The permanent collection–100 plus years in the making and numbering over 10,000 works of art in a variety of media–remains the cornerstone of the Art Gallery of Hamilton. Yet, at any given time, visitors to the Gallery are only able to view three to five percent of the collection physically on display in the exhibition spaces, signaling the great need for increased access through innovative means.
An integral step towards realizing this goal comes in the form of the AGH’s digitization project, which began mid-2022 and is generously funded by the Government of Canada’s Museum Assistance Program. This project aims to increase the digital assets of permanent collection works by almost 50 percent. Pigment to Pixel: Digitizing the Permanent Collection, is a combination documentation lab and exhibition space that highlights the central methods of the digitization project by bringing “back of house” activity to the front. Visitors will catch a glimpse into some key practices related to collections management including how artworks are photographed, scanned and documented, as well as learn the many steps involved in making the physical digital.
The exhibition will feature a rotating schedule of permanent collection works, installed on a temporary basis, with special consideration given to works that have not left the vault in a number of years, works by artists currently under-represented in the collection, as well as fan favourites and some surprises!
Please check back in on the sidebar of this page during the exhibition to learn what will be featured, the schedule of activities and how you can engage with this exciting project!
Exhibition Feature and Header Images: Exhibition view, Pigment to Pixel. Art Gallery of Hamilton, 2023.
Theme 5 Hamilton: Past, Present and Imagined
For our final thematic presentation, we highlight Hamilton! Hamiltonians typically enjoy poring over scenes of their city to catch a glimpse of the familiar (or unfamiliar) filtered through the artist’s lens.
Surprisingly, the AGH permanent collection holds under 100 works with Hamilton as subject and many of them have yet to be digitized. This is something that we continue to work on as a key priority.
The drawings, paintings and photographs presented here describe our city through many styles ̶ documentary, pictorial, interpretative and even fantastical. Some locales and their views remain just as they were when captured by the artist, while others will take a while for the viewer to recognize. Some of the scenes as depicted no longer exist so we rely on documents such as these to keep our history alive. However, some views never existed at all –save for in the mind’s eye of the artist– but we might recognize them nonetheless.
LIVE Digitization – FINAL WEEK!
Thursday, May 18, 4 – 6 pm
Friday, May 19, 1:30 – 4 pm
Saturday, May 20, 1 – 4 pm
Sunday, May 21, 2 – 4 pm
