The Art Gallery of Burlington’s 50th Anniversary Permanent Collection Exhibition, A Curve, Not A Line, continues the AGB’s quest to trouble time. In our golden anniversary year, we are railing against the prescription of timestamping. Instead, we are choosing to bend time, curving it into the belly of a vessel, because, as we’ve learned, history is a circle, a spiral, a helix, a loop, a curve in time—anything but a straight line. 

This exhibition is the result of a dynamic collaboration between the gallery’s curatorial and education teams who worked with staff and community members to select a changing rotation of artworks, bringing together different perspectives to create a multi-sensorial experience. Designed to highlight key works from the AGB’s collection of Canadian contemporary ceramics, A Curve, Not A Line explores thematic and material connections that speak to slowness, playfulness, resourcefulness, and “timefulness,” with both historical and ancestral traditions and contemporary innovations. 

Calling upon a long history of exhibitions that recreate artists’ studios in gallery spaces, A Curve, Not A Line has a fully functioning clay studio at its heart, offering a unique, immersive experience to deepen viewers’ understanding of an artist’s creative process. It nods to the history of creation and production in our active, vibrant studios. By stepping into a working studio staged in the gallery, audiences can forge a closer connection with the act of making, seeing beyond a finished piece to the conditions under which it was made. To further animate artists’ working processes, every Sunday from 1 to 3:00 pm, artists from FUSION (The Ontario Clay and Glass Association) and the Burlington Potters’ Guild will host live demonstrations. Local clay artists will explain various methods, techniques, and technologies and, at the end of the session, will leave their raw clay creations on the “studio” shelves amongst work from AGB’s permanent collection. Transforming passive viewing into active audience engagement, and blurring the line between artwork and environment, this curatorial approach enriches historical and cultural appreciation through an intimate view of the artist’s working world, seeking to make art more accessible and approachable.  

All the works in the exhibition have been chosen by AGB staff and community members. Relying on associations and memories, each person approached the collection with different impressions, intuitions, intentions, and feelings. Over the course of the exhibition, the installation will grow and shift as contributors alter it by adding new works, bringing out conversations within the shifting arrangements to identify causal connections between ideas and aesthetics. 

By integrating curatorial research with educational insights and staff and community involvement, we hope this anniversary exhibition will foster deep engagement, inviting visitors to connect with the artworks in our collection through multiple lenses and positions—whether artistic, cultural, or social. This collaborative approach ensures a rich and accessible exploration of the ceramic practices of Canadian artists, inspiring dialogue and discovery for all audiences. 

Acknowledgements 

Curatorial and Learning Team: Suzanne Carte, Hannah deJonge, Heather Kuzyk, Michelle Lynn, Christine Saly-Chapman, Stephanie Vegh, and Annie Webber 

Exhibition Coordination: Hannah deJonge 

Designer: Paul Cavanaugh 

Preparatory Team: Rollin King, Dominic Pinney, Breanna Shanahan, Joseph Thomson, and Philip Woollam. 

This milestone anniversary would not have been possible without the artists, educators, volunteers, visitors, collaborators, and supporters who have engaged with our programs over the years. Thank you! 

The AGB is grateful to the volunteer Gallery Guides for their exemplary dedication to bringing the exhibition to life and to our members for their ongoing support of all the AGB’s programming.    

The 50th Anniversary collection overview continues in the permanent collection corridors from June 14, 2025, to January 4, 2026, with the Community Curated display showcasing the top fifty fan favourites as selected by the community after four months of online voting. 

We would like to thank the artists who have been on this time journey with us and acknowledge the work of the Gardiner Museum, Sahra Soudi and the team at Hamilton Artists’ Inc., and SHEEEP collective for inspiring the collective learning, looking, and design of A Curve, Not A Line. 

In keeping with the AGB’s sustainable exhibition-making model, A Curve, Not A Line utilizes excess material from past exhibitions and waste gathered from local galleries and museums. The multi-sensory stations are plastic-free and utilize low-impact materials recycled from AGB’s school, family, and learning programs. 

The Art Gallery of Burlington is supported by the City of Burlington, Ontario Arts Council, and Ontario Trillium Foundation. The AGB’s learning programming is sponsored by The Burlington Foundation and the incite Foundation for the Arts. The 50th Anniversary Exhibitions have been sponsored by the J.P. Bickell Foundation. A Curve, Not A Line is generously supported by Louise Cooke.