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14 Nov 07

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

www.theglobeandmail.com/...home - Preview

art_museum arts_funding canada competition p3s politics portrait_gallery public_buildings

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

www.cbc.ca/...ot-portrait-071109.html - Preview

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.