About Us
The Bateman Foundation is a registered charity dedicated to educating the public on the importance of human-nature connection. Founded by renowned artist and naturalist Robert Bateman, we use art to understand our environment and unlock creativity. Through public programs, community collaborations, and exhibits at the Bateman Gallery, we foster mutually-beneficial relationships between humans and our environment.
Nature is the focus, art is the medium, learning is the outcome.
The Bateman Foundation recognizes that humans are not separate from nature. By engaging in place-based environmental and art education, we encourage our community to see themselves as part of their local ecosystem and act accordingly.
Our Vision
To ensure all people have a deep and abiding connection to nature.
Our Mission
We build relationships with nature through art.
Robert Bateman
A living legend strides the world of art and nature.
Robert Bateman’s realistic and evocative painting style reflects his deep understanding and appreciation for nature, featuring wildlife in its natural habitat and encouraging the viewer to closely observe the natural world. Besides being one of Canada’s foremost artists, he is also a naturalist recognized by the Audubon Society as one of the 20th century’s “heroes of conservation.”
Robert has received numerous honours and awards, including the Order of Canada and fourteen honorary doctorates. He has been the subject of several films and books, including The Art of Robert Bateman (1981), The World of Robert Bateman (1985), An Artist in Nature (1990), Natural Worlds (1996), Thinking Like a Mountain (2000), Birds (2002), New Works (2010), Life Sketches (2015) and Bateman’s Canada (2017), as well as several children’s books.
I paint for myself. I want to get right into it, and explore it, and become immersed in it, and lose myself. In my case, art is the celebration of the thing you’re painting. So I’m most on fire about nature being attacked and destroyed and ruined through man’s activities. What has gone along with that – which I think is a huge tragedy – is the loss of a sense of place… I think everybody should speak up and spread the word about nature: nature is magic.
Our Values
Creativity
We inspire creativity in people of all ages through the exhibits in the Bateman Gallery, our flagship Nature Sketch program, and other outreach work.
Conservation
The exhibits in the Bateman Gallery and our outdoor activity programs will inspire a lasting relationship with nature and foster a desire to protect it.
Education
Robert Bateman’s legacy as a teacher is reflected in our outreach programs, designed to engage people with the artistic process and the natural world.
Well-being
We will counter the effects of nature deprivation by promoting the magic of nature: its beauty, inspiration, and healing power.
Connection
We work to foster an inclusive environment, inspiring lasting connections to ourselves, each other, art, and the natural world.
Our Impact
166,000+
Gallery visitors
30+
Local artists in the Gift Shop
6,400+
Nature Sketch participants
20,000+
Sketches made
Our Founders
Robert & Birgit Freybe Bateman
Al Cummings
Freybe Family
Kathryn Iredale
Suzanne & Walter Scott
JR Shaw
Lionel Schipper
Mike Yanney
Craig Mearns
Diane & David Reesor
Loretta Anne Rogers
