On Saturday, Jul. 20, 2024 Fort Henry’s Advanced Battery will be hosting ‘Bring Your Thing: AGNES Roadshow’. Following the success of the series in 2017, Queen’s University Agnes Etherington Arts Centre and the Kingston & Area Association of Museums, Art Galleries and Historic Sites (KAM) have organized this pop-up art consultation event for the Kingston community. The event will take place from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. as a part of Doors Open Kingston.

The public will have the opportunity to bring in a piece of fine/decorative art that they own and gain free valuations and expertise from specialists. The consultations are 15 minutes long by appraisal experts from Cowley Abbott Fine Art Auctioneers and Riches Appraisals & Consult. They have appraisers for Fine Art, such as drawings, paintings, and prints and appraisers for Decorative Art, such as glass, ceramics, and textiles.

Registration is required to ‘Bring Your Thing’. There is currently a waitlist both for Fine Art and Decorative Art but spots are still opening up.

This year’s ‘Bring Your Thing’ is curated by Suzanne van de Meerendonk, Bader Curator of European Art at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, who shares the inspiration behind the event: “Colleagues and I regularly receive messages from members of the public who would like help or expertise to find out more about the artworks in their homes.”

“We can help to a certain extent with that, although as curators we do not authenticate or appraise works as a matter of policy. So it seemed helpful to create a platform where different needs could be met by both curators and other art experts.”

The event will also have a pop-up museum where participants can curate their piece of art in a museum-style display for the day. This is part of the event is facilitated by KAM and also requires registration.

“It’s a great initiative, for museums to turn to our communities and see what we can learn from them and the “things” in their care,” says Van de Meerendonk.

“Every artwork has its own interesting story and life lived. Often, people have incredibly personal stories for the works they own—family histories, or memories revolving around personal relationships with artists. So not only do we learn about the individual artworks, we also learn about the community and local art histories.”

This part of the event will give people the opportunity to tell the story of their piece of art to a wider audience and add to Kingston’s rich art scene: “Just from the messages I have received so far and people and collectors I have met, there has been such an array of interesting artworks that I have learned about,” praises Van de Meerendonk.

“All the local museums, galleries and events happening throughout the city are evidence that the arts are very much alive in Kingston. This is true both for the interest in historical artworks and contemporary artists working and living in the city.”

Another aspect of the event will be Creation Station where individuals of all ages will have the opportunity to make their own frames and artworks, led by Art Educator Maddi Andrews. This event is free, requires no registration, and will be open all day.

“Our Creation Station makes sure that the event will be fun for the whole family, and lets us connect to our own creative side while appreciating the art created by others,” Van de Meerendonk explains.

She also describes how ‘Bring Your Thing‘ demonstrates the value of learning about the history of artworks that are housed within a community: “this event makes us think about the role of community in stewarding art history.”

“Because people’s personal collections are not shaped by the same criteria as museums were historically, they often represent such a diverse range of histories. Knowing more about the time or context in which a work was created can completely change the way it is looked at and appreciated,” Van de Meerendonk explains.

“If knowledge is shared there is also a better chance that it is preserved, which I think is something that museums should always be invested in, especially when it comes to artists that have been understudied or neglected. Perhaps in a small way this event can help with that. We will have to find out!”

The event will also serve as a means for the community to connect with the Agnes while the facility is closed, Van de Meerendonk expresses.

“While Agnes is closed to work on our new building project, it is nice for people to know that while our collections are not here right now, our team is still very much here and happy to connect,” she says.

While the building of the Agnes Etherington Art Centre is closed, the programming and exhibitions are ongoing. For more information, visit their website.

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