Allen Sapp Gallery

The Allen Sapp Gallery, housed in North Battleford's old Carnegie library, holds the permanent Gonor Collection of Sapp's paintings — over a hundred canvases — along with rotating exhibitions of other Indigenous prairie artists. The building itself, a neoclassical 1916 library, is worth the visit alone, with high ceilings and excellent light.

Admission is by donation and the staff are knowledgeable; ask about the painter's life and they will tell you why this gallery exists, in a small Saskatchewan city, for one of the most important Indigenous artists of the 20th century.

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A story
Allen Sapp (1928–2015) was a Plains Cree painter from the Red Pheasant First Nation who documented Cree life on the prairies in oil — communal meals, hunts, dances, the simple business of everyday survival on the reserve in the 1930s and 1940s. He won the Order of Canada and his work is held by the National Gallery; the largest single collection lives here in his adopted home town.

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