Culture & the Arts - Reid McAlpine

Supporting Culture and the Arts in Markham

Helping the Varley Gallery Stay on the Leading Edge through the Varley-McKay Art Foundation

The Varley Gallery is a small yet world-class institution right in the heart of Unionville. It should be a major anchor for the Village attracting art enthusiasts from across the GTA and even further afield.

The Varley-McKay Art Foundation is the charitable fundraising arm of the Varley Gallery. Reid sits on the board of the Foundation. It supports art acquisitions and public education programs at the Gallery.

Reid has worked with the board to improve its focus on fundraising. Initiatives have included expansion of its applications to government and philanthropic granting programs. The board is now looking to build a more professional fundraising strategy with the assistance of a professional fund-raising consultant. Future work will include recruiting other board members with a focus on fundraising. Reid has also introduced the foundation to local businesses interested in contributing to the community.

Enhancing our Public Spaces: Public Art in Markham

Reid sits on the City’s Public Art Advisory Committee. Markham has accumulated over $2.5M in a development-financed fund to commission world-class public art installations across the City. Council has approved a Public Art Masterplan,. Priority locations include Main Street Unionville and the Markham Pan Am Centre in Ward 3.

The new Unionville streetscape project will include public art. A commissioning process is under way and will include community engagement in determining what would be most appropriate. This project will be implemented along with the rest of the streetscape in 2023/2024 and will be a significant enhancement to the street designed to draw art enthusiasts from far afield.

A major installation at the Pan Am Centre has been delayed slightly to accommodate the acceleration of the Unionville project.

Watch for more installations across Markham, including Downtown Markham at Birchmount and Enterprise, and at the Aaniin Community Centre.

And, during construction, Reid was also proud to initiate a public art partnership between Ledgemark Homes and students from the Arts Unionville program at Unionville High School, to create a wonderful set of murals on the hoarding around the site of the new condo building at 206 Main Street. He also plans to work with York Region to commission murals in the Kennedy Road and Highway 7 underpasses along the Rouge Valley Trail — to replace the unsightly graffiti that now graces those locations.