Born in Sri Lanka, Sanjeev Sivarulrasa holds an Honours B. Arts Sc. degree (Arts & Science Program, McMaster University); an LL.B. degree (Osgoode Hall Law School, York University); and an LL.M. degree (Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa). For 14 years, he worked for the Canadian government, with specialization in international tax law. As his fascination with the night sky grew, he left that path to pursue art as a professional artist, curator, art dealer, and founder of a contemporary art gallery.
In 2014, he launched Sivarulrasa Gallery in Almonte, Ontario, representing professional Canadian artists, both emerging and established. An active advocate of the arts, he has served on the Board of Directors of Canadian Artists’ Representation / Le Front des artistes Canadiens (CARFAC National), the music school Ottawa Suzuki Strings, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum. Since launching Sivarulrasa Gallery, he has curated several exhibitions showcasing the works of contemporary Canadian artists from Eastern Ontario and beyond.
Although he operated his original gallery (of which I had heard but never visited) at the Thoburn Mill, 83 Little Bridge Street immediately adjacent my law office, it wasn’t until after I had retired and I was participating in my first and only Business Breakfast at the Civitan Hall that I first made his acquaintance. We were sitting at the same long table across from one another. Besides being a good looking man he is a former lawyer. I hadn’t expected ever to hear from him following our meeting; however, months later he contacted me for my opinion regarding the suitability of the proposed landlord of a property where he proposed to establish a new gallery on Mill Street.
The property was owned by the Masonic Lodge and I suspect I had told him at our initial meeting that I was a Mason. Of course I was perfectly positioned to opine on the suitability of both the landlord and the venue having been the former President of the Mississippi Masonic Lodge (which owned the property) and former Master of Mississippi Lodge No. 147 which indirectly governed the management of the property. I also knew Stewart Lee of the former Lee Pro Hardware which for years had operated out of the the ground floor space adjoining the main building then owned by Mr. Lee.
Recently we attended a Culture 22 classical guitar concert put on by Sanjeev and his wife Angela (also a lawyer) at the Gallery. They are singularly pleasant and unassuming people with buckets of talent. I consider them an enormous credit to our community. In fact I was so taken by their recent achievements at the Gallery that I communicated my respect and admiration for them and their undertakings to Grant A. Jameson who, together with his partner Joe Friday, are art aficionados who it turns out are familiar with the Sivarulrasa Gallery.
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