'Special, magical moment': Art Gallery of Ontario, Town of Newmarket sign deal for Mulock House

Yorkregion.com
Aug. 26, 2022

As Debbie Mulock-Barbour reminisced about her joyful childhood in her home, first owned by her great, great-grandfather, Sir William Mulock, and her wedding reception on the front lawn in front of the stately house, she also looked forward to the “wonderful” vision of art soon to fill the historic estate.

On Aug. 24, the town and the Art Gallery of Ontario signed an agreement on Sir William Mulock’s desk that will see rotating exhibits of Canadian and Indigenous artwork showcased in the second-floor art gallery and first-floor public gathering place of the 12,000-square-foot home when the ambitious Mulock Park opens in 2025.

The five-year renewable agreement is expected to result in two exhibitions a year.

“I’m so happy about the AGO,” Mulock-Barbour said following the announcement as she stood beside a piano in one of the downstairs rooms of the house.

“I just have to say this is just the happiest, happiest news. We all wondered what is going to happen to our home, and it is even more of a home now. A home to so many beautiful, beautiful pictures that will be here. It’s more than I ever, more than we all, as I can speak as a whole family, it’s more than we ever expected would happen here.”

Moments before the agreement was signed, AGO CEO Stephan Jost explained how Mayor John Taylor casually invited him to visit on an awful November day.

“I was completely taken by this place. It’s amazing,” he said.

The Mulock House and surrounding property speaks both to our past and our future, Jost said.

“There’s a certain kind of energy here that is great, that’s really kind of like, yeah, we want to be part of this. That insistence about the past and the future makes this place special. That’s also what art is about,” he said.

“Artists have an ability to help us see the future. And I think I’ve never seen a town more committed to the process of thinking about what’s the future and how do we make sure a place works for the people who live here.”

The AGO has 120,000 works of art and is growing rapidly, Jost said, adding it has 240,000 members and annual pass holders, many of whom are likely to visit art at the Mulock House.

The partnership with the AGO is exciting, Taylor said.

“Having a partner like AGO that is an internationally recognized institution that does amazing things, and I think all of us have probably experienced that personally, walking through and having that engagement with art and the kind of opportunity and moment it gives you to think about art, to think about life, to reflect on yourself, to let your curiosity roam a little bit, that’s one of the things it can bring,” he said.

“We see this as an incredibly special, magical moment.”

Mulock Park, at the northwest corner of Yonge Street and Mulock Drive, will also include an artist studio space, public art installations, partnerships with the local arts community and beyond and many other amenities.