Arquivo F1438 - Queen's University. Agnes Etherington Art Centre fonds

The seeds of the present Art Centre were sown in 1926, with the formation of the Kingston Art and Music Club, of which Agnes Etherington (1880-1954) was a driving force. She continued to work for the arts in Kingston throughout her life and in her final years, drew up plans to bequeath her house, an elegant Neo-Georgian mansion, to Queen's University for use as a university and community art gallery. The Agnes Etherington Art Centre opened to the public in 1957, with respected artist André Biéler as founding director.

To meet the needs of the gallery's expanding functions, extensions to the building were added in 1962, 1975, 1978 and 2000. The Agnes supports a program of a dozen exhibitions annually, and a spectrum of artists' talks and performances, public lectures, symposia, workshops, and school and family programs.