The Art Gallery of Hamilton is about to embark on a two-year fundraising campaign to help pay for a $30-million renovation project.

The facelift involves a two-storey addition along the east side, increased gallery space, street-level studios and expanded food services. There will also be fresh landscaping, which will include the redevelopment of Commonwealth Square Plaza. As part of the plan, the outdoor plaza (which faces Main Street West near Summers Lane) will be known as the Art Gallery of Hamilton Sculpture Garden and will feature a commissioned large-scale work of art.

As well, an entry pavilion closer to Main Street will serve as the gallery's central entrance to a new wing. An upper lobby, accessible via staircase and elevators, will contain a gallery lounge and a roof deck.

CEO Louise Dompierre told city councillors Wednesday

she hopes the AGH can generate the cash for the project through fundraising, but didn't rule out returning to council for help.

"It would be normal, I think, for the city to make some sort of contribution," she said.

The city makes an annual contribution of about $1 million to the art gallery.

Dompierre was before the general issues committee to present the results of the project's feasibility study and ask for permission to begin fundraising.

Civic leaders agreed to endorse the campaign. That was required because the project involves city property, which the AGH leases from the municipality.

That initial nod must be ratified at council.

Based on a two-year fundraising campaign, the project should be completed by 2019, Dompierre said.

The garden project, which will be complemented by a new piece of public art, is to be the hallmark feature of the renovation, she noted.

"The garden is the driving part of the project."

The competition for the outdoor art will likely be international in scope, Dompierre said.

The art gallery should make a more dramatic statement, Councillor Maria Pearson said in support of the project.

"We needed for the art gallery to have a presence on Main Street, which we haven't had."

In 2012, the gallery drew 290,000 visitors, which was a record, she noted.

It now has 10,000 works of art, but there is demand for more space for additional works, Dompierre said.

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That's a welcome dilemma, Councillor Brian McHattie said.

"I guess it's a nice problem to have: to have more art than you can actually display."

Dompierre said a conceptual design will be brought before council and available publicly before anything is etched in stone.