Portrait Gallery of Canada

[Michael Wallace]

Anton-

Thanks for that posting. As the only staff person at Theatre Museum
Canada, I was amazed to read that the Portrait Gallery has 15! That is
about the size we eventually want to be - on par with other niche museums
across the country - like the shoe museum, canoe museum, guitar museum
>>
While we don't yet have walls and a roof, I hope that you have also
visitted our virtual home, www.theatremuseumcanada.ca
>>
Like the Portrait Gallery (but on a smaller scale), we too are limited to
temporary exhibitions - and lending our collection. I was delighted that
we were able to lend materials to Guelph University's Shakespeare: Made In
Canada Exhibition.

This last weekend we conducted a tour of theatres -old & new- in Toronto
in partnership with Heritage Toronto. This is an approach that we could
use across the country
>>
Our long-term goal continues to be a home for our year-round exhibitions
and educational activities. A place where Canadians and other visitors can
explore and celebrate Canada's performing arts heritage.
>>

 Regards
>>
>> -Michael Wallace
>> Executive Director,
>> Theatre Museum Canada
>> 416-413-784



There is an interesting article in today's Globe and Mail on the Portrait
> Gallery of Canada http://www.portraits.gc.ca recalling the struggles by
> the
> ACTH a couple decades ago to establish a Canadian theatre museum. I found
> the
> seach engine of the site awkward to use trying to find the 1930 bust of
> Herman
> Voaden (I had to enter the search in the "Search All" section of "Search
> Library
> and Archives" rather than in the website itself) but did finally find a
> photo
> and description at
> http://mikan3.archives.ca/pam/public_mikan/index.php?fuseaction=genitem.displayItem&lang=eng&rec_nbr=3018785&
>
>
> VAL ROSS
>
> Globe and Mail Update
>
> July 31, 2007 at 3:55 AM EDT
>
> Though it remains homeless -- the federal government's plans to move it to
> Calgary having been quietly shelved -- the Portrait Gallery of Canada is
> very
> much "active," according to the Department of Canadian Heritage. This
> month, it
> launched a new, upgraded website - and its latest exhibition, The Four
> Indian
> Kings.
>
> From March until June, visitors to Britain's popular National Portrait
> Gallery
> in London got to inspect the 300-year-old portraits of red-cloaked
> Iroquois
> leaders in the flesh, or rather oil paint. Even the Queen saw them. For
> now,
> Canadian viewers must be content with an online version; our portrait
> gallery
> still has only a virtual existence.
>
> Why? Because last year, citing the need to cut frivolous spending, the
> Harper
> government cancelled plans to complete the portrait gallery's
> half-renovated
> home in the former U.S. embassy on Wellington Street in Ottawa, across
> from the
> Parliament Buildings, and instead move it to an office complex being built
> for
> the energy company Encana in Calgary. Ottawa spoke about the need to
> decentralize cultural institutions and the importance of private
> partnerships.
>
> This spring, around the time that London crowds were filing past faces
> from
> Canada's heritage - the earliest known portraits of North American
> aboriginal
> people in European art, commissioned by Queen Anne around 1710 from court
> painter John Verelst - someone in Ottawa finally did the math on the
> Calgary
> scheme.
>
> With the city in the midst of an inflationary construction boom, the costs
> of
> preparing the venue to gallery conditions (security and climate control)
> had
> gone through the roof. Moreover, the property's owners said they expected
> to
> charge market rates for rent. Surprise: The Calgary option died.
>
> "The government is now exploring new sites and new options," a Heritage
> spokesman said this week. However, no one expects the Harper government to
> revert to the Wellington Street site. "They're hell-bent not to put them
> back,"
> says a former civil servant with Library and Archives Canada, which is
> responsible for the portrait gallery. "They must be very embarrassed."
>
> When construction contracts for renovating Wellington Street lapsed, the
> cost of
> moving anything into the site went way up, making a farce of the claim
> that the
> 2006 cancellation would save money.
>
> The only way for this government to save face, observers agree, is for the
> private sector to step forward.
>
> Because big donors enthusiastically pushed the proposed Canadian Museum
> for
> Human Rights in Winnipeg, the Harper government committed itself to
> throwing in
> $100-million of federal money for the building, plus $22-million a year in
> operating money. Such a partnership is what Tories want for the Portrait
> Gallery.
>
> But it's a vain hope. Unlike the National Gallery of Canada or the Museum
> for
> Human Rights, the Portrait Gallery is not a Crown corporation. It
> maintains a
> staff of about 15 curators, cataloguers and support services under the
> auspices
> of the Librarian and Archivist of Canada, Ian Wilson, who in effect, ranks
> as a
> deputy minister in charge of a government department. To appreciate the
> dilemma
> for the Portrait Gallery, try persuading an arts patron to donate to a
> government department.
>
> Unlikely to find a private-sector saviour, the Portrait Gallery
> nevertheless has
> big plans. Next year the Four Indian Kings show will tour, in its
> oil-painted
> version, to venues across Canada. Portraits by photographer Yousuf Karsh
> from
> the gallery's collection drew 150,000 visitors in France last year, and
> the
> gallery wants to mount a Karsh show for the photographer's 2008 centenary.
>
> And in May, 2008, the Portrait Gallery will host the Ottawa leg of a
> national
> tour of F.H. Varley: Portraits into the Light (organized by the Varley Art
> Gallery of Markham, Ont.). Space is being donated by Ottawa's Canadian
> Museum
> of Nature. At least someone understands that if a gallery is to do this
> exhibition thing properly, it requires walls and a roof.
>