Welcome
The Thames Art Gallery is open Wednesday to Sunday from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm. Open to 7:00 pm on Thursdays. We look forward to your visit!
The Thames Art Gallery is a part of the Arts + Culture division of the Municipality of Chatham-Kent dedicated to promoting the understanding, appreciation, conservation and enjoyment of the visual arts in the community for both present and future generations. The gallery places an emphasis on public arts education programming and multidisciplinary exhibition programming.
Information & Services
Hours: Open Wednesday to Sunday 11:00 am - 4:00 pm. Open to 7:00 pm on Thursdays.
Address: Chatham Cultural Centre, 75 William Street North, Chatham, Ontario
Phone: 519-360-1998
Email:
ckartgallery@chatham-kent.ca
Website:
www.tagartspace.com
Admission: By donation
Fully wheelchair accessible
What's On
Stay connected and check out what's on at www.tagartspace.com
Art-tastic Summer Camps
Load up on some creative fun this summer with the Thames Art Gallery! We offer campers the complete summer experience combining games and recreation with loads of art-making activities to explore with new friends.
Check Out ART-tastic Summer Camps
Exhibition
2023 Ontario Juried Exhibition
August 25, 2023 - October 22, 2023
Opening Reception and Jurors' Choice Awards - August 25, 2023 | 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
This exhibition invites emerging and mid-career artists from Chatham-Kent and across the province to submit their best new work for this competition. The response was overwhelming. Guest juror Carla Garnet had her hands full, with over 80 artists participating and 213 works submitted for consideration. She narrowed the field to 21 artists and chose 35 pieces for inclusion in this exhibition. Garnet will attend the opening to congratulate all the artists involved and to present her Jurors' Choice awards. Always a memorable event; plan to attend and congratulate all our artists.
Congratulations to all the artists who submitted their work.
View 2023 Ontario Juried Exhibition Publication
Upcoming Exhibition
Overload
Lowell Bradshaw
November 3, 2023 - January 14, 2024
Opening Reception: November 3, 2023 | 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Lowell Bradshaw pushes digital and biotechnical information into new forms of visual possibilities by manipulating images from internet sites and books. As paintings, these kinds of spaces can open multiple discursive readings and contextual wrestling between formal cohesion and erasure; not an erasure of abstraction's history, but a diffraction of that history, a misquote or perhaps a miscalibration.
Spark Joy
Krista Schneider, The Alzheimer Society of Chatham-Kent
November 3, 2023 - January 14, 2024
Opening Reception: November 3, 2023 | 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Local art therapist Krista Schneider shares a passion for art and people living with dementia. This exhibition is a culmination of art programs that were delivered across Chatham-Kent to those in the community who live with Alzheimer's. This exhibition highlights their shared experiences, social engagement and the abilities of the participants and their carers.
Check Out Exhibitions and Art Programs
Virtual Exhibitions
HERE I AM Secondary School Virtual Exhibition 2023
May 3 - August 31, 2023
HERE I AM Virtual Student Exhibition is a collection of works celebrating the curiosity, passion, technique, and talent of emerging young creatives in grades 9-12 across Chatham-Kent. Explore the visual narratives young artists, designers, and makers use to capture their unique stories and impressions about their world through diverse mediums and creative processes.
The Thames Art Gallery staff would like to express our warmest gratitude to all the talented young artists who have submitted to both Here I Am and the Thames Art Gallery Graduating Art Scholarship. We have enjoyed viewing your art and are delighted to be sharing it with our community. A special thank you also goes the anonymous donor whose generous donation made the Graduating Art Scholarship opportunity possible for the students of Chatham-Kent.
We would also like to acknowledge the support, guidance, and enthusiasm that parents and teachers alike have shown throughout the process of bringing this exhibition to life. You continue to inspire our young artists, a fact we should never overlook.
Here I Am Virtual Student Exhibition
Graduating Art Scholarship Award 2023
The Thames Art Gallery is offering a one thousand dollar scholarship award to a Chatham-Kent secondary school student who intends to further their education in any of the visual arts including fine arts, commercial or graphic arts. The recipient must be planning to attend a post-secondary institution (college or university) full-time in the fall of the year following graduation. If you are applying to any of the following programs, you are eligible to apply for the Thames Art Gallery Scholarship Award: Visual arts, fine arts, film, photography, animation, digital media, graphic design and craft.
This scholarship is graciously donated by an anonymous sponsor who made this opportunity possible for the students of Chatham-Kent.
Congratulations Emma Fogarty! Your passion for animation, character design and digital art was clear to see. We wish you the best in your continued studies.
Thames Art Gallery staff wishes commiserations to all the other graduating students who have applied to the scholarship. We received several deserving applications, and it was challenging to select only one of the many qualified candidates.
Art Scholarship Award 2023
Programs
Part of the Thames Art Gallery's mandate is to foster a love and understanding of the arts. We have many great art programs, workshops, classes, lectures, films and events for young and old, beginner and advanced for those wanting to be serious and those looking for a little fun!
Check Out Gallery ProgramsWe are pleased to offer an online registration service for your convenience. In order to register for a program in Arts + Culture, you will need to create a new account. Once you have your account set up, please browse through the available programs offered in galleries. Need help registering? Please call 519-360-1998 or email ckartgallery@chatham-kent.ca.
Register for Art Programs
Visitor Guidelines
TAG would like to reassure patrons that all recommended safety measures are in line with COVID-19 public health guidelines.
- Hand sanitizer is available at all entrances and exits for public use.
- Frequent and enhanced cleaning routine (high touch zones).
- If you feel ill or have been in contact with someone with COVID-19, please stay home.
- If you have COVID-19 symptoms, contact
CK Public Health.
By entering, you acknowledge and agree on behalf of yourself and those for whom you are a parent or guardian, that as an indoor facility, the use of this building may include possible exposure to and illness from infectious diseases such as COVID-19, and you freely assume all such risks.
Community Arts Initiatives
The Thames Art Gallery presents, throughout the year, a series of Community Arts Initiatives that are open to Chatham-Kent artists. These are intended to engage community artists in themed or directed exhibition projects. Community Arts Initiatives are platforms that engage and teach – they also bring and connect people to the gallery. The Thames Art Gallery prepares workshops and programs to complement Arts Initiative Projects, by bringing in visiting artists to provide opportunities for the community audience/artists to investigate the art-making process. As well, these projects conceptually link and provide a window of accessibility to complex and challenging exhibitions in the Ground Floor Gallery.
Artist in Residence
The Thames Art Gallery is pleased to host a number of contemporary Canadian artists throughout the year. Residencies provide an opportunity for student tours and members of the community to engage with professional artists and with each other.
Permanent Collection
The Thames Art Gallery's Permanent Collection represents the works of visual artists, historical and contemporary, relevant to the development and growth of Chatham-Kent's art history and contemporary Canadian artists from Southwestern Ontario. Today the collection of approximately 500 paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures and installations covers a period from the mid-1800s to the present day.
Includes:
- Alexander M. Fleming (1875-1929) - over 50 works by Alexander M. Fleming. The Gallery has been very active in collecting Fleming's paintings and without this effort, his artwork would be lost to the citizens of this community.
- George Wolfe - made major contributions to the advancement of the arts in Chatham-Kent. His "Kent County" landscapes present a shared geographical place and establish an identity that is unique to this area of rural Southwestern Ontario.
- Hortense Gordon (1887-1961) - Showed great talent early, exhibiting with the Ontario Society of Artists while still in her teens. She was a trailblazer in the popularization of modern art in Canada.
- Hortense Gordon, Sketchbooks - Features eleven Hortense (Mattice) Gordon sketchbooks, ranging from the early 1900s to 1960.
You can visit the collection online at
www.vitacollections.ca/ThamesArtGallery.
