[BCMA] CMA Clip Serv: VAG looks east for federal funding

[Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.]

Reminds one of the bum during the Depression who said, "Lady, I've got a button here; will you sew a shirt on it?"

Dan Gallacher

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv. 
  To: bcma at lists.vvv.com 
  Sent: Friday, May 14, 2010 9:32 AM
  Subject: [BCMA] CMA Clip Serv: VAG looks east for federal funding


  Vancouver Art gallery looks east for federal funding 
  Dunsmuir Street facility may cost $300 million 
  Mike Howell, Vancouver Courier, Friday, May 14, 2010 


  A member of the Vancouver Art Gallery's board of trustees believes the federal government should help fund the estimated $300 million cost of building a new gallery. 


  Michael Audain, who is the chairperson of the gallery's relocation committee, pointed out the federal government contributed large sums of money to several cultural facilities in Toronto, including a major addition to the Royal Ontario Museum. 


  "So I think it's perhaps time the government supported Vancouver for some more substantial infrastructure," Audain said. "We really need it. Our town has become very important in the world of visual art and we've got a wonderful gallery here but it's really handicapped by a serious lack of space." 


  Audain and the gallery's board of trustees are campaigning to have a new gallery built at 150 Dunsmuir St., the former bus depot. 


  The gallery in the former courthouse building on Robson Square opened 27 years ago. It was the gallery's third expansion in its 79-year history, and the board says it has outgrown the space. 


  The estimated cost of the new building is $300 million. The provincial government kicked in $50 million and private donations are being collected. The gallery board must first secure the land at 150 Dunsmuir St., which is next to the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. The city owns the site, which is just over three acres. 


  "If the city doesn't come to the party and share in the cost of this, it would be very difficult for us to ask senior levels of government to participate," Audain said, noting the board has asked the city to donate the land. 


  Vision Vancouver Coun. Raymond Louie, chairperson of council's finance committee, said the city must sort out a previous complex business deal where the city hoped to recoup at least $50 million on the Dunsmuir site. 


  A council decision made in the previous term to finance renovations to the city-owned Queen Elizabeth Theatre and Orpheum was based on the assumption the Dunsmuir site would one day be developed and return a significant value to the city. 


  "That's why I'm concerned about a straight give to the art gallery, without some security to get a recovery on that [$50 million]," Louie said. "Any proposition that were to be developed on that piece of property would need to include the recovery of that money." 


  Last weekend, the art gallery ran advertisements in local papers outlining reasons for relocation. 


  They included: 
  - Space limitations mean that only three per cent of the gallery's permanent collection can be displayed at any given time. 
  - It has no theatre, lecture hall or large gathering space for artists' talks, lecture and special events. 
  - The art storage vault under the Georgia Street plaza is beyond capacity, which has resulted in expensive offsite storage costs. 
  - The gallery's family and children's programs can't meet the demand because of lack of space. 
  - Lineups, long wait times and overcrowding regularly occur during popular exhibitions and at major openings and events. 


  The advertisement included messages of support for a new gallery from artists Jeff Wall, Gordon Smith and Douglas Coupland. Tourism Vancouver head Rick Antonson and Concord Pacific Developments Inc. president Terry Hui also listed their support. 


  ---   30   --- 



------------------------------------------------------------------------------


  _______________________________________________
  BCMA mailing list
  BCMA at lists.vvv.com
  http://lists.vvv.com/mailman/listinfo/bcma
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.vvv.com/pipermail/bcma/attachments/20100514/c390f679/attachment-0001.htm