Fredericton's Beaverbrook Art Gallery puts entire permanent collection online for world to see

Art lovers and researchers around the world are now just a click away from exploring the Beaverbrook Art Gallery's permanent collection.

During the height of the pandemic, when some people dusted off their baking skills, John Leroux, Beaverbrook's manager of collections and exhibitions and his team were busy cataloging every piece of art in the gallery's extensive permanent collection.

Leroux estimates there are about 4,000 pieces online now, with another 1,000 to be posted in the coming months.

"Some people learned to make sourdough," Leroux told CBC's Information Morning. "[At] the Beaverbrook, we digitized the entire collection and created an online portal so you could enjoy it. It's our own version of sourdough."

Leroux said the need to document the collection in a digital format predated the pandemic, as the gallery was one of the few in Canada without at least part of its permanent collection online, but the gallery being temporarily closed gave them the luxury of time and space.

He said it took a team of three to four people working constantly for about a year and a half to bring the collection online.

Because of light reflection from frames, and possible hidden signatures, every piece had to be removed from its frame, photographed using a special camera, and then put back with care.

"Some of these, you're talking about works that are hundreds of years old — delicate," said Leroux. "And we had two guys just constantly unframing and framing works while we were shooting them. And so ... it was a huge amount of work that actually took the most time."

Leroux said the gallery used about $100,000 worth of photo equipment for the project, including lights and a Phase One 150 megapixels camera recommended to them by the photo department at the National Gallery of Canada.

Some of the works in the permanent collection have never been exhibited in the gallery before, and may never be, according to Leroux. 

While documenting each piece, the team found a few hidden gems — items that were a line of data on a page but tucked away out of sight.

"Oh lots of things by really well-known artists," said Leroux, of their unexpected finds.

"There's one pencil drawing of a woman in the 1860s. It's one of the finest drawings we have. I had no idea we had it."

Despite displaying their permanent collection for all the world to see, Leroux said he still expects people to want to visit the gallery in person. And scholars can quickly see what works they have in the collection by any certain artist, or done in a certain time period.

"It's an adjunct, it's a really valuable tool," he said.

"In fact, if anything, I think it's going to encourage more people to come.... But I really think it's one of the most important things we can do in the digital world — to share it and to share it with love and care and the idea that we're all in this together."