Downtown public art gallery marking 10th anniversary in Sarnia

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Sarnia’s Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery is turning 10.

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To celebrate the decade since Lambton County completed construction of the public art gallery inside a historic façade at the corner of Christina and Lochiel streets, a series of six exhibitions, entitled Re View, is scheduled to run over the next year and a half.

The series begins Nov. 4 with the opening of an exhibition about photographer and artist JS Thom and the well-known downtown structure he built in 1893.

The more than $10-million art gallery opened in the fall of 2012 after being built behind the red-brick façade of the Thom building and across the second floor of a neighboring building.

The new public art gallery – home to a permanent collection of Canadian art – replaced a leased location in the former downtown mall and, before that, space on the second floor of the downtown Sarnia library.

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“We’re taking an opportunity to look to the past,” curator Sonya Blazek said about the first of the six exhibitions. “I wanted to look at the artist who built the Thom building.”

The exhibition uses photographs and artifacts loaned by John Rochon, the Lambton Heritage Museum and Lambton County Archives to show the evolution of the Thom building, and features its original owner by recreating “the feel of his studio” and displaying some of Thom’s photos and one of his pencil drawings, she said.

“We’re bringing them all into this space to kind of acknowledge JS Thom – the fact that he built this beautiful historic space we are now in.”

A David Moore painting, In Celebration of the New Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery, is also part of the initial exhibition running until January. It will be followed by a series with works from the gallery’s permanent collection.

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Each of the exhibitions will be accompanied by an audio tour created with the help of gallery volunteers.

Blazek said the gallery also worked with TMRRW Inc. to create an augmented reality experience where, beginning Nov. 4, members of the public can scan a QR code “and use your mobile device to see what the original Thom Building would have looked like. ”

Since the gallery opened in 2012, “I think we’ve become an essential part of the downtown core,” Blazek said.

“I see that through attendance and support from the community” for the gallery exhibitions, lectures and classes, she said.

“We’re going to continue to root ourselves in the community and be an important part of the downtown.”

Visitors have been returning to the gallery since pandemic restrictions were lifted and allowed the return of in-person events following a temporary switch to virtual programs, Blazek said.

“We’re refocused our attention back to bringing people into the building because we heard people saying, ‘We’re ready for classes – we want to be back in the studio,’” she said.

“I have to say, some of our classes have been selling out. Our readings are starting to fill back up.”

Information about the gallery’s exhibitions and programs can be found online at jnaag.ca.

pmorden@postmedia.com