Monday 25 November
-2°C and Few Clouds
Another milestone: Agnes is closed to the public as we prepare for Agnes Reimagined. Stay tuned for plans for off-site programming!
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A living museum for the
21st century
Agnes Etherington’s home (with carriage house in the background) prior to becoming an art gallery, 1930s–1940s
Exterior Composition for Agnes Reimagined, showing the new curvilinear addition (left) in conversation with the heritage Etherington House (right). Rendering by Studio Sang courtesy of KPMB Architects.
Bruce Kuwabara, Sketch for Agnes Reimagined, Agnes Terrace Looking East, 27 March 2022. Courtesy of KPMB Architects
Modelling a new Vibe on Queen’s Campus. Photo: Paul Litherland
“Agnes’s Living Room.” Ground floor concept for Agnes Reimagined. Rendering by Studio Sang courtesy of KPMB Architects
Our vision takes shape around a simple gesture: the return of Etherington House back into a home. We invoke the spirit of Agnes Etherington’s 1954 bequest of her house to Queen’s to “further the cause of art and community”— now for the 21st century. Bringing this historic house back to life, we make hospitality the guiding institutional ethos of Agnes Reimagined. We’ve inhabited this vision from the start of our journey: an unprecedented community-centred architectural design process drives transformation and change, from the ground up.
Schematic Design is a phase of collaboration with architects, and in our case, community, to experiment with design solutions that give form to the vision. It addresses the needs of the program and works creatively with space allocation and adjacency to bring the vision to life.
Design Development digs deeper into the more practical design elements and brings other areas to bear on building construction, including mechanical, electrical and structural engineering. This phase also hones the design based on the users’ specific needs for each space.
Beginning in May 2024 through to September 2026, Agnes will be operating at an offsite location as demolition, construction and renovations take place at 36 University Avenue.
Agnes Reimagined thinks deeply about how museums of the past inhabit the future. We advance social justice as we enact the work of decolonization to paradigmatically shift the values of contemporary museology as a core institutional priority. As public-university museum, we actively contribute to the changing cultural milieu of our locality, Kingston, and play a key role in furthering Queen’s Strategic Framework and its commitment to the United Nation’s SDGs. Here are some of the values that keep Agnes on a self-reflexive journey:
Our new curvilinear pavilion sits in dialogue with Agnes’s historic Georgian house to support museum principles that value balance and interconnection. In Agnes Reimagined Indigenous and Western world views, cultural traditions, and protocols sit side-by-side as equal, curatorial and education programming is positioned and resourced non-hierarchically, and creative and administrative work is viewed holistically. Designed to entangle the social and civic role of this museum through space adjacencies that turn proximity into pedagogical opportunity, Agnes Reimagined is a platform to support diverse communities of practice across generations past, present, and future.
What if relationship-building was a central mission of a museum? We want to be a “yes” institution! Not beholden to outmoded museum rules and standards that hold us back from truly welcoming communities, we balance our “Category A” status with our desire to be nimble and responsive. Rethinking our security perimeters and access points and creating specialized spaces that no longer compromise visitor experience or disregard diverse lived experiences—from HVAC systems that accommodate ceremony to gender neutral, single-use washrooms that surpass accessibility standards, etc.—we build freedom with our new architectures!
What does an art centre centre? Or what is it prepared to de-centre! Agnes Reimagined creates opportunities for participation and exchange across communities, cultures, histories, and geographies. Our new building is a framework that operationalizes this aspiration, establishing a polyvocal museum ecosystem that thrives on diversity—be that of the collections, we house, the communities with whom we collaborate, the kinds of spaces we program, or ourselves as a team. Even diverse micro-climates must replace singular museum temperatures! Agnes is transforming the history of museology by adding new traditions to its trajectory.
From strategic design, construction and procurement decisions to proactive policy change, Agnes is reimagining the habits of museums. Our high performing building (TEDI: 50 @ kWh/m2, window/wall ratio @ 22%, etc.) is fueled with electrical and geothermal energy systems, reduces water consumption and saves more energy. New architecture prioritizes durable, low-carbon materials, and is set in a bio-diverse, rewilded, pollinator landscape. A commitment to climate justice is embedded in practices across all areas of museum activity—from exhibition-making and collections care to facilities management. Agnes adopts the BIZOT Green Protocol.
From beautiful new galleries and studios, state-of-the-art event rooms for performances, films, and talks, innovative spaces that support alternative forms of art study, teaching, and research to experimental spaces that defy neat categorization, art lives at Agnes. Design flexibility anticipates evolving practices and encourages art’s full integration throughout our entire facility—even in the most unexpected places. By collaborating with artists on functional design elements—such as our welcome desk and café, modular furniture for galleries and program spaces, and more—Agnes ensures artists are part of our very infrastructure: art is everywhere!
To transform museum culture, we must first change museum architecture! Agnes Reimagined is designed as an ecosystem of spaces and practices whose lively interconnections are set in motion through thoughtfully curated space adjacencies and newly conceived security perimeters that together restructure the foundations of our work. By entangling our various museum functions non-hierarchically (from hosting residencies and ceremonies to making exhibitions and stewarding the care of collections), Agnes reimagines what an art centre centres!
