizen of the Chickasaw Nation) originally as Director of Programs, then as the first Indigenous CEO of a public art museum in Canada.

In the late 2010s, after the MacKenzie devoted fifty years to expanding representation and inclusion of Indigenous artists and people, the gallery confronted the fact that racialized artists had been greatly underrepresented in its exhibition and collecting history. The gallery undertook a serious examination of the structural factors that contributed to this oversight and began a trajectory that instilled a renewed sense of meaning and purpose in the gallery. An important marker of this change came in 2020, when the gallery undertook its first repatriation as part of Winnipeg-based artist Divya Mehra’s There is nothing you can possess which I cannot take away (Not Vishnu: New ways of Darsána).

Today, the MacKenzie envisions a world where art inspires and heals across generations. The gallery aims to act as responsible stewards while celebrating our collective identity, grounded in Indigenous values and enriched through all the people who call this place home.

We receive ongoing funding from the MacKenzie Operating Endowment at the South Saskatchewan Community Foundation, Canada Council for the Arts, Sask Lotteries Trust Fund for Sport, Culture and Recreation, City of Regina, University of Regina, and SK Arts. We receive project-based funding from diverse public and private sources, and direct support from corporate sponsorships and donations, as well as individual donors. Our earned revenue is derived from memberships, ticket sales, our gift shop, facilities rentals, and fundraising events.