Should it become ‘a world-class public art museum’ or adhere to founder Eric Harvie’s Scottish interdisciplinary roots?
After six years as president and CEO of Glenbow, Donna Livingstone is leaving to become CEO of the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies. Glenbow board of governors chair Irfhan Rawji saluted her efforts at stabilizing the financial situation “and allowing us the opportunity to continue on our way to being a world-class public art…
The world of arts and culture offers lots of examples of gross expense and imported notions of what’s important. But there are alternatives
How are the National Post and the Globe and Mail doing in your neighbourhood? In Powell River, the big Toronto newspapers are on their last boomer gasp at the newsstands. In their place, piles of the weekly Powell River Peak and monthly Powell River Living fly off the counters and adjacent distribution boxes. The local…
How the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, a bastion of contemporary art, resurrected a community and why others should follow its lead
In 1997, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao opened on the estuary of the Nervion River and immediately became the template for all new cultural institution architecture worldwide. Frank Gehry was the building’s visionary architect. His Spanish client was the Basque administration, along with new York’s Guggenheim Foundation. They sought to use architecture and contemporary art to…
Historical revisionists want to rename buildings, pull down statues and rename paintings. Leave our history alone, warts and all
The modern fashion of attempting to rewrite history appears to be gaining ground. Hector-Louis Langevin’s name no longer adorns his building in Ottawa, the statue of Edward Cornwallis in Halifax has been toppled. And now, the history rewriters are busily taking dead aim at the most famous Canadian of all – John A. Macdonald. The three…
The gift shop at the Toronto exhibit offers a swath of overpriced items. What would the ultra left-wing artist think of that?
There’s always been an understood link between art and capitalism. Even artists who reject the very nature of capitalism will still be part of this process, whether they like it or not. This includes the popular, controversial and mysterious graffiti artist known as Banksy. A product of Bristol, England’s underground scene, this person’s name and…
And a full dose of air-conditioned museum comfort certainly doesn't hurt the appreciation of Picasso
Last week, thousands of Montrealers began to experience what I expect will gradually become a new phenomenon in global art gallery visitation – viewing art to get out of the heat. The heat wave (CBC news referred to it as “a heat event”) really descended on the city on the previous weekend, with Saturday’s temperatures…
Stop in Giverny at least for a few hours to wander among Monet's gardens and you'll feel like you've entered one of his paintings
If you love Impressionist paintings, why not plan a visit to Giverny, in France, and see Monet’s garden, flowers, pond and bridges for yourself? It’s been said the Impressionist art movement acquired its name from one of Monet’s paintings called “Impression, Sunrise.” Giverny was Monet's home during the last half of his life. He painted…
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts exhibit mythologizes the 1960s by ignoring the dark ugliness masked by all those drug-addled smiles
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is a major institution in Canada’s only real city, which is why its summer Revolution exhibit is such a serious letdown. Devotees of the museum expect far better than Revolution’s intellectually lazy merchandising of 1960s mythology. Based around the eponymous Beatles song, Revolution purports to be a fresh exploration…
The Canadian Museum of Rail Travel in Cranbrook, B.C. offers a powerful glimpse into what life must have been like during the glory days of rail travel
My recent tour of the remarkable Canadian Museum of Rail Travel in Cranbrook, B.C., got me wondering why all of Canada cannot once again have a viable rail passenger service. The museum contains a collection of dozens of rail cars from the past 100+ years in various states of repair. Collectively, they deliver a powerful…
The West lives on at Oklahoma's Pawnee Bill Ranch and Museum
Kevin Webb, 32, cracks his bullwhip. It snaps like gunshot, and stirs up the morning dew so fine it resembles gun smoke. Little wonder: the braided leather whip travels 1,200 kilometres an hour. “I beat the livin’ daylights out o’ myself learnin’ how to crack the whip,” Webb says with a gosh-shucks smile and sweet-as-sarsaparilla…
After six years as president and CEO of Glenbow, Donna Livingstone is leaving to become CEO of the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies. Glenbow board of governors chair Irfhan Rawji saluted her efforts at stabilizing the financial situation “and allowing us the opportunity to continue on our way to being a world-class public art…
