Images clockwise from left: Glenn and Barbara McInnes, and Alexandra Badzak, the Ottawa Art Gallery’s director and CEO; the Vancouver Art Gallery, photographed from the corner of Robson and Howe. Photo: Jason Vanderhill via Wikimedia; Hamilton’s the Cotton Factory, where a new residency with Hamilton Artists Inc. will be held.
Our editors’ weekly roundup of Canadian art news.
The Ottawa Art Gallery’s capital campaign, which is raising funds for a large expansion slated to open in late 2017, has received two major donations this week. Ottawa residents Glenn and Barbara McInnes donated $100,000, which will be directed towards the creation of the Glenn and Barbara McInnes Gallery. The RBC Emerging Artists Project donated $50,000, which will be used to support Indigenous exhibitions at the gallery. Construction on the new building began in August 2015.
Hamilton Artists Inc. is launching a residency project in partnership with the Cotton Factory, a former industrial building in Hamilton that has been revamped into a series of office spaces, workshops and artist studios. The residency will be support emerging artists through rotating residencies, and the Cotton Factory space will also provide a site for auxiliary events and programming for the artist-run centre. The inaugural residency recipients are Adrienne Spier and Singithi Kandage.
The Alliance for Arts and Culture has released research about arts and culture in British Columbia, compiled by Hill Strategies Research. Among the findings, the report suggests that “BC arts organizations are underfunded compared with peers in other provinces,” and that “all BC arts organizations are short of human resources, even the better financed ones.” BC arts organizations also tend to be municipally focused, and dedicated to education.
Speculation mounts about the future of the Vancouver Art Gallery’s current building. With a funding campaign underway for a new building, the VAG’s current location, a heritage building at 750 Hornby Street, could be vacated if the campaign and move are successful. The Province reports that there is “unsubstantiated chatter from inside city hall that China’s government has shown interest in the land as a new site for its Granville Street consulate,” however this has not been confirmed.
