The Conservatives’ $45 million cut to arts funding earlier this year did not sit well with Quebec voters and it showed in the Oct. 14 election, when the Conservative Party did not gain any seats in the province.
The government seems unwilling to see arts and culture as a priority, and is showing no plans to dive into federal pockets anytime soon. The government’s newest arts-related announcement displays this sentiment.
While politicians discuss a possible automobile industry bail-out, millions of pledged dollars have been seized from a National Portrait Gallery project. Newly appointed Heritage Minister James Moore announced suddenly on Nov. 7 that the bid among several Canadian cities to house the gallery has been cancelled.
Yes, an auto industry bailout would be important to Ontario jobs and the national economy. If the government can raise millions of dollars for it, surely an arts-related project already underway does not need to be abandoned.
Moore’s excuse cited “economic instability” as a reason for the government to act “prudently” by dismissing first the Liberal’s plan and then its own.
Originally, in 2001, Liberal Heritage Minister Sheila Copps proposed a federally funded gallery that would host portraits of both influential and everyday Canadians.
Rather than sticking to Copps's federally-funded plan that had been pushed back due to an increase in expected funding, from $22 million to $45 million, in 2007 the Conservatives invited several cities to bid for the gallery – a poorly planned initiative.
Edmonton, Calgary and Ottawa were the top three contenders but Moore said that none of the developers’ proposals were acceptable – another “reason” the bid was called off.
The country’s collection of portraits has a temporary home in Ottawa and many would like it to stay here, including Ottawa Centre MP Paul Dewar. After all, this is the nation’s capital.
The gallery’s location aside, should a plan in which the government has already invested $10 million, simply be tossed away?
Is a special facility in Gatineau, Que., that is available for public viewing at designated times adequate? No.
The United States, Australia and England all have national portrait galleries to display exhibits unique to their own national and cultural history. Canadian portraits cannot possibly display their true potential through scheduled tours and travelling exhibitions.
Canadian and international professionals’ and amateurs’ work comprise the collection. Some of the collection’s most treasured pieces are those that capture a part of Canada’s history – for example, portraits portraying the earliest European contact with Aboriginal peoples.
Providing a permanent home for the gallery would bring in revenue through admissions and tourism, it would eliminate the high costs of moving short-term exhibitions across the country.
The push and excitement that was involved in this project shows how much Canada wants this development. Pieces in the current preservation area include more than 20,000 paintings, drawings and prints and four million photographs. The collection can be publicly viewed solely via tours of limited numbers that require advance reservations.
The federally funded plan should not have been abandoned for such a bid in the first place. This pits city against city in an unnecessary competition for a Canadian project that would become an asset to the country no matter in what city it stands.
In Ottawa or elsewhere, Canadians deserve to see the full thunder of this effort – a National Portrait Gallery that does not lack lustre.