Innovative thinking helps West Coast art gallery gain its freedom

September 18, 2011

VANCOUVER, B.C., Sept. 18, 2011/Troy Media/ – In these heady days of the Arab Spring, disappearing dictators and Middle Eastern youth revolting in the cause of democracy, it can sometimes slip past our scrutiny that mature democracies still struggle with the freedom of their civil society institutions.

Take art galleries, for example – in Vancouver, B.C. In May 2008, the Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art opened at 639 Hornby St. in the heart of downtown Vancouver. The gallery was created by a not-for-profit foundation incorporated to further the magnificent legacy of Bill Reid, perhaps Canada’s most important First Nation’s artist, and one of the country’s esthetic heroes.

With 112 Bill Reid masterworks in red cedar, gold, silver, bronze, boxwood and argillite, the gallery kept nothing in storage, and boldly opened to the public. From the start, it relied entirely on private philanthropy, admissions, gift shop profits and event hosting to meet its operations costs of about $1 million per year.

Economy sours

Suddenly in the fall of 2008, the economic world went south. Lehmann Brothers crashed, collateralized debt obligations threatened Iceland’s banks, and in the U.S. sub-prime mortgages went under water faster than the Titanic. At the Bill Reid Gallery, the staff faced a new reality of disappearing philanthropy, declining admissions, cancelled events and an ever-growing reliance on a banker’s line of credit.

The usual lifeboats were launched: half of the staff were laid off, discretionary spending ended, and ‘heroic fundraising’ efforts commenced. Board members dug deep into their pockets and wrote cheques to enable monthly payrolls to be met. A few corporations agreed to short-term loans. The gift shop stopped purchasing inventory and moved entirely to consignment. Event fees were chopped, and everyone – curator and shop clerk alike – worked many 16-hour days that were ‘half gallery and half wedding’ to make ends meet.

I had moved back to Vancouver and became CEO of the Reid gallery after a 30-year absence in Calgary, much of it as CEO of the Glenbow Museum, and I experienced the new reality just like the rest of the staff. I came to work at 7:30, turned off the alarm system, did the opening security sweep, flushed the urinals in the men’s toilette, picked up litter, answered phones and held off increasingly hostile creditors.

No public funding

While the government operated galleries and museums also experienced all of the same market stress, their owners had deeper pockets than ours. It was a notable event on April 16, 2010, when we opened the Globe and Mail that we shared to read: “National Museums Get Cash Infusion: Canada’s cash strapped national museums got a major boost yesterday in the form of a one-time $15-million cash infusion from the federal government.” Several museum directors expressed great gratitude for the support: “It’s a huge relief,” said the director of the National Gallery.

Back on the west coast, the Bill Reid Foundation and Trust’s board and staff concocted a survival plan: offer the $10-million Bill Reid Collection to Simon Fraser University, known for their innovative downtown Vancouver campus and interest in building community learning institutions like the Wosk Centre for Dialogue.

In return, negotiate about one third of the gallery’s operating costs (now down significantly from 2008’s $1-million), as a management fee for caring for and exhibiting their Bill Reid Collection in the Bill Reid Gallery, leased by the Bill Reid Trust. The proposal was carefully constructed, presented in a beautifully illustrated binder, and negotiations began.

As this process developed in the latter part of 2010, the Audain Foundation for the Visual Arts stepped forward and agreed to make a $1-million contribution to the new joint venture’s sustainability, if both sides agreed to a reasonable Deed of Gift and a reciprocal Management Services Agreement. Motivated by beauty, survival and enlightened philanthropy, they did.

Joyous announcement

Then, last week, on Sept. 15, SFU President Andrew Petter and Bill Reid Foundation board chair David Gillanders announced the gift in front of an audience of SFU faculty and senior administration officials, Bill Reid Trust and Foundation Board members, the Chief Councillor of the Skidegate Band Council (Bill Reid’s Haida Gwaii home), noted philanthropists, First Nation’s artists and students, gallery staff and volunteers. As I looked around the room, there was a uniform air of celebration and joy.

To some, this joint venture in the cause of preserving a small public art gallery may seem rather humble. No grand new triumph of arts ‘starchitecture’ was officially opened; it was really business as usual for the rest of the day, and maybe 40 people paid their admissions to view the Bill Reid Collection after the ceremony closed with individually raised glasses of mineral water, each containing a freshly picked west coast blackberry.

To those who attended, however, there was an emotional affirmation of the purpose of not-for-profit arts institutions that champion creativity, serve our national soul, and are close to the heart of civil society. They are building blocks of democracy.

Mike Robinson is CEO Bill Reid Trust and President, Bill Reid Foundation.