The MacKenzie Art Gallery should have a lot going for it. It's the oldest public art gallery in Saskatchewan and it has over 5,000 works of art spanning over 5,000 years. Unfortunately, it's only via their website that I learned about this because a visit here illuminated none of that. The MacKenzie is housed in a section of an administrative building that is about as engaging as, well, administrative buildings tend to be. The galleries on the second level are windowless and very poorly lit making for a gloomy atmosphere. A small selection of old master paintings from the permanent collection were on display as part of an exhibition. No big names here; only a few of them quite good, including a dramatic 17th century seascape of ships tossing about in a storm and a riveting 16th century portrait of a woman and her lap dog. A large scale tapestry exhibition had some interesting pieces but the bad lighting, unfortunately, made most of these works seem lifeless. That, to me, is a disservice to the artists who created them. Sometimes, I'm at a a museum at the wrong time and that's how I summed up my visit. I was hoping to see some of the Inuit art from their collection but none of it was on display. I'm sure more of the permanent collection is on display at other times of the year as exhibitions change. However, it's important for museums to have a selection of their greatest hits on display at all times so visitors can have some context about a collection's strengths. Here, I had no sense of that and, strangely, clicking through their website revealed much more information about the experience of visiting than about the art itself. Finally, as I exited the gallery into the cavernous lobby of the administrative building, I saw a few concrete sculptures of people. There were no labels anywhere to provide information about them. After hunting on the internet, I think they may be part of a larger group created by artist, Miki Mappin, but I'm not sure. It would be respectful if the artist was credited. This was the finish to an odd visit and I left the MacKenzie confused instead of enlightened. (The folks in the decked out gift shop were very nice, though, so kudos to them.) read more

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The permanent collection is a diverse range of Artists connected in some ways to Saskatchewan. This is my second visit in two years and I'm delighted at finding pieces that I'll think about for some time. I had time to kill so sat through an hour of short films showing in their cinema and it was an hour well spent. It is a small gallery so an hour to view everything would be a reasonable amount of time. read more

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A visit to this art gallery was an exercise in frustration. The gallery is neat and clean with many exhibits all in nice displays that are easily accessible. I may never know what we were looking at. Beside each display, they have convenient cards with information about the item you are looking at. These cards however are at the worst place. In order to read the card, you must bend over, and then try to tip your head back so you can read through your bifocal lens. After reading one article my neck was to soar to carry on. I'm so glad that I paid money for this. Next time I'll stay home. read more