Copyright 2000 by Edward Willett

My wife and I share an interest in art--we make a point of visiting galleries wherever we go. And now, thanks to the Web, we can visit galleries even in places where we don't go, as more and more of them make their presence felt online.

Regina's art galleries are no exception. Visiting them online is no substitute for visiting them in person, but at the same time, a stop by their virtual versions can make a real-life visit all that more rewarding.

Not all of Regina's galleries have Web sites yet, but some do. Here's a quick look at the ones I was able to turn up, in alphabetical order:

The Assiniboia Gallery. I wrote about the Assiniboia Gallery in this space a few weeks ago. They've created a very complete site that they're working hard to keep up to date, with general information about the gallery and specific information about current and recent shows, complete with many images of the artwork on display.

At the moment, for example, you can browse through images of "The Red Barn," the current show of new oils and watercolours by Louise Cook, complete with prices and an indication of which paintings have sold and which are still available. There are also images of other works available at the gallery, biographical information on many of the artists the gallery represents, and more.

The Dunlop Art Gallery. The Dunlop Art Gallery, located in the main branch of the Regina Public Library, has an impressive home page, supposedly with links to areas called structure (a site map to help you find your way around), publications (a database and price list for the books and papers published by the gallery), details, ("every fact you could possibly want to know about the Dunlp"), site seeing (links to other art sites), virtual Dunlop (on-line art), What's On (current, past and future exhibits) and communication (where you can leave a comment). It should be a great site. Notice, however, that I said it "supposedly" has links to these areas: unfortunately, when I visited it, none of the links were active. I hope that was a temporary problem.

Joe Moran Gallery. This is a very basic page, part of the large Wascana Centre Authority site, but it does provide the basic information, including hours of operation, location and current show (without, alas, any images).

MacKenzie Art Gallery. The MacKenzie Art Gallery is the flagship gallery of the city, and appropriately enough, has the most impressive Web site. It's gorgeous, well-laid-out, and very complete. You can view information about current events, the current shows (Douglas Bentham: The Studio Series, Changing Times: The University of Regina Faculty Exhibition and Don Hall: St. Peter's Abbey), past and future shows, and the gallery itself.

The best feature is the section called "the Collection," where you can search through images of the permanent collection by artist or object (i.e., collage, painting, photograph, sculpture). As the site says, "It's the next best thing to being there!"

Neutral Ground. Another well-known Regina gallery is the artist-run Neutral Ground. On initial viewing its Web site is not inviting, being forbiddingly black and extremely text heavy (not that I have anything against text, you understand, but a few more images would be nice), but make your way to the area called Web projects, you'll find a plethora of fascinating material, from descriptions of past exhibits to a virtual walkthrough (QuickTime format) of the gallery space to complete on-line works of art, such as The Hole Project by Har-Prakash Khalsa. In other words, persevere, and you'll find this one of the most fascinating Regina gallery sites of all.

SaskPower Gallery on the Roof. The Gallery on the Roof (of the SaskPower building) has featured Saskatchewan artists for more than 30 years. The gallery's site, part of the SaskPower site, includes basic information about the gallery, plus a biography of the artist whose work is currently on display, and a single image from the show. Information about artists whose work has been displayed in the recent past is also available.

There are many other fine galleries in Regina who don't seem to have a presence on the Web (yet), including some of my personal favorites: the McIntyre Street Gallery, for example, or the Susan Whitney Gallery. There may also be some that do have a Web site, that I've missed.

If you know of a gallery or a local artist who's online, e-mail me; in a later column, I'll try to point them out.

In the meantime, pay the above galleries a visit on-line--and then, having whet your appetite, pay them a visit in person.

Art, after all, both on-line and off, is food for the soul.

Posted March 26, 2002