NAC's Herrndorf writing to patrons about the renovation road ahead
Peter Robb, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: November 25, 2015 | Last Updated: November 25, 2015 12:15 PM EST
Over the next few days, 32,000 subscribers to programming at the National Arts Centre will be getting a letter from Peter Herrndorf.
The savvy NAC CEO knows that if the centre is not open and up front about what will confront patrons, he risks a backlash.
And so, in an old school sort of way, he is putting a figurative pen to paper to get out ahead of the start of the $110-million renovation project that will be a part of the institution’s daily life for the next 18 months. The project will bring the largest change to the centre since it was built in 1969.
The centre was deliberately built with its back to Parliament facing the Rideau Canal because of a series of design plans that never materialized.
As a result, a major national institution had “its back to the national capital,” Herrndorf said.
So the current renovation has two main goals, he says.
“One of the goals of the whole architectural rejuvenation of the NAC, was the idea of turning the building on its axis so that it could not only face the national capital, but embrace the national capital.
“If you are going to have this kind of centre, it has to embrace the capital,” Herrndorf said in an interview.
“The second thing is the building is dark and a bit forbidding and so the goal was to make it full of natural light, make it transparent and accessible so that people would feel that not only is it their performing arts centre but that it is their community centre; a place that they felt was theirs.”
As a result of the improvements to the centre’s second floor, Herrndorf says there will be activities happening all day long from professional performers, to local choirs singing, to classes, to lectures. The centre will establish a new unit to lead the animation of the NAC’s public spaces, he says.
Timing was an important consideration for getting the renovation approved. The 150th birthday of the country was a natural hook, and the 50th anniversary of the opening of the NAC in 2019 added to the sense of appropriateness of the development, he said.
He says he feels that the project’s principal architect, Donald Schmitt of Toronto-based Diamond Schmitt, understands and respects the original “brutalist” architecture of the building created by Fred Lebensold.
When it is finished, the NAC renovation, which will feature a massive glass jewel box, will complete a ring of major national institutions that circle Parliament Hill, from the glassy National Art Gallery designed by Moshe Safdie to Douglas Cardinal’s undulating Canadian Museum of History and the Canadian War Museum of Raymond Moriyama. What’s next? Maybe the new Liberal government will resurrect the idea of a National Portrait Gallery.
“When Canadians come into the ceremonial heart of the country, we hope that they will be proud of this building. … It symbolizes the performing arts from coast to coast to coast,” Herrndorf said.
He is making himself available to the public in this process, he says, to ensure that the NAC gets the “tone” right when talking to the public about the project.
“If we got the tone wrong, it would really set us back,” he said. The renovation will definitely affect the patron experience at the NAC, which will stay open for business throughout construction. The centre is limiting work to off-performance hours — from midnight to 2 p.m. each weekday. Southam Hall, the Theatre and Studio will continue to operate throughout. The Fourth Stage will close next May and remain shuttered until July 2017, but other spaces are available for the kinds of events that took place there, such as concerts that are part of the Ottawa Jazz Festival.
“It was very important that we be very straightforward with the subscribers and with major ticket buyers, that we explain that this won’t be an easy process. There will be real inconvenience involved, but this is a journey that we want to go on together.”
The NAC needs patrons to keep coming to its performances and intends to make it as easy as possible, but there will be bumps on the road, he says.
Herrndorf will send five or six letters in all with the first going out this week and a second in late January or early February. Construction begins in December. Patrons will be able to reply to Herrndorf by a variety of means from text message to e-mail to snail mail. He and his staff will no doubt be occupied.
He says he expects a lot of communication in the early stages, some of which might even highlight things the centre has not thought of and make sense. The NAC is prepared to adapt, he added.
Of all the changes that will be wrought inside and outside the NAC, from expanded space for community use to a glass facade to more washrooms for patrons, Herrndorf says he wants the renovation to say to the public: “Please walk on the grass, please come in at any hour of the day.”
“When I came here 16 years ago what everybody told me is the audience of the NAC is extremely knowledgable and extremely proprietary … in a good way. We now hope the exntended audience will feel proprietary.”
The position of the NAC, close to the National War Memorial, means security is part of the renovation equation.
Herrndorf says the organization is realistic about the world “around us.” So the NAC will be involved in a balancing act between openness and security.
“The worst thing we could do is create the sense of a fortress. You want security that is effective but subtle.”
As the NAC renews itself, it is with a backdrop of struggling local arts institutions, chief among them being Opera Lyra, which is now in the hands of a bankruptcy trustee owing almost a million dollars to the NAC.
“I’m a citizen of the capital. That fact that our major opera company had to close is very disappointing. Having said that, my hope is that maybe next month or next year or two years from now, a group of people will come together and say it’s really important that we have (opera) here.
“I think there is so much about the capital that is flourishing. I think the National Gallery, led by Marc Meyer, is doing extremely well. I like very much what the Museum of History is doing and the War Museum and the other museums. The National Arts Centre has been on a roll for several years. So on balance, the picture is very good.”
Herrndorf is appointed by the NAC board and over the years he has had a number of extensions. He prefers shorter contracts. At 75, Herrndorf says he will be in his post into 2017. He will not say whether he will stick around for the 50th in 2019.
The renovation will not fix everything inside the centre. Other things need renewal, none more so than the main performance space, Southam Hall. Herrndorf says fixes are coming there too.
“It is the next step and I hope it is sooner rather than later. There are a bunch of changes we have to make to Southam Hall.”
This also includes a plan for the massive multi-coloured curtain that opened the centre in 1969.
“That curtain is a piece of art. It has become tricky as a curtain. We have been spending a lot of time looking at that.” He is expecting a new set of ideas for what to do with the curtain in the next few months.
Relations with the former Conservative government were beneficial to the NAC. Laureen Harper was very active with the NAC Foundation and former cabinet minister John Baird was instrumental in getting the funding for the renovation.
Herrndorf, who is an old hand at dealing with governments at many levels, called the relationship with the Tories a “very good professional relationship. I’m completely confident we will have a very good professional relationship with the current government.”
One of the ways forward for the NAC is a major emphasis on creation of new Canadian work.
He says the centre is very close to announcing a major program aimed at generating a lot of new work. He hopes the NAC will serve as a catalysing agent for new work across the country, from theatre to art music. While he refused to be specific, partnerships with performing arts groups across the country will no doubt be one part of this plan.
Hints of the coming effort have been showing up in an advertising campaign featuring talented Canadians such as the Edmonton composer John Estacio, the Newfoundland playwright Robert Chafe and the B.C. choreographer Crystal Pite, as artists who create new work and as such are important figures in Canada’s cultural scene, he says.
http://ottawacitizen.com/entertainment/l...-patrons-about-the-renovation-road-ahead
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