An acquisitions fund used to purchase sculpture by women and non-binary artists.
Robert Flaherty, Portrait, Frances Loring and Florence Wyle, c. 1919; cyanotype. AGO, Toronto, gift of the estates of Frances Loring and Florence Wyle, 1983. Used with permission by the E.P. Taylor Library and Archives, AGO
Artists Frances Loring (1887-1968) and Florence Wyle (1881-1968) had a vision of supporting sculpture and sculptors through purchases by museums. The Sculpture Fund was the intended strategy and the main clause in their last wills & testaments.
Under heartbreaking circumstances Loring and Wyle died three weeks apart from one another on separate floors of a care facility in 1968. Despite attempts, The Fund remains unfulfilled and the contributions of these artists unfairly eluded in our national art history.
The Art Gallery of Ontario is actively bringing together a community of philanthropists and funders to fulfill Loring and Wyle’s wills and build support for sculpture. We are at 47% of the goal and actively fundraising. The creation of The Sculpture Fund in its contemporary context will provide vital acquisition funding at a time when there is none and be an act of restitution—not only for Loring and Wyle, but for the countless women artists whose lives and legacies have met an unjust fate.
Loring & Wyle understood better than most the enduring impact museum and galley acquisitions make to artists’ careers in their lifetime and beyond.
Unfortunately, while most museums in Canada have at least one or two Loring and Wyle works in their collection, they experienced very few institutional sales and lived in poverty. Excluding the National Gallery of Canada who receives Parliamentary appropriations for annual acquisitions, most galleries and museums do not have acquisitions budgets and continue to build their collections from donations.
Artwork by women makes up only 18% of the total works in public collections
The percentage of sculpture in Canadian museums and gallery collections is 4%
The Canada Council stopped acquisition-specific funding in 2018
Only 7% of the value of public gallery collections in Canada have been purchased by the museums that hold them
Frances Loring , Dawn, 1948, gelvized plaster on wood. AGO, Toronto, gift of the estates of Frances Loring and Florence Wyle, 1983. Recently part of BLURRED BOUNDARIES: QUEER VISIONS IN CANADIAN ART, April – September 2022, a rare assemblage of works from the AGO collection that illustrate the exciting ways queerness can be conceptualized in Canadian art.
BUILD GENDER EQUITY IN THE MUSEUM COLLECTION
SUPPORT LIVING ARTISTS
STRENGTHEN THE COLLECTION FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS
Florence Wyle, Head of Justice, date unknown. AGO, Toronto, gift of the estates of Frances Loring and Florence Wyle, 1983.
There are nearly 200 Loring and Wyle works in AGO storage, some still in boxes and not necessarily fit for the collection. Further to The Fund, the AGO has committed to investing time and resources to research, assess and advance scholarship on the Loring & Wyle collection.
The AGO Sculpture Fund Fellowship will embark on a collection review of AGO Canadian modern sculpture holdings, assessing its history, the strengths, weaknesses and omissions. The Review will help guide and provide context for new purchases and research for the Department of Indigenous + Canadian Art.
READ THE 221A SCULPTURE FUND FELLOWSHIP REPORT
54 years after the deaths of Loring & Wyle, the renewed story of The Sculpture Fund offers an urgent case for supporting new forms of acquisition funding.