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Agnes Reimagined

A living museum for the
21st century

With community engagement at the heart of our design process, Agnes Reimagined envisions an entirely different architectural approach to museum building and practice in Canada. 

 

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Exterior Composition for Agnes Reimagined, showing the new curvilinear addition from Bader Lane. Courtesy of KPMB Architects.
Agnes Etherington’s home (with carriage house in the background) prior to becoming an art gallery, 1930s–1940s

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.

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

Bruce Kuwabara, Sketch for Agnes Reimagined, Agnes Terrace Looking East, 27 March 2022. Courtesy of KPMB Architects

Maquette of Agnes Reimagined. Photo: Paul Litherland

Modelling a new Vibe on Queen’s Campus. Photo: Paul Litherland

Bright, modern interior with floor-to-ceiling curved windows. People seated in a circle in black chairs socialise.

“Agnes’s Living Room.” Ground floor concept for Agnes Reimagined. Rendering by Studio Sang courtesy of KPMB Architects

Returning a House to a Home

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.

Wooden model of Agnes Reimagined. In the background there is a sign that reads hey Kingston. This is Agnes Reimagined. Welcome to your new home. xo Agnes
Modelling a new Vibe on Queen’s Campus. Photo: Paul Litherland
Aerial rendering of the landscape surrounding Agnes Reimagined.
Rrewilding of the landscape connects Agnes Reimagined with the Outdoor Indigenous Gathering Space on campus. Image rendering courtesy of PFS Studio.
Aerial view of walking paths in downtown Kingston and the Queen's University campus. Agnes Etherington Art Centre is marked with a radiating red heart inside a house in the middle.
All paths lead to Agnes. Image courtesy of PFS Studio.

“The process is proving as important as the outcome: by bringing together community members around the kitchen table, the open-ended conversations around the future of the gallery echo the way women have gathered for generations, in many cultures, including in traditional Indigenous communities, and in Agnes Etherington’s own day and age.”

– Tiffany Shaw in Canadian Architect

International RFP Process; 2022, Schematic Design and Design Options; 2023, Schematic Design and Design Development/Contract Documents; 2025, Construction; 2026, Commissioning

Schematic design (2022)

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.

  • Sharing Circle One: EDI and Mother Earth Womb
    (2 April 2022)
  • Sharing Circle Two: Housing, Caring and Hospitality
    (30 April 2022)
  • Sharing Circle Three: Landscape and Materials
    (11 June 2022)
  • Sharing Circle Four: Talk Back
    (11 June 2022)

Design Development (2023)

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.

  • Sharing Circle Five: Reconvening
    (15 July 2023)
  • Sharing Circle Six: Indigenous Self-Determination Spaces
    (23 September 2023)
  • Sharing Circle Seven: Art Everywhere House
    (2 December 2023)

Construction (2025)

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.

  • Sharing Circle Eight: Planning the Opening
    (TBD)

“Like art, great architecture is a transformation of tradition and can change the way we see, experience, and relate to each other and the world. True transformation invites new ways of thinking, creative processes, new forms and expression. Agnes Reimagined offers a rare opportunity for a paradigm shift in museums in Canada, and the world.”

– Bruce Kuwabara, Principal and Founder, KPMB Architects

Agnes Values

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:

Live Side-by-Side!

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.

Say Yes!

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!

Hold Multiplicity!

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.

Be Sustainable!

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.

Art Everywhere!

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!

“Agnes Reimagined, for me, is an unprecedented opportunity to rethink museum practices by literally building alternative architectures that restructure them, ensuring that our new building won’t be container for old systems but a proposition for new ideas.”

– Emelie Chhangur, Director and Curator, Agnes Etherington Art Centre

Picture This!

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!

In 2021, we began modelling our program aspirations for Agnes Reimagined. It’s helped us understand the architectures required to support our new artistic vision, while evaluating the experimentation undertaken to support our integrated arts “ecosystem. From “vibrating edges” to “reinhabiting” Etherington House, we continue prototyping our future practices, particularly during our closure.  

Agnes Prototypes

From remodelling collection care practices to the creation of new staff positions, our behind-the-scenes activities are as important to the transformation of our work culture as the new architectures are to reimagining our future cultural work. Here we provide a window into these “hidden,” but ongoing commitments.

Behind-the-Scenes

Agnes’s journey surprises even us. Our special project attracts incredible people. Propelled by Bader Philanthropies, Inc.’s generosity, Agnes Reimagined continues to derive inspiration in “celebrating compassion.” Our request for design architects-as-collaborators landed the award-winning practice of KPMB, who give shape to our vision in ways that amaze us. Here we celebrate our ongoing milestones.

Key Milestones

“In consideration of the current conversation around monuments—questioning who they are privileging, and why—Agnes is positing a new direction that breaks down the barriers of institutional rigour and the framing around renovations for institutions.”

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Exterior Composition for Agnes Reimagined, showing the new curvilinear addition at night. Courtesy of KPMB Architects.
Footnotes
Image Credits

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