Today, the National accessArts Centre becomes truly national.

On May 19, 2022, NaAC President and CEO JS Ryu unveiled an exciting new partnership that will not only expand the geographic reach of the organization, but will also provide added revenue streams that can support its ongoing growth.

Thanks to the generous support of the family and estate of the late Canadian artist and sculptor Won Lee, the NaAC will:

• Steward and manage a significant portion of his works, ranging in value from $50,000 to $1 million, and coordinate invitations to commercial art fairs, including the StART Art Fair set to take place in Seoul in September 2022.
• Manage the disbursement and growth of the Won Lee Prize, an annual cash prize for Canadian artists living with disabilities.
• And begin plans to retrofit Won Lee’s former studio and gallery space at 1594 Queen Street West to become a new artist-in-residence studio and gallery to support artists with disabilities. This planned gift of real estate, worth approximately $2.5 million, will be the largest received by the NaAC in our organization’s history.

“I humbly believe that this partnership has been made possible by two things: one, it is the attention that the NaAC is now receiving nationwide for the extraordinary work that we are doing and two, the unprecedented generosity of an artist and his family to continue his legacy in support of marginalized artists.” – JS Ryu, President and CEO

Click below to watch a video promoting our new partnership.