Artist Legacies & Estate Stewardship
Guidance and resources to help artists, families, and institutions preserve sculptural legacies with care and clarity.
The Canadian Centre for Sculpture is deeply committed to the respectful documentation, preservation, and long-term stewardship of the work and legacies of both living and deceased artists. The Centre recognizes that an artist’s contribution extends far beyond the finished sculpture itself to include maquettes, studies, archives, correspondence, oral histories, studio processes, exhibition records, and the intellectual and cultural contexts that shaped the work. With profound respect for authorship, family, estates, and living artistic voices, the CCS seeks to preserve as complete a record as possible so that future generations may encounter not only the objects, but also the ideas, histories, and human lives that gave them form.
The CCS welcomes confidential conversations with living artists, families, executors, estates, collectors, and institutions who wish to discuss the long-term preservation, documentation, or future stewardship of sculptural works and archives. Whether the concern is a single maquette, a studio archive, oral histories, unfinished works, or a complete artistic estate, the centre approaches each discussion with discretion, care, and respect for the wishes of those involved.
“Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts—the book of their deeds, the book of their words, and the book of their art.”
John Ruskin