Vancouver Art Gallery waits on federal funds as Calgary venues get $100 million-plus commitments
Credit to Author: Kevin Griffin| Date: Fri, 06 Sep 2019 19:45:58 +0000
The owner of one of Vancouver’s top art galleries is wondering how long the Vancouver Art Gallery will have to wait for federal funding for a new gallery building.
Andy Sylvester from Equinox Gallery said he found it “embarrassing” that after 11 years of lobbying, the federal government still hasn’t indicated how much it is contributing to a new gallery building.
He said it was “astonishing” that Contemporary Calgary was getting $30 million from the federal government to renovate the city’s Centennial Planetarium after 18 months of lobbying.
Plus, Ottawa announced in late August it was giving an additional $80 million for the expansion of Arts Commons, a multi-venue arts centre in Calgary.
“I do know that in the world of what might be culturally important in our province, the expansion of the Vancouver Art Gallery should be at the very top of the list and it should have been for a long time,” Sylvester said in a phone interview.
“In Vancouver, we’ve been lobbying to get money for the Vancouver Art Gallery for over a decade.”
The VAG said David Calabrigo, chair of the VAG’s board of trustees, was not available Thursday for comment.
An artist’s rendering of the outside the proposed Vancouver Art Gallery.
The gallery issued a statement saying it was aware of the funding announcement for Calgary Contemporary and was “encouraged to see a federal commitment for more funding for the arts in the west.”
“We are continuing to have positive discussions with the federal government about the Vancouver Art Gallery and are relying on them providing a commitment for the same kind of support here,” the statement said.
“We do not have any new updates on those discussions, but with the strong commitments we have had from the city, province and private donors, we are counting on our federal representatives to step forward.”
Hedy Fry is the MP for Vancouver Centre which includes the Vancouver Art Gallery. Her office did not respond to a request for comment.
As of June, the VAG said it had raised $85 million from the private sector that included a $40-million donation from the Chan family. In 2009, the provincial government donated $50 million to the $350-million project, bringing the total raised to about $135 million. The VAG has said it was asking for another $50 million from Victoria and $100 million from Ottawa for the new building designed by the Swiss architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron.
The City of Vancouver has already contributed the site at 688 Cambie at West Georgia on a 99-year lease.
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