It is almost three months since Kathleen Bartels stepped down as the director of the Vancouver Art Gallery -- and still no word of her replacement. Rumours circulate of a hiring committee made up of board members and externals, but no shortlist as of yet.
Did I also hear that the VAG was to announce its new director in September? I am hoping so, but that doesn't seem likely. Although interim director Daina Auguitis is more than capable of helming the VAG, the greater question concerns the proposed Herzog & de Meuron building at Larwill Park. Will the VAG continue with this site and its expensive design, or will it hire a new firm, with new contractors, and build on its current site (what many believe to be the best address in town)? Either way, this decision cannot be made by an interim director but by a new director, someone willing to commit a minimum of ten years to the establishment of the gallery and its collection as a site where the stories of Canadian west coast art can be seen, heard and argued over.
More than any visiting exhibition, it is the collection that is key to generating interest in a public gallery amongst those who share its city, its province and its country. Indeed, without the support of these publics -- Vancouverites, British Columbians, Canadians and First Nations -- the VAG would lack the public funds required to build what must remain a public gallery, a question that few have raised in light of the Chan family’s donation of 40 million dollars towards the Chan Centre for the Visual Arts -- the mall in which the VAG will be housed. Is the Chan Centre for the Visual Arts the “purpose-built, stand alone, iconic” building Kathleen Bartels pushed for since the VAG announced its move 10+ years ago? No. And if Bartels allegedly stepped down because her board decided that the Chan’s money was more important than the stand alone Vancouver Art Gallery building they had originally agreed upon (note that it was a board member who made the announcement of the Chan donation, not Bartels), then she had no choice but to step down.
Kathleen Bartels accomplished a lot in her 18 years at the VAG, some of which is detailed here. She is also responsible for a number of missteps, many of which relate to a top-down approach to leadership that put her in conflict not only with the gallery’s union membership but with its private donors. This top-down approach was most apparent in her inability to inspire and lead a grassroots campaign that would have local, regional and national publics joining in on the call for a new -- if not revitalized -- public gallery. A hallmark of our relational turn has it that the best way to make something is to allow those you are making it for feel a part of it.
A number of people I have talked to, both inside and outside of the arts, feel Bartels’s inability to connect with the greater public was based on her unwillingness to learn about where she was and who she was working with (and for). For Canadians, this is often the problem of the American director who comes from a funding structure based more on private patronage than on government money. Would a Canadian director behave any differently? Maybe. Would the VAG benefit from a Canadian director? That would depend on who, as there are a number of Canadian directors with varying degrees of experience (in fundraising, collections and gallery building) who are working internationally, either in Canada or abroad.
As a long time VAG member, I feel it is time for a director who has a knowledge and an interest in the city, province and country where the gallery is located. Bartel’s predecessor, Alf Bogusky, is a Canadian who had a feeling for the place and its people, but whose failings appeared to lie at the opposite end of the spectrum: he was weary of wealthy patrons and was uninterested in working internationally. Fortunately, today we have more options. Though he has not worked with a gallery board in over 30 years, the Belkin’s Scott Watson could be considered. Though he has not worked with a collection, the Polygon’s Reid Shier, like Watson, has participated in the building of a new gallery and has a knowledge of historic regional practices. Further afield, Art Gallery of Alberta director Catherine Crowston has worked with a board, a collection, overseen a major renovation and has raised a great deal of money; she too must be considered. As for Canadian directors working abroad, there is Séamus Kealy (Salzburger Kunstverein) and Juan Gaitán (Museo Tamayo). Though she has never directed an institution, Candace Hopkins has a range of transferable skills, in addition to the requisite temperament.
But there are still bigger, more intangible questions to sort out before a new director can be considered. The elephant in the room here is Michael Audain, whose commitment to the province is well-known. If the VAG is to raise the money needed to complete its publicly stated funding goal, then Audain will have a hand in the hire. Yet even if the VAG stays where it is and renovates (saving what some believe to be as much as a 100 million dollars), the matching conditions by which public monies are to be delivered will still require Audain’s donation, particularly since staying at the current site would mean the end of the Chan Centre for the Visual Arts (and maybe its donation?). This, I suspect, is what is holding things up, and why the VAG will not have its director anytime soon.
