[BCMA] CMA Clip Serv: VAG move still undecided

Mon Dec 14 12:45:15 PST 2009

As an occasional visitor to this Mecca from the heartland [read powerless
boondocks] it does seem a bit extravagant while most of us are trying to
hang in in the present austerity.

2009/12/11 Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv. <bcma at lists.vvv.com>

>  Holy Marie Antoinette, Batman!
>
> $400 million for a new Vancouver Art Gallery? At a day and age when lowball
> construction estimates are the norm?
>
> Can't help but recall yesterday's Christie Clark's call-in show with the
> topic of erecting tent cities for the homeless spread around Vancouver civic
> parks and the anguish it caused various callers - pro & con. All concerned
> wanted shelters for the unfortunate, including the Courts which had just
> ruled the City was* not* to stand in the way of such actions. Instead, the
> judge ruled, Council is obligated to find homes at all costs - the Province,
> too,
>
> So, a city art gallery without much of a worthy permanent collection (save
> a category or two) aims at a half-billion set of digs while apparently
> ignoring where or how such money might better be spent. (If homelessness
> isn't your cause, there are a half dozen other critical issues in the social
> or environmental realms that can do).
>
> If any holding deserves a new home in the city, its the historically
> priceless collection of the long-suffering Vancouver Maritime Museum. And be
> assured a new VMM could be built for less than a fifth of what the VAG is
> dreaming of.
>
> Dan Gallacher
>
>    ----- Original Message -----
>
>   *From:* Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv. <bcma at lists.vvv.com>
> *To:* bcma at lists.vvv.com
> *Sent:* Thursday, December 10, 2009 9:46 AM
> *Subject:* [BCMA] CMA Clip Serv: VAG move still undecided
>
> *Vancouver Art Gallery move still undecided*
> *Whether the VAG should move from its current location is a divisive
> question, but there's a growing feeling in the community that the gallery
> should stay put*
> Marsha Lederman, The Globe and Mail, Wednesday, December 9, 2009
>
> At a memorial service for Vancouver philanthropist, architecture professor
> and urban thinker Abraham Rogatnick earlier this fall, his distaste for the
> planned move by the Vancouver Art Gallery (where he once served as interim
> director) was noted quite forcefully in a speech by architect Peter Busby.
> This comment was greeted with enthusiastic applause by many in attendance,
> but not by everyone.
>
> The question of whether the VAG should move from its current location – an
> old courthouse smack dab in the middle of the city's main shopping street –
> is a divisive one in the city's arts, culture and urban-planning
> communities, with fervent support for the move in some camps and bitter
> opposition in others.
>
> And as the VAG's board meets today, the question of where – or whether –
> the gallery should go remains unresolved, despite talk at one time of a
> groundbreaking shortly after the Olympics.
>
> Board members are keeping mum and even gallery director Kathleen Bartels,
> who has been eager to discuss the VAG's relocation in the past (a move she
> has a strong desire to oversee), refused a request by The Globe and Mail to
> talk about it now. “There is nothing new to discuss regarding the gallery's
> plans for a new building,” read a brief e-mail from the gallery's publicist.
>
> But there is a growing feeling – in the community, if not at the board –
> that the art gallery should stay where it is.
>
> A move to the Plaza of Nations site on Northeast False Creek is all but
> dead, according to people close to the issue. This plan was revealed in a
> surprise 2008 announcement by British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell, who
> earlier had pledged $50-million for a new VAG. But, as reported in The Globe
> last June, there are problems with building on the site that would increase
> costs significantly. Cost is already an issue. When plans for a move were
> first announced, the economy was in better shape. It's impossible to nail
> down a budget for a new VAG without plans or a chosen site, but estimates
> have run as high as $400-million.
>
> If the Plaza of Nations site is out, that leaves the land across from the
> Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Recently a parking lot, it once housed a bus depot
> and will be one of the city's Live Sites during the 2010 Olympics. This was
> the VAG's preferred location before the province stepped in with its
> waterfront plan. It has also been discussed as the centre of a new arts
> district, dubbed the cultural precinct.
>
> But it is also one of the locations the city's planning department has
> earmarked for a tall building. It's making that recommendation while the
> city awaits official word about the VAG's plans. In the summer, council
> asked the VAG which site it preferred for its relocation. No decision has
> yet been communicated.
>
> A tall building could encompass a new art gallery, with a tower on top of
> it, but some see a stand-alone building as more desirable.
>
> Bartels has delivered impassioned pleas for a new, purpose-built, bigger
> building. Right now, less than 3 per cent of the gallery's permanent
> collection can be exhibited at any one time. She has talked about more than
> doubling the square footage.
>
> Former VAG board member and chair of the master planning committee Michael
> Heeney isn't sure that's necessary. “What I'm hearing from people is they
> wonder if [the VAG has] really, really seriously looked at how they could
> stay where they are because it is such a fantastic location and maybe they
> don't need to double
> the size. … I don't think you need that kind of space to have a great
> museum.”
>
> Architect Bing Thom, who worked with Arthur Erickson on the 1983 renovation
> that turned the courthouse into the gallery (and Heeney's business partner),
> also advocates expanding on the current site. “I think location is
> everything in institutions.” He suggests building a storage vault off-site
> (perhaps sharing it with other institutions) and using the current vault,
> along with space excavated under the facility, to create more exhibition
> room.
>
> But Vancouver artist Roy Arden, whose work has been collected and exhibited
> by the VAG, says the gallery's location is less important than the building
> itself. “I think that the old facility is inadequate for various
> exhibitions,” he says. “I guess a lot of people go and they see a nice big
> grand building, but it never really has lent itself well to the purposes
> it's supposed to serve.”
>
> ---   30   ---
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> BCMA mailing list
> BCMA at lists.vvv.com
> http://lists.vvv.com/mailman/listinfo/bcma
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> BCMA mailing list
> BCMA at lists.vvv.com
> http://lists.vvv.com/mailman/listinfo/bcma
>
>

-- 
Season's Greetings ~
Larry A. Ewashen
Doukhobor Discovery Centre
112 Heritage Way
Castlegar BC V1N 4M5
www.Doukhobor-Museum.org
250-365-5327
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.vvv.com/pipermail/bcma/attachments/20091214/b6b6b7ef/attachment.htm 