Art Gallery of Windsor

The Art Gallery of Windsor is a not-for-profit art institute in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.Established in 1943, the gallery has a mandate as a public art space to show significant works of art by local, regional, and national artists. The Art Gallery of Windsor has created, collected, presented, and conserved one of Ontario's most significant collections of Canadian art, and is one of Windsor's most notable cultural reserves.HistoryThe Art Gallery of Windsor was originally located in Walkerville's Willistead Manor. The distinctive Tudor-Jacobean style building, built by architect Albert Kahn, housed the gallery from 1943 to 1975. It was during this period that the Art Gallery of Windsor was incorporated (1944) and developed the foundation of its collection of Canadian art.Under the direction of Kenneth Saltmarche the gallery acquired its first collection. In 1947, the Art Gallery of Windsor, or as it was known at the time, The Willistead Gallery, also became one of the founding members of The Southern Ontario Gallery Group, later known as the Ontario Association of Art Galleries.By 1958, attendance at Willistead Gallery overwhelmed the small space. Along with conflict between the Art Association, which controlled the gallery, and the library board from which it grew, the Windsor art movement was in danger of collapse. After approaching Windsor City Council to negotiate the situation, the Willistead Art Gallery became an independent institution with its own board of directors.