Tag Archives: Michael Williams

Creating Con[text]

: Jack Shadbolt, Biomorphic

March 13 – June 15, 2013

Legacy Art Gallery Downtown

Curated by Dr. Carolyn Butler Palmer, Williams Legacy Chair in Modern and Contemporary Arts of the Pacific Northwest

Creating Con[text] activates works of art in the University of Victoria’s Michael Williams Bequest Collection through the oral history research of Dr. Carolyn Butler Palmer and her graduate students. Over the course of a number of years Dr. Butler Palmer and her students have gathered an extensive array of interviews with people associated with the late downtown businessman and art supporter Michael Collard Williams and the artists he collected. Featuring paintings by Angela Grossman, Jack Shadbolt and Emily Carr, eminent British Columbia painters whose careers span more than a century into present day, the exhibition allows the stories of artists, dealers, collectors, and viewers to infuse the works of art with more deeply understood meaning.

Similar Exhibition:

A Walk Through The City: Experiencing Victoria as a Flâneur

Connect the Blocks

January 24 – February 22, 2011

Legacy Art Gallery Downtown

Curated by Dr. Carolyn Butler-Palmer, William’s Legacy Chair and assistant History-in-Art Professor

Click here to view the official University of Victoria Fine Arts page on the project.

Connect the Blocks is an experimental exhibit, bringing together individual’s creativity with other members of the Victoria community. Visitors are encouraged to fill in a block with a self-portrait, words to live by, or whatever inspires them! The blocks will be connected to others on a moveable mosaic to create a community based exhibit. The finished product, along with twenty-four pieces of art chosen from the Michael Williams Legacy Collection, will then go to hang permanently in The Cool Aid Community Health Centre in downtown Victoria.

Regarding Wealth

The Apple Tree Gang, Michael Lewis, 1992, acrylic on canvas

February 24 – June 10, 2010

Legacy Art Gallery Downtown

Curated by Dr. Carolyn Butler-Palmer

This was an exhibition concerning the intersections between art and homelessness. This exhibition was part of an ongoing series of projects and class seminars featuring artwork from the University of Victoria’s Michael Williams Collection led by Dr. Carolyn Butler-Palmer who occupies the Williams Legacy Chair.

Visit the HA 495/595 Regarding Wealth website

Contributors: Dr. Carolyn Butler-Palmer, Williams Legacy Chair in Modern and Contemporary Arts of the Pacific Northwest

History in Art Students who enriched this project: Eric Anderson, Magdalyn Asimaskis, Julia R.M. Baker Veronica Best, Jennifer Cador, Won Chang, Sara Chekley, Gareth Clayton, Miranda Clement, Jaime Lynn Clifton, Emma Conner, Odessa Corletto, Heather Crowley, Melba Dalsin, Heather Dixon, Kim Drabyk, Susan Hawkins, Laura Hayward, Julia Hulbert, Elaina Keppler, Emma Knight, Stephanie Korn, Toby Lawrence, Sarah Lee, Katie Lemmon, Elyse Longair, Marnie Mandell, Mathew McKay, Kaitlyn Patience, Kathleen Prince, Andrea Porritt, Cassidy Richardson, Jysicca Richardson, Connie Quaedvlieg, Mike Quan, Aleta Salmon, Nancy Schnarr, Katy Scoones, Julia Simpson, Thomas Sluchinski, Leah Taylor, Filiz Tutuncu, Holly Unsworth, Christine Woychesko and India Young.

Research Assistants: Mebla Dalsin, Kaitlyn Patience, and Tusa Shea

Special Thanks to: Sarah J. Blackstone, Dean of Fine Arts, Catherine Harding, Department Chair, History in Art, Kate Hutchins, Legacy Art Gallery & Café, Martin Segger, Maltwood Gallery Director, Caroline Riedel, Maltwood Curator of Collections, Christine Woychesko, Manager, Legacy Gallery & Café, and Caitlin Cuthbert , Jenina Ceglarz, CEO Swans Hotel, Cindy Vance Maltwood Exhibition Team: Emma Conner, Caitlin Cuthbert, Kate Dahlgren, Mark Hovey, Karen Merrifield, Cam Northover, Nick Poppell, Heather Stone, Leah Taylor

A Walk Through The City: Experiencing Victoria as a Flâneur

Noah Becker, Untitled, (1991), oil on canvas

March 4 – March 29, 2009

Legacy Art Gallery Downtown

Curated by Dr. Carolyn Butler Palmer, Williams Legacy Chair in Modern and Contemporary Arts of the Pacific Northwest.

The expression flâneur was coined by critic Charles Baudelaire in nineteenth-century Paris, a time of rapid growth both economically and industrially. The original definition, before developing into a more contemporary and inclusive version, was of an observer of Paris who lives immersed in the city while remaining a detached observer. Because of the developments in the city, flâneurs felt it necessary to properly experience these new visual stimuli. In doing so, the concept of the flâneur assisted in ushering in the age of modernism.

Michael Williams, the donor of many pieces in this collection, was a driving force in the revitalization of downtown Victoria. A business man, developer and heritage conservator, Williams is an excellent example of flâneur, someone who enjoyed experiencing the beauty of the city in which he lived.

The artworks are divided into four themes: Moving Through City Space, Anonymity, People Watching, and Ephemeral Features.

Borderlands: Liminal Treatmants of the Heart and Mind

: Brad Pasutti, Tiempo Perdido

February 6 – April 27, 2008

Legacy Art Gallery Downtown

Curated by Fran Willis

Borderlands: Liminal Treatments of the Heart and Mind features three artists – Ken Flett, Charles Malinsky, and Brad Pasutti – selected from the Michael Williams bequest to the University of Victoria. Although different in subject matter, the works of these artists all address a concern for the human condition. The narrative works are linked by their shifting treatment of space, time, and memory. Borderlands speaks of the liminal thresholds between fantasy and recall, present and past, heart and mind – the ambiguous spaces where these works reside.

Michael’s World

July 2007 – Feb 4, 2008

Legacy Art Gallery Downtown

Curated by Professor Martin Segger

View the online catalogue:

Michael’s World – Catalogue

Michael’s World was the inaugural exhibition at the Legacy Art Gallery and Cafe. It showcases a number of works by studio artists, many of whom received support from Michael C. Williams in the early days of Old Town Victoria’s artistic revival. From the 1970s to the 1990s, more than 100 artists and craftspeople were situated in downtown studio space and constituted the core of this revival.

The gallery program will be based around Williams’ collection of over 1,000 paintings, drawings and sculptures by some of the most renowned artists of the Pacific Northwest. Williams passed away in November 2000, leaving his estate to UVIc. His generosity made the Legacy Art Gallery possible.

The Williams Legacy

: Myfanwy Spender Pavelic, Blue Sky [Pierre Trudeau]

August 25 – October 10, 2003

Maltwood Art Museum and Gallery

View the online catalogue:

The Williams Legacy – Catalogue

The exhibition introduced in this catalogue provides a fascinating first glimpse of the extensive art collection bequeathed to the University of Victoria by the late Michael Collard Williams, and gives us an insight into the tastes and interests of that discerning collector.

Michael Williams Legacy in Vancouver:
Selected works from the vast Michael Williams collection of West Coast art on display at the Pendulum Gallery (HSBC Building) in Vancouver from March 8-19, 2004. Hosted by the UVic Alumni Association Vancouver Branch, in conjunction with the UVic Co-operative Education Program and the Maltwood Art Museum and Gallery.

Visit the archived website for the Vancouver showing of The Williams Legacy here

Ceremonial Furniture:
Six magnificent pieces of art representing the collaborative work of Northwest Coast artists. The ceremonial furnishings were a gift from Michael C. Williams. This website was created in conjunction with the University of Victoria’s centennial celebrations and the Michael Williams Legacy Exhibit, August 25 – October 10, 2003.