Artwork Being Brought Back to Canada

SASKATOON, SASKATCHEWAN--(Marketwired - March 27, 2015) - Department of Canadian Heritage
The Government of Canada is providing $15,000 to the Mendel Art Gallery for the purchase of 15 paintings from the Port Huron Museum in Port Huron, Michigan. This funding is being provided through the Movable Cultural Property Program.

Maurice Vellacott, Member of Parliament (Saskatoon-Wanuskewin), made this announcement today on behalf of the Honourable Shelly Glover, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages.

Quick Facts

- The paintings are the work of three first-generation Saskatchewan artists: Inglis Sheldon-Williams, Augustus Kenderdine and James Henderson.

- The purchased artwork includes four watercolours by Sheldon-Williams and three landscape canvases by Kenderdine, as well as seven portraits and a landscape by Henderson.

- The paintings were originally acquired from the artists between 1900 and 1936 by Norman MacKenzie, a Saskatchewan art collector.

- Movable Cultural Property grants provide funds to repatriate cultural property relating to the national heritage back to Canada. They also help retain cultural property threatened with export, as outlined in the Cultural Property Export and Import Act.

Quotes

"Our Government is proud to support the repatriation of cultural property to Canada so that it can be preserved and promoted to current and future generations."

-The Honourable Shelly Glover, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages

"These paintings are an important part of our local and national history and heritage, and I am pleased the Mendel Art Gallery has received funding to acquire them. They will be a great addition to their collection."

-Maurice Vellacott, Member of Parliament (Saskatoon-Wanuskewin)

"Together these artworks provide insight into art production during the early history of Saskatchewan and illustrate an important episode in art collecting in the province through their association with Norman Mackenzie, whose support of living artists was exemplary. The repatriation to the Mendel Art Gallery of the Port Huron Museum's McMorran-Murphy Collection ensures that this important cultural property is preserved, researched and shared, for the benefit of Saskatchewan and Canada."

-Gregory Burke, Executive Director and CEO, Mendel Art Gallery

Associated Links

Movable Cultural Property Program

Mendel Art Gallery

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