View of the Vancouver Art Gallery courtesy of the VAG.
Today, the Vancouver Art Gallery announced the creation of a new artist advisory group. Though currently in development, members so far include Brian Jungen, Roy Arden and Stephen Waddell.
In a release, the gallery indicated that the move was part of a stepped-up effort by the institution’s board and leadership to ensure the development of a new, bigger gallery space on two acres of land at Larwill Park in Vancouver.
Vancouver’s City Council is due to receive a direction-defining city report on the future of the park—and by extension, the VAG—at a February 1 meeting. According to a November 15 Globe and Mail article, the gallery must, by that date, demonstrate that it has local support for the new building, and that it is financially viable.
The VAG’s announcement about the artist advisory group comes just days after local collector Bob Rennie released a proposal outlining his own preference for revamping the gallery into multiple, smaller venues rather than a single new, larger building. The Globe and Mail, among other outlets, has also reported this year on the increasing animosity between Rennie and VAG director Kathleen Bartels.
The VAG’s creation of the artist advisory group also follows the months-long circulation of a petition—Visual Arts Professionals in Favour of a new Vancouver Art Gallery—that expresses support for Bartels and the VAG Board “as they work towards … realization” of “a new, stand-alone, iconic building.”
“We know there is a growing interest in the visual arts in Vancouver, and we hope people will chime in with their support for expanding the presence and role of the VAG in cultivating and promoting it,” Bartels said in the gallery’s release. “We look forward to working with everyone to build on our successes, and to the construction of a new Vancouver Art Gallery.”
