Posted Jan 14, 2019, 7:10 PM
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Join Date: Feb 2009
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From this weekend's Globe & Mail. Vancouver continues to prove itself as not a very cultural city, in a country that probably places the least value on arts & culture out of its G7 peers.
Future of a new Vancouver Art Gallery building uncertain amid lack of private funding
...One of the chief problems with the current location, a renovated courthouse, is its size. It’s simply too small. So, back to Guo Pei, why give up the entire first floor – maybe a quarter of the gallery – for a show about fashion, when exhibition space is so limited?
“I think the idea of showing a diverse range of visual culture is our priority, and fashion [is] part of that,” says Rochelle Steiner, the gallery’s chief curator and associate director.
“And Guo Pei just seemed so fitting to us, not just because of where she’s from, but because of her practice,” says Steiner, who joined the gallery this year.
The exhibition seems to appeal to a wider demographic, including a younger audience. Steiner says there has been more demand for tours in Mandarin and the show has seen more traffic on social media, including the Chinese-language platform WeChat. The wall labels – the few that are there (I would have appreciated more individual information about each garment) – are in English and Chinese.
I ask Steiner whether the show is perhaps part of an effort to reach out to the Lower Mainland’s significant Asian population – and potential donor base – as the VAG works to raise money for the new building.
Steiner says no, that programming endeavours are separate from development efforts...
.....the city has ordered the VAG to meet certain conditions by Dec. 31, 2019 – the second extension it has given the gallery. The original conditions included raising $100-million from the federal government and $50-million from the province (in addition to the $50-million the former BC Liberal government granted the project in 2008). The other $150-million is supposed to come from the private sector. The VAG has raised about $45-million in private funds to date.....
...“The site won’t necessarily be there forever. So there’s a terrific time urgency on things,” VAG board member Phil Lind told me recently.
Lind, a Rogers broadcasting executive, was in town to speak about his recently published memoir to the Canadian Club.
He is a passionate contemporary art collector; his Toronto home is filled with it. Lind joined the VAG board of trustees specifically because of the new gallery project, he told me. But during our interview, he didn’t sound overly optimistic. He says the VAG has not yet raised enough private money.
“I think part of it is that the givers in Vancouver haven’t been sufficiently enticed at the moment,” Lind says.
B.C. Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Lisa Beare told the VAG board last December that the government would consider the gallery’s additional $50-million funding request based on its progress raising private funds.
The hope had been that revealing an exciting design would provoke donations. But Swiss-based architects Herzog & de Meuron’s conceptual design – stacked boxes with a wood exterior – received mixed reviews. (The Globe and Mail’s architecture critic, Alex Bozikovic, loved it.)
“It may not be my cup of tea,” Lind says of the design, “but it is distinctive. … If it gets built, it will be a knockout.” It will attract more visitors to the gallery and add to Vancouver’s overall tourist appeal, he adds.
“Is the design your cup of tea?" I ask him.
“I think it’s okay. I think it’s fine,” he says.
When I ask if he thinks the project will be built, Lind says he really doesn’t know...
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/art...gallery-building-uncertain-amid-lack-of/
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