Saturday 24 May
11°C and Broken 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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Bruce Kuwabara, a founding partner at KPMB Architects, presents several recent projects that explore the themes of art and community and the insights he gained working on Agnes Reimagined.
Architecture is the discipline and vehicle through which he has understood societal, cultural, environmental, and economic issues. This has led to integrated design thinking, which has produced a body of work that engages with existing structures and contexts while pointing to the future. His cumulative knowledge of architecture as a profession and practice has evolved responding to the climate crisis, and issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. How can architecture be a catalyst for reimagining the world?
Emelie Chhangur, Introduction of Bruce Kuwabara, 20 March 2025
It is no secret by now that I think the museum is a world-making practice.
And so, it should go as no surprise that we have sought collaboration with architects to reimagine one—Kingston’s beloved Agnes—given architecture’s foundational role in creating the built structures of our world, and by implication, giving shape to its culture. I understand … one doesn’t do building projects without architects—that’s a given—but there are choices that one can make that will influence how the approach to design can give shape to something more than just a building, especially a cultural one. At Agnes, we didn’t issue a design competition as one tends to do when making a high-profile building such as a public museum. We did a call for design architects-as-collaborators to give shape to our process of rebuilding museum culture differently—from the ground up. Now four years in, I suspect our experiences with Agnes Reimagined is exceptional. We have collaborated with an architect to reimagine museum architecture in ways that will restructure our work and the culture this museum, and we have done so through an unprecedented two-year community-engaged schematic design process modelled on Annishinabe talking circles! It almost sounds outrageous.
This is because it basically is outrageous: to most museum professionals; to communities who have never been part of design processes, and even to most architects! But Bruce Kuwabara is not most architects.
Those who know Bruce Bunji Kuwabara realize he is not one of those architects media love to put on top of pedestals or high columns as idealized creative geniuses beholden to no one but their intellects and visions, but is a wonderful, open, curious and generous person. And it is exactly for these reasons that Bruce is a wonderful, open, curious and generous architect. I know this. AGNES Reimagined is the evidence of this … or … will be the evidence!
All this does not mean that Bruce is not one of Canada’s most distinguished architects. Of course he is! Since co-founding KPMB in 1987, he has achieved many recognitions. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada and
recipient of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Gold Medal. He is Chair of the board of the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal. For his contributions to the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design—my alma matter—he was presented with the Arbor Award for “outstanding personal service to the University of Toronto.” And, the number of his awards! He was lead design partner on 14 of KPMB’s 18 Governor General’s Award-winning projects. And his degrees! Just last year, in 2024, Bruce was awarded honorary doctorates from both the University of Waterloo and the University of Toronto.
And then, of course, there are the buildings. But it is not just the look of his buildings, their aesthetics or formal attributes—even for those important cultural centres Bruce has designed, from Toronto’s National Ballet School, TIFF Bell Lightbox and Gardiner Museum to Saskatoon’s Remai Modern and upcoming for Calgary Contemporary—it is the commitments they make to the future, from sustainability to social justice, and the cultural impact they will continue to provoke. At Agnes, we feel a deep affinity with Bruce because he thinks and makes like an artist. His process is a complex choreography between, and I quote Bruce, an “intuition about what things should be like” and “the reality of not having it all figured out.” World making indeed.
Bruce, we are honoured to host you as Agnes’s 2025 Frances K Smith Lecturer in Canadian Art. For those who don’t know, Frances K Smith was the first curator at Agnes—initiating a long line of incredible women curators who have guided this institution since its founding by another pretty formidable female force, Agnes Etherington. I think Frances, and Agnes, would be very proud to welcome you to the stage. So, on behalf of all the strong women leaders of the Agnes Etherington Art Centre past and present, welcome Bruce and thank you very much for all you have done for our future.
