The Art Gallery of Mississauga (AGM) is a public, not-for-profit, art gallery that was founded in 1987, opening its doors in the new Mississauga Civic Centre that same year. The AGM presents a changing calendar of contemporary, thought-provoking, engaging and accessible exhibitions featuring regional, national and international artists. We thrive alongside long-time partners and welcome new collaborators to always be presenting and encouraging those artists that are established, new and upcoming.
Mississauga has a population of over 800,000, with varied cultural demographics and is projected to grow to 996,000 by 2031. In a city that speaks in Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, Mandarin, Polish and Vietnamese among other languages, the AGM has realized that to connect communities meaningfully to contemporary artistic practices, it must constantly reconsider the types of programming and content offered as well as access to where the programming is offered. The Gallery’s initiatives address themes that remain critical to the multitude of identities that make up Mississauga’s social landscape. These themes include the City’s increased newcomer populations, how the art created in Mississauga contributes to the larger canon of Canadian art, the uncomfortable history of Canada’s relationship to its colonial past, the peoples whose land Mississauga is situated upon, and the rise of community interest of investing in social sustainability and access to culture. The AGM supports artists and cultural producers that reflect the diversity of the communities within which the AGM operates, and those who are involved in relevant creative and curatorial research, that promotes critical discourse in the field of contemporary art. Our programming contributes to the wider creative fabric of community and country by supporting artists and projects that may not have traditionally been supported at regional, local and international levels.