Just received this in the ol' inbox - an open letter to the National Gallery of Canada on the closure of the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography. Note the parts in bold (emphasis mine)
Open letter to Mr. Michael Audain, Chairperson, Board of Trustees,
National Gallery of Canada, and Members of the Board.
We the undersigned, including both photographic artists chosen to
participate in the National Gallery consultation on the future of the
Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography (CMCP), and other
distinguished practitioners not chosen, have been struggling with the
implications of the consultation as designed by the National Gallery
of Canada (NGC). We have decided not to participate in the
consultation, unless it can be reformulated as open, public, and
national.
On 8 April, 2009, it was announced that the NGC Board of Trustees had instructed the personnel of the NGC to conduct a national consultation with the photographic community. It was anticipated that this
consultation would be open and public. Many interested members of the community, including artists, curators, researchers, educators, critics, and members of the public, contacted the NGC to ensure that
they would be informed when and where the consultations would be taking place. Instead, the NGC decided to conduct the consultation on an individual basis, by invitation and by telephone, and to present its findings to the Board without attribution. The list of invited artists is confidential.
We understand that the invitation list includes artists who have exhibited their work at the CMCP or the NGC during the last five years, as well as those with scheduled exhibitions forthcoming. We note that the CMCP has been closed for renovations due to a leak in the roof for nearly three years, during which time all CMCP exhibitions were temporarily housed at the NGC. We note too that budgetary restraints and administrative changes had severely restricted the CMCP's autonomy for several years before the temporary closure of the building at 1 Rideau Canal. It is impossible to evaluate the performance and potential of the CMCP from this period of physical upheaval and institutional hardship.
We believe that a public consultation has to involve more than the artist/photographers whose work has been exhibited at the gallery over the past five years. A national consultation of the photographic
community also has to include other professionals in the field: curators, collectors, dealers, researchers, educators, critics, and the large public that has an interest in the CMCP.
We are asking the Board of Trustees to ensure that an open and public process of national consultation is conducted before any further decisions are made about the future of the CMCP.
We would be happy to participate openly in a public consultation.
Signed:
Raymonde April, Benoit Aquin, Richard Baillargeon, Marian Penner
Bancroft, Claude-Philippe Benoit, Phil Bergerson, Karl Beveridge, AA
Bronson, Michel Campeau, Bertrand Carriére, Serge Clément, Carol
Condé, Linda Covit, Marlene Creates, Donigan Cumming, Stan Denniston,
Jennifer Dickson, Evergon, William Eakin, Janieta Eyre, Vera Frenkel,
Richard Fung, Wyn Geleynse, Lorraine Gilbert, Don Gill, Rafael
Goldchain, Adrian Gollner, Pascal Grandmaison, Sunil Gupta, Toni
Hafkenscheid, Ted Hiebert, David Hlynsky, Richard Holden, Thaddeus
Holownia, Holly King, Thomas Kneubuhler, Susan McEachern, Robert
Minden, Shelley Niro, Sylvie Readman, Henri Robideau, Jayce Salloum,
Sandra Semchuk, Cheryl Sourkes, George Steeves, Gabor Szilasi, Jeff
Thomas, Diana Thorneycroft, Eve K. Tremblay, Richard-Max Tremblay,
Justin Wonnacott, Andrew Wright, Jin-me Yoon
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Open Letter on Photo Museum Debacle: Artists Refuse Consultation
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Update: Our Nat'l Photo Museum Confirmed to Close
Yesterday, there was a very good article in the Ottawa Citizen on the fate of the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, which I posted on earlier this week. The article gives full coverage to the question of whether the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, opened to great fanfare in 1992, is about to lose its building.
The answer: Most definitely. And the main culprit would seem to be the Harper government, which is taking over the site as meeting rooms and offices.
As the article makes clear, other factors did come into play such as water seepage. And it does note that the collection and programs of the CMCP will continue to exist at the National Gallery of Canada at 380 Sussex Drive. But the museum will no longer have its own standalone building.
My opinion on this-- shared by Ottawa photographer Jennifer Dickson and founding CMCP director Martha Langford, both of whom were interviewed in the article--is anger and disappointment.
As the article makes clear, the creation of the CMCP took many years, and million of dollars. In many ways was a triumph of the Mulroney Conservatives--Mulroney being a right-wing leader who, in retrospect, seems very arts-friendly compared to our current conservative PM Stephen Harper.
Given the Harper government's cancellation of the construction of our National Portrait Gallery, and the fact that he are taking over the CMCP site for the government's own purposes, this seems like just another instance of the current government's "eff you" stance towards arts and culture, both in Ottawa and elsewhere. (Remember Calgary and Edmonton submitted extensive proposals for the Portrait Gallery as well... this is not about east-west patronage tensions, just arts stuff.)
This decision to shut the gallery is also not about more theoretical questions around the validity of photography as its own medium in this multidisciplinary day and age. Were the museum to continue in its current site, I'm sure they'd continue to manage the analog-digital transitions of the medium just fine. (The exhibition they've got coming up at the NGC focuses on Scott McFarland, who uses digital techniques quite extensively.)
Relevant questions that still remain, however, might be the budgetary constraints imposed by former liberal PM Chretien's decision to build an outpost of the NGC in his home riding of Shawinigan. As well as, of course, Harper's desire to control messaging and media at all costs. (As the CBC recently reports, Harper's currently doing his second interviews with CNN and Fox in less than a month--but has refused to give national news service the Canadian Press an interview since December 2007. Pathetic.)
Image of outraged Ottawa photographer Jennifer Dickson from the Ottawa Citizen
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Rumour: Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography to Close?
Just got an email about a potential closure of the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, one of the few national museums of photography in the world. It's a forward originally written by Winnipeg artist Diana Thorneycroft. Writes Thorneycroft:
Dear photographers and friends of photography:
I have just learned that the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography has lost the building that was specifically designed for them. As reported in the Monday edition of the National Post (16.03.09) the museum will be gutted and turned into offices for politicians....
For the past two years CMCP has been occupying temporary space at the National Gallery.It is imperative that we show our support for this institution, its programming and collecting, or we may very well lose it.
According to the National Post story, "The federal government will convert the former Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography in downtown Ottawa into committee rooms for MPs as part of its plan to vacate the crumbling West Block next year" for a Parliament renovation that will take 10 years.
For its part, the CMCP website posts two conflicting pieces of information. A February 23 press release says: "Due to an ongoing renovation program of its premises at 1 Rideau Street, the CMCP is currently staging its exhibitions at the National Gallery of Canada." But on the museum's "Hours and Location" tab, it says "New Location: Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, 380 Sussex Drive" -- the same as the address of the National Gallery of Canada.
I don't think it would be beyond the government's anti-arts, cost-saving ethos to roll the location of the CMCP and the National Gallery of Canada into one and use the old building for itself. But it's unclear if this is a permanent move. More info hopefully to follow.
Image of the CMCP building at 1 Rideau Street from its website
