Making connections ... a tale of two men, the connections between them as an artist and a Prime Minister! Connections to historical art, contemporary collections, public art and public parks. The two men we're talking about are the renowned landscape artist Homer Watson, and one of our Canadian Prime Ministers, William Lyon MacKenzie King. You can start at the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery and see the paintings by Homer Watson that is in their collections. Then go next door to the Kitchener Public Library, and here you can find the Kitchener Public Library’s William Lyon Mackenzie King Digital Image Collection. 

Mackenzie King was a patron of the arts, both in his role as prime minister and in private life. His diaries record several references to works of art purchased by the Government of Canada and in 1922 he wrote,  "We must follow a plan of encouraging Canadian art." The connection ... Mackenzie King was a lifelong friend of artist Homer Watson and during his time as Prime Minister purchased two paintings by Homer Watson. Apparently Mackenzie King was reading the poetry of Coleridge at the time and was delighted by the correlation between the descriptive colours in the writings and the colours of Watson’s paintings.

From here, visit Homer Watson House & Gallery, find out more about Homer Watson and Mackenzie King, take a walk through Homer Watson Park Trail in Doon, where Homer Watson was so inspired to paint.

You can also visit Mackenzie King’s Woodside National Historic Site in Kitchener; his birthplace! These public parks are both ‘grounds’ for so many connections! Nature, cultural movements, art, history and more.

A bronze statue of Mackenzie King sits on the sloping front lawn of the Kitchener Collegiate overlooking King Street, not too far from downtown Kitchener. He sits there on a high point of the area, a replica of him as a young man. This is a tribute to his legacy of being an honourable leader of this country and to the art world, someone who set an example for public support of the arts!