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Do you want to know what’s going to happen with the Vancouver Art Gallery’s pitch to move to a new site? Read this for some clues

March 14th, 2013 · 115 Comments

When VAG director Kathleen Bartels made her pitch in late January to an international and local panel assessing whether the City of Vancouver should give the gallery the right to build on the last open block in downtown — a piece of city land — I was there. Sort of. (No, not right in the room, but nearby as presenters came and went, exchanged information, talked about their main questions and points.)

Here’s the case everyone made, along with some telling details about the feedback city staff got.

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  • Everyman

    @Frank Ducote 93
    Jon’s comment wasn’t out of line. The VAG is the only Vancouver cultural institution with a food outlet of any note, which is odd when you consider the opposite is true in museums and cultural facilities in Europe. And the VAG is going to have to goose retail contributions even further if they want to stay solvent in an expanded location. Can you imagne the Orpheum with a facility like L’Opera in the Opera Garnier?
    http://www.opera-restaurant.fr/en/videos

    I agree with waltyss, the Main Post Office should have been adapted for the VAG if they insist on a move. It would have given them the space they need at a fraction of the cost and preserved an interesting piece of midcentury architecture.

  • Silly Season

    @Roger Kemble #100

    And I’ll raise you THIS…

    Dame Kiri Te Kanawa – O Mio Babbino Caro

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLn_WQ95eA8

    Who needs Beyonce?!

    I was lucky enought to be of a generation that had regular access via school outings to the thetare, the opera (where I saw my first opera—Verde’s La Traviata), the symphony. And the Monkees. 😉

    I had exposure, which is all important to getting a feel for any and all music and the arts.

    And as to the new gens or different cultures being indifferent to the classical arts–how to explain the reaction to the soundtrack to
    “A Room With A View’ with that gorgeous Italian landscape, ana an equally gorgeous Helena Bonham-Carter backstopped by Dame Kiri’s voice? Or a ‘Britain Has Talent’ contestant who sells cellphones, singing Nessum Dorma?’

    People just intuitively understand (heart and mind??) the power of those performances— once they see them, or hear them. Hmmm. Opera, films, TV, art, vinyl, computers, i-Tunes.

    I’m growing rather fond of my multi-media performing arts complex…or something that links it all together…

  • Everyman

    I forgot to add, Heritage Vancouver Society is holding panel discussion on the Main Post Office on March 27. Details here:
    http://www.heritagevancouver.org/bulletin/bulletin_20130319.html

  • Silly Season

    OK. Are we all agreed, then?

    A honkin’ big multi-functional art(s) gallery –with awesome eats and Canadian foodstuffs section—by Edible Canada, perhaps– and an enlarged retail space (with an even bigger selection of Christmas ornaments, please!)— will be moved to the vastly updated and groovyified Main Post Office on Georgia Street??!

    There! A quintessential ‘Canadian Compromise’ ™ — but way better. And tastier, too. Pass me my maple syrup ‘n bacon chocolate, svp.

    Well, I’m off to the UN, to see what needs to be fixed there…

    😉

  • Joe Just Joe

    With the amount paid for the Post Office I think we’d have better luck seeing Pavco hand over the new convention centre for the art gallery and building another convention centre at Larwill Park. The VCC site already has a large underused plaza so it’ll fit the bill, and what says culture better then a Catcus club right next door. 🙂

  • Glissando Remmy

    Thought of The Night

    “When Mio Vancouverino Caro has got Real Estate cramps… Nessun Dorma! Dr. Offenbach suggests a … Barcarolle.”

    Roger # 100 & Silly Season #103

    I’ll see you both and I’ll … double

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DVkGTbIBR0

    We live in Vancouver and this keeps us busy.

  • Michael Kluckner

    A point not mentioned yet, I think, is the huge size of contemporary art pieces vs. much historical art. Is it the tail wagging the dog? Many contemporary artists do very large pieces (as artists did c. 17-1800 when their patrons were the aristocracy and the church), forcing galleries to expand at a great rate. A room in a typical art museum now displays maybe four or six pieces (as long as the doors aren’t too big) whereas it used to display dozens. No wonder so much work is in storage.

    I wonder if there will ever be a return to more modest-sized works like the Impressionist/Post Impressionist/Cubist canvases of 100+ years ago or most of the 17th century Dutch paintings, when the clientele was the middle class? Or Emily Carr-sized?

    The Post Office building could offer the kind of flex space contemporary art demands. Look at Equinox, with the best display space in Vancouver, in one of the old Finning buildings out on the False Creek flats.

    Another point not mentioned was the possibility of getting rid of the Vancouver law courts altogether and moving them to Surrey where all the criminals live. Then Larwill Park could become condos and the art gallery could expand southward….

  • Silly Season

    @Michael Kluckner #107

    Dianne Watts just swallowed her face! LOL! Interesting thought, though.

    @JoeJustJoe #105 Well nothing says ‘culture’ more than Martini Mondays!

    @Glissy and @Roger Kemble.

    ‘Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast,
    To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak.’

    At least till tomorrow. 😉

    Night, all.

  • A Dave

    “seeking $300 million will suck out all of the disposable cash for other not for profit activities for some time in this city.”

    Ah, Waltyss, your first insightful comment on this thread… There is certainly a lot of foreboding among all the not-VAGs about the effects of this mega-project on the rest of the arts community.

    “Maybe we need a purpose built, all-purpose site that integrates some of those other non-profits (that could use the space) into a new VAG.”

    SS, the history of this Gordon Campbell ego project stretches back a ways. Originally, he hand-picked Bing Thom to design the new VAG (and the site was on Plaza of Nations). Well, Thom actually designed exactly the type of linked, multi-purpose facility you describe, which would spread the Provincial largesse among many non-profits as well as the VAG, have plenty of cafe and public space, and generally be a hell of a lot livelier and more integrated into its surroundings than the stand-alone monolith currently on the table.

    But bless old Gordo’s Grinchy little heart, he hated Thom’s idea (as did Bartels), apparently feeling that it was not enough of a splendorous and magnificent monument to his stature as the greatest Pharaoh to have ever ruled these fair shores (plus, I guess, he didn’t want to soil the place with plebs).

    So, Campbell fired Thom, and went looking for a starchitect who would do his eminence justice.

    The leaky $600 million B-league stadium, full of shady dealings and shoddy workmanship, that now dominates our skyline with its gaudy aura, is the more fitting legacy for Campbell’s reign.

    “Robert Ho donates US$10 Million to Guggenheim (not VAG) for Asian art. Teddy Lipman, CEO of Ho’s foundation says Vancouver is “not a global platform for Contemporary Chinese art. It could be in the future”.”

    Yes, Leghorn, as I noted back at #51, the idea for a Canadian centre for Asian art to be located in Vancouver was part of the original Cultural Precinct plan — and was incorporated into Bing Thom’s vision for the new VAG site. But the VAG has since overshadowed everything else at the expense of opportunities like this to develop something truly unique for our city. Again, you can trace the lost opportunity, and lack of imagination, back to Campbell’s decision to fire Thom.

  • Roger Kemble

    Michael @ #107

    “I wonder if there will ever be a return to more modest-sized works like the Impressionist/Post Impressionist/Cubist canvases . . .”

    Errrrr ummmmm, modest size? I dunno. Claude Monet’s Reflections of Clouds on the Water-Lily Pond. c. 1920. Oil on canvas, three panels, Each 6′ 6 3/4″ x 13′ 11 1/4″ (200 x 424.8 cm), overall 6′ 6 3/4″ x 41′ 10 3/8″ (200 x 1276 cm).

    Monet’s Water Lilies ain’t postage stamps! I saw them at MOMA and can see why. He was suffering from cataracts: huh, I know his prob!

    SS @ #104, y Glissie @ #106 Yup, you got me beat: beautiful nevertheless . . . cheers!

  • Roger Kemble

    PS

  • Roger Kemble

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMzwerYyhho . . . for those who want VAG to OCCUPY 349 West Georgia!

  • Michael Kluckner

    Sorry about the late-night jest at Surrey!

    Okay, I should have said “most of” the Impressionist etc. paintings. But the waterlilies in the Orangerie are a case in point. Clemenceau told Monet he would build a building with a round room to house 3 huge panels if Monet could paint them; Monet added an addition to his studio (& went out and had the cataract operation), then completed them when he was in his early 80s, near the end of his life.

    By that stage of his career, Monet’s clients were no longer the middle-class. Most of his work went to state museums.

  • Silly Season

    @A Dave #109 Aha!

    Well, Dave, as I believe someone said earlier, pro sports (which I love for the athleticism) is about distraction, while culture is about thinking.

    Now, which might politicians prefer? 😉
    PS. Re: Bartels. Was she head honcho when that decision was made?

    Points taken about donor money going elsewhere, too.

    @Roger Kemble #110 and #111.

    Love the selections–such are cultural markers, eh? (On that note, can we have a special room made up for Bob and Doug, The MacKenzie Brothers?)

    @Michael Kluckner

    No need to apologise Michael! No one else here does… 😉

    BTW: they do have a problem in Surrey right now. At least till they put the heat on—and drive the doofs to another town. Sigh. The cycle of gangsta life in Metro Van.

    Your anecdote on Monet’s cataract surgery was the icing on the cake to @Roger Kemble’s comments #110. Great story.

    Excellent thread, all. I’m picking up that everyone thinks that the cultural life is worth living. So…next steps.

  • RON

    Michael #113 didn’t get it quite right, but nearly.
    Monet was commissioned by Clemenceau to produce a fitting memorial to world war 1 and subsequently produced an amazing set of paintings – the Water Lilies, a colossal mural and the Orangery, in the Tuileries Gardens built in 1852 was adapted to accommodate them, and they are there still. The building was recently renovated and incorporates a basement gallery of Impressionist paintings. A supreme example of how an old classical building can be adapted and transformed into a marvellous Gallery
    V A G anyone ?

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