Arctic & Northern Biographies
Dateline: September 24, 2026.
Ron Carr and his Legacy Collection
"My story is in my art," Ron said to me one day, handing me a flash drive with images of his collection, We were having coffee at the Java Connection, and I plugged the drive into my laptop. Life was catching up to Ron, he was walking with a cane, and his eyesight was going, a particularly cruel fate for an art collector of his renown. When I opened my laptop, image after image cascaded onto the screen and we went through them, one by one.
Ron Carr was born by lamplight in a midwife's house in Doaktown, Miramichi, New Brunswick in 1937, He attended school in Fredericton and taught for two years at Tide Head, a community in Campbellton, New Brunswick. Seeing an ad in the paper looking for teachers in the Yukon, he headed to Whitehorse to teach at the Whitehorse School (now École Whitehorse Elementary School.) He remembers muddy streets, the Old Log Church, ball diamonds, some of Whitehorse's elite as students, as well as many air force kids. He feels that the kids he taught are his family, a family that increased with each of the 40 years he spent teaching in the Yukon before he retired.
I met Ron when we moved to Whitehorse in 1970 and I enrolled at Selkirk St. School, where he was the principal. During the summers, when I was in high school, Ron worked at the front desk of the Sheffield Hotel (later the Westmark) with a friend of mine, and he became a friend of mine too. He was always full of stories, bright and happy because, more often than not, he'd just snagged a piece of art. His lovely, crowded apartment was bursting with art; it was on the walls, on the floor, on tables draped over chairs, placed along the stairwell. He reveled in being at the front of the line at a Yukon Gallery opening. Or he'd have bought a piece to support a colleague, a former student, or a member of the community at a crucial time in their development. He exemplified joy when surrounded by his abundant treasures.
He roved fundraising art auctions, galleries, Pop-Up shows, group, juried and solo art shows, artists' studios, and Whitehorse's bars where artists would parade their wares. He had an eye for fine art, and once he "got" an artist's oeuvre, he'd look for quintessential examples of that artist's work, or for exceptions.
A few years ago, I visited Ron in his Riverdale apartment, and he told me with deep gravity that it was time. His eyesight was fading and it was time for the art to go. I was able to return with Garnet Muething, the Yukon government Art Curator, a former colleague of mine, and caretaker of the Yukon Permanent Art Collection. Ron was in fine fettle that day, showing Garnet his work and telling her about each piece. Here was a sensitive, intuitive, and authentic collector, with the same intentional verve that generations of YPAC committees exhibited, With budget and space restraints. It is an art unto itself to build a collection and Ron's stalwart appreciation and support of northern artists over so many years is a gift for us to enjoy for many years to come. This display, selections from his personal collection, is a tribute to Ron Carr, his joy, and his generous spirit.
Laurel Parry, friend of Ron's
July 2026
Ron donated a total of 22 pieces from his collection to the Yukon Permanent Art Collection, of which 17 were in the display seen below at the Jim Smith Building in Whitehorse. The Yukon Permanent Art Collection was established in 1981 and is part of the Yukon government's commitment to support artistic development and excellence and to encourage participation in, and appreciation of, visual arts in the Yukon. The collection holds over 600 works of art by over 300 artists and works can be seen in publicly accessible locations throughout the Yukon - see a list of places where pieces are currently on display here.
