Fonds F1306 - Kingston Art Association fonds

At its meeting in April 1932, the Executive of Kingston Art and Music Club proposed that the conveners of the three groups meet with the George Taylor Richardson Bequest Committee to discuss the possibility of continuing independently from the parent body.

This proposal met with a favourable response at the annual meeting of the Art Group, and so, on 11 October 1932, a meeting was held to reorganize the group. A constitution was adopted unanimously, and the Kingston Art Association (KAA) came into existence. Under a new Executive consisting of President, Professor Reginald G. Trotter; Vice-President, Mr. Ernest Cockburn Kyte; and Secretary-Treasurer, Miss Annie Gibson, the nineteen members of the KAA set down its purpose as being “to encourage the practice, study and appreciation of art among its members and in the City of Kingston.”

With these objectives in mind, the Association busied itself with arranging lectures and exhibitions and obtaining professional instruction for its members who were painters. Under the energetic leadership of its president, Professor Trotter, the KAA was able to persuade the Carnegie Foundation in 1933, to grant money to Queen’s for the promotion of interest and activity in art, both among residents of the community and students of the University. The funds made available by this grant allowed for art classes to be conducted for elementary, secondary, high school, and university students, as well as for adults. They were led by Miss Barbara Lowe (Assistant in Art at Queen’s) and by Mr. Goodridge Roberts, a Montreal artist, who became Artist-in-Residence at Queen’s for the next three years.

However, the Carnegie Foundation withdrew its funding in 1936, and it was at this point that Agnes Etherington, once more, came to the rescue. She offered to provide enough funds for the appointment of a new artist-in-residence at Queen’s, on the condition that the University recognized the work of students studying under this person as counting towards of a degree in Fine Arts. The University agreed, and André Bieler was appointed to the position in the autumn of 1936.

The Kingston Art Association’s programme of providing instruction and practice to members, residents, and students continued through the War years and into the 1980s, and exhibitions, including the ever-popular and increasingly sophisticated annual spring exhibit of works by KAA members, such as André Bieler and Grant MacDonald became an annual event. .

By the mid-1950s, the demand for a more ambitious and varied programme led the Association to undertake a slightly expanded calendar of public lectures, exhibitions, and discussions. This expansion however, led the Treasurers to report a deficit in 1955, and forced the KAA to approach the Mayor and Council of Kingston for financial support in early 1956. The request was turned down and the organization was obliged to raise its membership fees (its only source of revenue) for the first time in living memory.

The year 1957 brought the KAA a step closer to realizing the one objective, first posited in 1932, which had yet to be achieved – namely to obtain for Kingston a permanent collection of paintings to be housed in a community art gallery. The result of the generous giving of her house to the University by Agnes Etherington now offered the chance for the housing of a permanent art collection in a fixed location. The relationship of the Association to the University became even closer than in the past. In the spring of 1957, the Agnes Etherington Art Centre (AEAC) opened its doors to the community. For many years the Association, while a civic group, had enjoyed close ties with the University – the latter had offered the use of meeting rooms in Douglas Library, as well as exhibition space; and KAA members had been instrumental in assisting the University Art Committee, and especially the Queen’s University Art Foundation during World War Two, to acquire several major collections which would form the nucleus of a permanent art collection in the City of Kingston. In short, the Association had always been very closely related to the University, and had promoted the collections held and displayed on campus to the larger public.

With the opening of the AEAC in Etherington House on University Avenue, and its subsequent additions, it became increasingly apparent over the succeeding years that energies and talents should be pooled into one cohesive and dynamic organization. Thus, in early 1965, it was recommended by a Special Committee of the Executive, charged with looking into the future role of the KAA that “the Kingston Art Association as such, disband and that its members be free to joint the newly proposed Gallery Association as they see fit.” This notion, when presented to members as a whole on 5 May 1965, carried unanimously. The Kingston Art Association, after a large and fruitful effort to keep an interest in painting and paintings alive and thriving in Kingston, dissolved on the 19 July 1965.

Following the end of World War One, and throughout the 1920s, a number of concerts and art exhibitions were held in Kingston, under the joint auspices of the Richardson Bequest and the Queen’s University Art and Lecture Committee. However, in 1927, Agnes McCausland Etherington, the administrator of a trust, established by her late brother, Captain George Taylor Richardson, for the stimulation of art and music among the citizens of Kingston and the students of Queen’s University, decided it was time to organize a formally constituted society for that purpose. Consequently, on 1927 the Kingston Art and Music Club was founded. Its first President was Agnes Etherington, its Secretary was Miss R.H.M. Tullis, and its first Treasurer was Mr. A.N. Lyster.

This new organization proved to be very popular with both the inhabitants of Kingston and the students of Queen’s University alike, and within a year its membership numbered approximately seven hundred. It soon became apparent to the Executive, in particular, that an even more structured organization was necessary to handle the somewhat diversified demand for instruction, concerts, lectures, exhibitions, etc., and so three “working groups” were established in the autumn of 1928, to reflect the interests of the membership .

Of these three – music, drama, art – the last was by far the most organized; so much so, that at a meeting held on 5 October 1929, the Art Group was formally constituted, following a suggestion put forward by Mrs. Etherington. For the next three years this organization, under the leadership of Convenor, Mr. E.C. Kyte, Secretary Treasurer, Mrs. Dorothy Mahood, and Business Manager and Publicity Agent, Dr. W.D. Hay, arranged public lectures in art, sponsored and hosted exhibitions which were free to the general public, and organized regular painting sessions in the club room of the old Bank of Commerce building on King Street.

These instructional classes were held under the guidance of two instructors, a Miss Kitty Grant, and a Miss Kirby, whose services had been obtained with funds secured from the George Taylor Richardson Bequest.

While the Art Group was thriving, its parent organization was not. Kingston, like the rest of the country was suffering from the throes of the Great Depression, and many groups, the Kingston Art and Music Club (KAMC) not the least among them, were increasingly strapped for funds. At its meeting in April 1932, the Executive of KAMC proposed that the conveners of the three groups meet with the George Taylor Richardson Bequest Committee to discuss the possibility of continuing independently from the parent body.

This proposal met with a favourable response at the annual meeting of the Art Group, and so, on 11 October 1932, a meeting was held to reorganize the group. A constitution was adopted unanimously, and the Kingston Art Association (KAA) came into existence.