Jacquelyn N. Coutré remembers what it felt like when she learned that she had successfully acquired an important Old Master painting for the Agnes Etherington Art Centre. 

“I felt tremendous exhilaration,” she recalls. “There may have been a little dance in my office as well.”

For Dr. Coutré, the acquisition of the painting by Jan Victors, entitled  Ruth and Naomi, is a significant one for a number of reasons. Not only is it the first painting by the artist to enter into the gallery’s permanent collection, it also rounds out the scope of its Old Master works – specifically those by Rembrandt and his followers.

While Dr. Coutré, the Bader Curator and Researcher of European Art at the Agnes, says it is unclear whether Victors studied formally with Rembrandt around 1640, the painting, which was created in 1653, certainly takes elements of his style in its gestures and facial expressions.

Ruth and Naomi depicts a scene from the Old Testament’s Book of Ruth (1:15-17) in which the widowed Israelite Naomi urges her widowed Moabite daughter-in-law, Ruth, to return to her people to find a new husband. Ruth, however, vows to stand by Naomi as widows related by marriage, even though it means that Ruth could forgo remarrying and having a family.

“Victors has captured just this moment, when Ruth pledges her allegiance to Naomi, and the latter struggles to accept her decision. It really pares down a complicated narrative to the most essential emotional moment of the story,” Dr. Coutré explains.

While Rembrandt was working on a small scale, Ruth and Naomi is an impressive 109 x 137 cm – a large painting by the standards of the day.

“When you think about Dutch paintings, they tend to be small because they had to fit in tall, narrow Dutch homes,” she says. “This painting would have made a statement in a variety of ways, not the least of which is because of its size.”

The painting, which was purchased with the support of the Bader Acquisition Fund, has special significance because it was a work that Dr. Alfred Bader himself had once wished to purchase at auction in 1988.

“At the time, he went for another painting that is now in the Agnes collection,” says Dr. Coutré, “but he had always regretted not buying it. It stayed in his mind. So he was excited when he saw that it was coming up at auction. It was really the fulfillment of one of his collecting desires.”

While Dr. Coutré and Dr. Bader discussed the possibility of acquiring Ruth and Naomi for the Agnes collection together, it was she who put in the successful bid on behalf of the gallery. “I really wanted it,” she says happily of her first acquisition since stepping into her role at the Agnes in April of this year. “It’s simply a gorgeous painting.”

Dr. Coutré anticipates that Ruth and Naomi will be exhibited for the first time in the summer of 2017 as part of an exhibition celebrating Dr. Bader’s many years as an art collector and marking his 50-year relationship with the Agnes.

For more about Ruth and Naomi, visit the Agnes Etherington Art Centre’s website.

Staff and supporters of the Agnes Etherington Art Centre (‘the Agnes’) are celebrating news that the gallery has been awarded a significant grant and that it is the recipient of an anonymous gift, both of which will directly support its operations and programming.

As well as a $75,000 Operating Grant from the City of Kingston Arts Fund (CKAF), the gallery has been given an anonymous gift through the Community Foundation for Kingston and Area (CFKA).

“It’s a real vote of confidence,” says director Jan Allen. “The CKAF grant is a substantial one within the city’s terms. It not only allows us to accomplish great things – it’s an important piece of the funding puzzle, because we can leverage the city’s support for support from other granting bodies, foundations and other levels of government.” 

As Ms. Allen explains, while Queen’s provides the gallery’s facilities and a portion of its funds, the Agnes is also heavily reliant on outside sources of money, including government grants.

“We are a bit unusual in that we are not just a university gallery,” she explains. “We are also the public art museum for the region, which was, in fact, Agnes Etherington’s intention when she bequeathed her home to the university. She wanted it to be used as both an art centre for Queen’s and for the Kingston community.”

Ms. Allen says that as a result the Agnes, which employs 10 full-time and three part-time staff, as well as a number of students who work in casual positions, serves both the university and Kingston communities equally.

“Attendance is really split between Queen’s and non-Queen’s people,” she explains. “And in fact, that’s an important aspect of our work, because we are a meeting place between the university and all its exciting assets, and a lively community. The Agnes is a real point of integration.” 

The Agnes’ staff are currently preparing for a busy fall season which will include exhibitions of contemporary works by Vancouver-based artist in residence Judy Radul and local artist Ulrich Panzer, Canadian historical works from the Hart House Collection at the University of Toronto, paintings by past winners of The Kingston Prize, and an exhibit of the early work of Ojibwe artist Carl Beam. As well as community programming including artist talks and other public programs, the gallery will introduce its new ArtZone initiative, a free drop-in after-school program for youth.

“Any funding we get is vital because it allows us to do what we do for the community,” says Ms. Allen. “It allows us to make good things happen.”

For more information about the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, visit their website.

Megan Hamilton first started writing music when she was in her late 20s, while in Toronto after studying theatre at Ryerson. She was living alone for the first time in her life, and while lonely at times, she found the solitude freeing.

“I started writing music, short stories, plays. There was no social media at the time, and I didn’t have a computer – very few distractions,” says Ms. Hamilton, now a well-regarded Canadian musician who also works full-time as an administrative assistant in the Faculty of Law. “I felt I didn’t need anyone’s permission and it became a really creative time for me.”

Even though she never imagined herself singing, Ms. Hamilton recorded a few songs with a friend. It was then that she decided she “could do this,” and instead of pursuing theatre, she moved into the musical sphere. 

“I liked that with music, I didn’t have to wait for other people, which I felt like I was doing in theatre,” she says. “I could just go out and do my own thing.”

A few years later, in 2006, she released her first album, Feudal Ladies Club, and since then, she’s toured across Canada, promoted several more albums, and developed a following for her folk/pop-edge/shoegaze style. In August, Ms. Hamilton will be on stage at the Wolfe Island Music Festival, and on Sept. 25, she releases her fifth album, Forty Warm Streams to Lead Your Wings. This latest album is being produced by singer/songwriter and producer Jim Bryson, who has toured and/or recorded with The Tragically Hip, Sarah Harmer and Kathleen Edwards, among others.

“It’s a really busy, exciting time,” she says. “It’s satisfying, getting my music out there, since it’s a much bigger challenge these days.” 

Ms. Hamilton also combines life as a musician and Queen’s staff member with life as a parent, as mother to a four-year-old daughter. It’s a delicate balance, she says, to find time for everything, and the space to write. 

Like her early days writing alone in Toronto, Ms. Hamilton needs complete quiet and separation to set down the stories that become her songs. And, perhaps aptly, her lyrics are often rooted in themes of loneliness, sadness, and love/relationship issues.

“I usually start with a visual image,” she says. “Then a scene unfolds, and generally the lyrics flow pretty quickly from that. I also love playing with rhyme and rhythm. I play games – like working with syllables, trying to figure out how to structure a line. I think these things all stem from my childhood, things I used to do. On long car rides, I would count telephone poles – there’s this rhythm there – and then chop the poles down in my mind.”

Through promoting her own music, Ms. Hamilton has become an expert organizer, and those abilities extend into her work in Queen’s Law, where among other administrative duties, she helps with event planning and payroll. She also provides public-speaking coaching for law students who are preparing for moot competitions. 

“I really love that, working with the students,” she says. “I’m really grateful for my position in the Faculty of Law. Everyone is really supportive of my musical career, and when I do have accomplishments to share, they are always there to celebrate with me.”

The Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts at Queen’s University continues to win awards as the architects who designed the facility were recently recognized for their outstanding work.

Ottawa-based N45 Architecture Inc., in association with Snøhetta Architecture Design Planning, an international design firm with offices in Oslo, Norway and New York City, were presented with the inaugural Lieutenant Governor’s Award at the Ontario Association of Architects (OAA) Celebration of Excellence in May.

“We are very honoured to receive the OAA Lieutenant Governor’s Award,” Robert Matthews, partner at N45 Architecture Inc., says in a media release. “The Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts was designed not only as a beautiful place for the public to enjoy music, but as a versatile space for the students of Queen’s University’s music, drama, film studies and fine arts departments to learn and experiment. We were inspired by Kingston’s geography and wanted to make sure the building related to its environment. The main performance hall is wrapped in wood reminiscent of the rock you see throughout the city.” 

Also receiving recognition is Queen’s University’s marketing department for the video it created for the September 2014 grand opening of the Isabel.

The video team received a bronze Circle of Excellence Award in the General Information Long Videos category from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), an international competition that attracted 3,200 entries from 700 institutions worldwide, as well as a second bronze in the Best Use of Multimedia category of the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education's Prix D'Excellence.

“A lot of heart and soul went into the creation of the Isabel grand opening video produced for the opening event at Queen’s held in September 2014,” says Helena Debnam, Executive Director, Marketing, University Relations. “It is a great honour to win a CASE award such as this, particularly given its international recognition and scope in higher education. This award is a testament to those in the Marketing, University Relations and North Summit Productions, who were involved in the creation, coordination and planning of this video – and also significantly the late Jerry Doiron.”

Mr. Doiron, the inaugural director of the Isabel, passed away on Oct. 9, 2014.  

The video features before and after images as well as drone footage and footage captured from a ferry travelling along the lake. A wide array of stakeholders were interviewed including professors, students, project managers and architects, including lead architect Craig Dykers, who was not available until the day before the opening.

The video can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywTSrcKcsZk

The design of the Isabel incorporated the best features of the world’s greatest facilities and combines them with advances in modern technology to create a world-class building. The 80,000-square-foot facility features an acoustically superior 560-seat concert hall and a 100-seat studio theatre, as well as an art and media lab, a film screening room, laboratories, classrooms and rehearsal space.

The Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts was made possible by a transformational gift from Alfred Bader (Sc’45, Arts’46, MSc’47, LLD’86) and his wife Isabel (LLD’07) as well as the financial backing of the federal and provincial governments, the City of Kingston and additional philanthropic support. The Isabel is a hub for artistic study, creation, exhibition and performance at Queen’s. It is home to the Department of Film and Media and also provides learning and working space for the university’s other creative arts disciplines.