From his earliest creative work with Vancouver homes to his two great masterpieces in Ontario, Massey College and Trent University, the work of one of Canada’s most acclaimed architects Ron Thom will be featured in a national travelling exhibit opening in Vancouver on July 5, 2013.
Ron Thom and the Allied Arts is an exhibition of selected art, architecture and design by the legendary west-coast architect. Most-known as architect of Massey College, Trent University, and an array of award-winning custom homes and theatres, Ron Thom is also celebrated for his engagement in a wider array of artistic disciplines, including music, painting, ceramics, furniture, and landscape design.
The national exhibition focuses on a selection of Ron Thom's architectural masterpieces, including examples of the architect's furniture and lighting design for these projects; and the visual, musical and ceramic arts that informed them. Featured projects include five iconic west-coast homes, Massey College, and Trent University. The exhibition contents are drawn from the private holdings of family members and former colleagues, and archive materials from the Canadian Architectural Archives, Trent University and Massey College libraries, including six of the original presentation boards of the historic 1960 competition to design Massey College.
With the help of a grant from the Canadian Council for the Arts, which was awarded to Trent University earlier this year,the exhibit marks the first time that many of the drawings, documents and other historic materials have been on public display.
"This is one story about Ron Thom,” said guest curator Adele Weder. "It is not the whole story of his career, but an exploration of his underpinnings as a west-coast artist, and how this informed the west-coast residential, Massey and Trent projects."
An opening reception for Ron Thom and the Allied Arts will be held at the West Vancouver Museum (680 17th Street, West Vancouver) July 4, 2013 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. The exhibit will be displayed at the West Vancouver Museum from July 5 to September 21, 2013. The exhibit then moves to the Gardiner Museum in Toronto from February 3 to May 4, 2014 before moving to Trent University in Peterborough.
Trent University will host the national exhibit from August 7 to October 22, 2014. At Trent, the exhibition will be housed in Ron Thom’s architecture at Champlain College Alumni House, designed inside and out with the distinctive aggregate-rubble that Thom devised with engineer Morden Yolles, and which still contains his original built-in furniture and other features.
”The opening of the Ron Thom and the Allied Arts exhibit at Alumni House in August 2014 will kick off a year of 50th anniversary events that will recognize Trent’s distinct history and inspire our communities for an exciting future,” said Lee Hays, director of Alumni Affairs at Trent. “It is an honour to collaborate with West Vancouver Museum and Massey College in the celebration of Thom’s art and contemporary architecture which has remained iconic for five decades.”
Posted on Thursday, July 4, 2013.