Owens Art Gallery at Mount Allison University

Established in 1895, the Owens Art Gallery is Canada’s oldest university art gallery and the custodian of an important collection of over 4,000 works that span the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. In addition to presenting a dynamic program of contemporary and historical exhibitions, innovative education and community outreach initiatives, and an active online and social media presence, we are responsible for Colville House, a small house museum located in the historic home of one of Canada’s best-known visual artists: Alex Colville.

Our mandate is to promote knowledge, appreciation, and enjoyment of the visual arts through programming that is international in scope, but that emphasizes Canada and the Atlantic Provinces. Designed by Edmund Burke, one of Canada’s most important architects, our Beaux-Arts style building was renovated to meet museum standards in 1972. Although it is only partially accessible, our goal is to have a barrier-free facility within the next ten years. 

The Owens Art Gallery is located at Mount Allison University on the unceded, ancestral territory of the Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqiyik Nations. This territory is covered by the “Treaties of Peace and Friendship,” which were first signed with the British Crown in 1725.

Above: Owens Art Gallery, York Street Entrance; John McEwen, Salt/Marsh, 1995, bronze/mild steel on concrete, purchased with funds provided by the Friends of the Owens Art Gallery