Helen Christou Gallery
The Art of Giving
March 27 – June 13, 2026

Curator: Andrea Kremenik with Isobel Wyman, Museum Studies Intern

Featuring acquisitions from across the ULethbridge Art Collection, this exhibition brings selected works into focus and honours the donor support that continues to strengthen and it.

The Art of Giving explores how art collections are shaped and the connections that exist within them. In this exhibition you will get a glimpse into how collections are built through relationships, trust and stewardship. The University of Lethbridge art collection has grown not through a single vision, but through gifts big and small that have required many acts of selection and care. 

Through this selection of works, you’ll discover how the objects, artists, and donors are meaningfully connected.

John McEwen, the artist behind our campus sculpture Western Channel located on the North patio, and Joyce and Quenten Doolittle’s daughter Lisa Doolittle, formerly a professor in the University of Lethbridge’s Theatre and Dramatic arts Department, generously shared their insights on the works connected to them in this display. Some labels in this exhibition offer insight into the artist, the donor, or both, and in some cases include reflections from those personally connected to the works, highlighting the relationships that bring them together.

For example, John McEwen donated the contemporary work by Inuit artist Katherine Takpannie in recognition of his friend Diana Lanier. McEwen’s own work can also be found in the bronze-cast hands titled Arte Povera, a piece donated by his friends and art supporters Ike and Diana Lanier in memory of their son David.

Lisa Doolittle reflects on a childhood immersed in a vibrant community of artists and how the works donated to the art collection were shaped by her parents’ philosophy of supporting the arts through care and connection. This ethos is evident in works by artists such as John Snow and Marion Nicoll, both active in Calgary, particularly Snow, who shared a close friendship with the Doolittle family. Lisa’s reflections, offered alongside the donation of works from her parent’s estate, speak to a legacy of artistic community, mutual support, and a lifelong commitment to the arts.

In this way, building an art collection becomes an act of collaboration where connections are preserved through objects and memory.  As the stories behind each work’s journey into the collection come to light, the artworks reveal meanings that extend far beyond what is immediately visible.

-Andrea Kremenik