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Pat Martin Bates Gallery

A founding member of the Victoria Arts Council (formerly the Community Arts Council of Greater Victoria, established in 1968), Pat Martin Bates is internationally recognized for her work as a visual artist. 

PMB, as she is known, has won many prestigious awards, including the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal, the Zachenta medal in Poland, and the International Print Art of Norway Gold Medal, and various awards from the Canada Council for the Arts. She has received recognition at exhibitions all over the world, and has exhibited in China, Chile, Yugoslavia, Poland, Great Britain, Norway, Japan, France, the United States, Argentina, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, and Australia. Her works appear in major collections in many countries, including the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and the National Gallery of Canada. PMB’s contributions extend to being a charter member of the Victoria chapter of the Zonta Club, as well as the President of the Victoria Visual Arts Legacy Society. In 2019, as part of our 50th anniversary, a fifty-year survey of PMB’s dynamic visual art in prints, painting, sculpture, and lightboxes was exhibited in our main gallery at 1800 Store Street.

Though the VAC operates throughout the city and beyond, with our community satellite program, it is our main gallery space on Store Street that has become a touchstone for the arts in Victoria. We are all so thrilled to be able to give this main gallery the honour of naming it after our founder: Pat Martin Bates. A singular artist who has always championed her community, and given of herself over and over through numerous charitable and educational initiatives, PMB remains invested in the continued success of the VAC. 

Our Garden Party June 17th is where we will celebrate this naming, where PMB will be the Guest of Honour.

Tickets are available: https://vicartscouncil.ca/2023/04/05/garden-party-2023/

If you are unable to attend, but would still like to support the Pat Martin Bates Gallery, donations can be made online: 

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photo credit: Jeffrey Bosdet for Yam Magazine