After Bill Staubi was diagnosed with liver cancer and told he only had 18 months to live, he was determined to find a home for his life’s work: a 1,300-piece art collection, four decades in the making.
“For me, the collecting of the work wasn’t just a transactional activity. I’m deeply committed to the artist community here in Ottawa,” he told CBC Radio’s All In a Day.
“So to be winnowing away the physical evidence of that commitment, yeah, there were pieces I was sad as I saw them out the door, but happy to know where they were going.”
Staubi slowly gave away his collection to the Ottawa Art Gallery, the city, and other organizations over the course of what he thought were his final months on Earth.
Then, roughly two years after his terminal diagnosis, he learned his cancer had gone into remission. Now, he’s going to continue to support the art community by starting a new collection.
“I’m getting a whole new life and there’s a whole new life of artwork out there to see and support,” Staubi said.
Something special about his circumstance, Staubi said, was the rare experience to see how much the community valued him.
“The outpouring of support and encouragement, the level of care and attention that I got … was phenomenal,” Staubi said.
“I credit the generosity of the community around me for the fact that maybe it contributed to my longevity,” he added. “It kept me very positive. It kept me very focused on sticking to the medical regime.”
After spending months spreading his collection among friends, family and institutions, Staubi said he doesn’t want the art returned.
“Many people have offered the work back or offered to give me something in place for the pieces that they took,” he said.
“But for me, it was a thing that needed to be done. There was no alternative in my mind.”
His favourite pieces aren’t gone forever, he added, since they are now belong to his friends and family.
At the Ottawa Art Gallery, a show called Grotto is featuring a selection of the works Staubi donated, works focused on queer issues and artists. It will run until Feb 8., 2026.
He also has a digital database for himself of all the work.
“I’ve been given more time. I tend to use that time moving forward, not backward.”
Moving forward promises a “big adventure,” he said: the chance to dive into the new artists, issues and ideas that have entered Ottawa’s art world over the last 24 months while he’s been tuned out.
Before learning he was in remission, Staubi did rent — rather than buy — artwork, which would ensure it would “automatically have a home to go to on my death.”
He started buying again once he got the good news, and said the experience of giving away his collection will inform his habits from now on.
“It’s deeply bred into me, to hoard,” he said with a laugh. “But I probably will buy less work or buy work at a slower pace because in turn that work, someday, will have to be looked after by someone.”
