art_museum - Yule Heibel on Diigo

26 Oct 09

His brave new world - The Globe and Mail

Who knew that Bob Rennie (Vancouver's "Condo King") was amassing a huge art collection with a focus on "marginalization, oppression and resistance"? Very interesting article about a very interesting collector indeed. I would certainly love to visit his new museum.
QUOTE
"The Downtown Eastside is marginalized, and a lot of what I have is about marginalization, oppression and resistance," Mr. Rennie said as he walked through construction chaos a few days before opening. Some workers were installing the complex pieces created by Palestinian artist Mona Hatoum, while others were putting in more pedestrian items like air vents and doorknobs.
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www.theglobeandmail.com/...article1336925 - Preview

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01 Mar 08

City, developer race to approve Portrait Gallery project

This is an example of what should have happened in Victoria in regard to the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria's plans to move into a purpose-built gallery (designed by James Cheng), which would have been part of a single-tower residential redevelopment called Crystal Court, planned by Westbank Corp. The project was supposed to get built on Belleville Street in the heart of the Tourist District, in downtown Victoria. But it was essentially nixed from the start by the James Bay Neighbourhood Association (JBNA), which claims that block as part of its precinct. Consequently, city planners declined to support the developer's application for rezoning, and the project was still-born.

In Ottawa, meanwhile, forward-thinking city politicians are supporting a two 26-story residential tower development that will include a free-standing 2-story national portrait gallery.

Too bad the Federal government can't put any pressure to bear on the JBNA -- their idea to auction off the national portrait gallery certainly put the fires under Ottawa's seats, but hey-ho, here in Victoria we can resist all change. Boy oh boy, the city of Victoria really dropped the ball on the Crystal Court Development.

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Claridge Homes has filed an application with the city for two 26-storey residential towers and a gallery designed by a leading architect to be built in a current parking lot between Lisgar, Nepean and Metcalfe streets in the heart of the downtown core.
The application and rezoning process usually take up to a year, but with the federal government's April 16 deadline for bids to host the gallery looming, the process is being crunched into to a matter of weeks.
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- "We have to be ready by that deadline, so things are moving quickly," said Somerset Councillor Diane Holmes, whose ward the project is in. "I think it's a great location for the portrait gallery, and it would be in its own building, not in the bottom floors of some office building or something like that.
  "I think the towers are a little tall, but I think it's a good plan for the gallery, and it would be a great asset for that area and the city."
  - That's the key: it's in its own building (stand-alone, not attached). The height is slightly more than was proposed for Crystal Court (which came in at 19 or 20), but it's interesting that the comparison holds with already existing neighbouring buildings: in Ottawa the 27-story Pace Bell Canada, and in Victoria the 20-story buildings just a block away on Humboldt. - on 2008-03-01
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- Neil Malhotra, of Claridge, said company officials are excited about the opportunity to host the gallery and contribute to the city and country.
  He said when the government announced a competition between private developers in nine cities to bid for the right to host the gallery, company officials realized they had an opportunity to do something of importance to the city and its citizens.
  "We realized having the gallery in Ottawa is something people in this community care about, that it should happen, and that we had a piece of land that is in a perfect location for it," he said. "It's a rare opportunity to do something like this, and I think we will have a very good chance of winning the competition if we can get everything done on time."
- Council committed to give developers bidding on the gallery a $431,000 break on development charges, have the city help to prepare the bids, lobby for the bids, and look at helping with advertising and drumming up public support.
  - - even the DCCs were waived...! - on 2008-03-01
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- The gallery was originally supposed to go into the former United States embassy building on Wellington Street across from the hill, but the Harper government cancelled that project last year, citing escalating costs, then announced the competition.
  Ottawa is competing with Vancouver, Halifax, Quebec City, Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Calgary for the right to have the gallery, which is part of Library and Archives Canada.
  The move to have a bidding war amongst cities and developers to host the gallery sparked outrage from people who feel it should be in Ottawa along with the rest of the Canada's national institutions. Others feel having a national collection housed in a privately owned building is distasteful and makes the country look bad on the international scene.

14 Nov 07

globeandmail.com: Harper's gallery gambit 'stagecraft,' critic says

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The cities from whom Ottawa is requesting proposals from developers this spring are Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa-Gatineau, Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City and Halifax.
"Now we're engaged in this distasteful playing off of one city against another," Frenkel said
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- Alain Pineau, executive director of the Canadian Conference of the Arts, said he thinks the notion of basing a national institution outside Ottawa is "interesting" but it needs to be framed as part of "a conversation and debate" about museum policy - something the Tories have not done even though they called for same while in opposition. Like Frenkel, Pineau questioned "the realism of anything moving seriously [on the gallery] given the current political climate and the deadlines imposed on the call for tenders."
- The hope is the winning city can be named within the next eight or nine months, with construction of gallery completed by 2011 or 2012 - a decade after the Liberal government of Jean Chrétien first announced it would build the gallery in the reconstituted 1932 Beaux Arts-style building on Wellington. The original construction cost for the refurbishment was $22-million, but by spring, 2006, the overall cost had risen to $45-million, which includes an estimated $11-million that has already spent on design, site preparation and management fees.
  
  Last fall, numerous media reports indicated the Tories had killed the project. However, nothing official was declared and the resultant vacuum was filled with reports that the minority Harper government was considering establishing the gallery as, variously, an online museum, a touring showcase and, finally, as a permanent fixture in the huge EnCana Centre now under construction in downtown Calgary. (The portrait gallery is currently overseen by Library and Archives Canada, a Crown corporation, and its collection stored in a climate-controlled vault in Gatineau, Que.)
- With federal government offices closed yesterday for the Remembrance Day holiday, Canadian Heritage was unable to provide details as to how the bidding scheme would work or what budget might be attached to it. A brochure posted on the portrait gallery's website simply announces: "We are in search of the perfect host community" and describes the competition as "a rare and exciting opportunity" because of the tourism potential, without explaining how a subsidized public institution such as a national museum could be turned into a profit-making model for a private developer - if, in fact, this is the government's concept.
- John McAvity, executive director of the Canadian Museums Association, called the Tory plan "innovative" and one that at least puts the portrait gallery "back on the radar screen." But he urged the government to include smaller cities such as Charlottetown, Fredericton, Saint John and Regina in the running.
- The CMA last year, in a presentation to the Harper government, called for an additional $75-million in funding to the not-for-profit museums and galleries sector. Yesterday McAvity called the potential for "greater corporate involvement . . . a very positive sign." The "main issue is governance. . . the collection must be preserved and governed in the public interest, not the private interest . . . 'Let's see where this goes,' is my philosophy."

TheStar.com | entertainment | Cities fight to pay for portrait gallery

www.thestar.com/...275573 - Preview

art_museum arts_funding canada competition p3s politics portrait_gallery public_buildings

Nine cities are invited to compete for the prize of securing the portrait gallery. Toronto is on the list, along with Halifax, Quebec City, Ottawa-Gatineau, Montreal, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver. The catch: this will be a private/public partnership.
Translation: someone in the lucky city that wins gets to pay the bills so that Stephen Harper's government won't have to.
fascinating and inventive exercise in face-saving for a regime that, to put it mildly, lacks a vision of what investing in culture could do for this country. Despite a huge surplus, the Harperites are obsessed with pinching pennies
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- For a while there was a scheme to put the gallery in a Calgary office complex, but the idea was quietly ditched when it became clear it would increase costs.
- Richard Florida, the influential urban guru who recently moved to Toronto from the U.S., believes that cities compete with one another for cultural dominance, but I doubt this was quite what he had in mind.

CBC.ca Arts - Portrait gallery looks nationwide for new home

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art_museum arts_funding canada competition p3s politics portrait_gallery public_buildings

The federal government wants nine cities across Canada to compete for the right to host the national portrait gallery originally slated to open in Ottawa.

"Our government has set forth the notion that national cultural institutions do not necessarily have to be located in the national capital," said Heritage Minister Josée Verner at a news conference Friday announcing what she called "a bold and innovative step."
The competition will seek a qualified developer in "the best possible location in Canada" for the Portrait Gallery of Canada, Verner said.
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- Verner said those cities are being considered because they have large populations, strong tourism and would make the gallery accessible.

Yule Heibel's Library tagged art_museum → View Popular

His brave new world - The Globe and Mail

City, developer race to approve Portrait Gallery project

globeandmail.com: Harper's gallery gambit 'stagecraft,' critic says

TheStar.com | entertainment | Cities fight to pay for portrait gallery

CBC.ca Arts - Portrait gallery looks nationwide for new home

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