BACK FROM THE BRINK

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"Inside the Art Gallery of Calgary"

Inside the Art Gallery of Calgary. Photo by George Webber.

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"Valerie Cooper and Donna Wawzonek"

Art Gallery of Calgary CEO Valerie Cooper (at left) and curator Donna Wawzonek. Photo by George Webber.

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"Inside the Art Gallery of Calgary"

Inside the Art Gallery of Calgary. Photo by George Webber.

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"Art Gallery of Calgary"

Inside the Art Gallery of Calgary. Photo by George Webber.

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BACK FROM THE BRINK

At the Art Gallery of Calgary, CEO Valerie Cooper talks about reviving and stabilizing a near-dead institution.

By Bruce Weir

More than any do-it-yourself suburbanite, Valerie Cooper knows how a renovation can grow out of control. After all, since taking on her duties as president and chief executive officer of the Art Gallery of Calgary in 2004, the two heritage buildings that house the operation have been in a near constant state of repair.

The buildings were extensively remodelled in 2000 when the AGC (then known as the Muttart Gallery) moved from its location in the Memorial Park Library. Two years later the space was redesigned, and in September 2005 a campaign optimistically called Finishing Touches put $265,000 into paint, new furniture, signage, lighting and sound systems. Then in March 2006, the gallery closed for almost a month while the entranceway was remodelled and the hardwood floors refinished.

Given all the headaches associated with the work, it is probably a good thing that this last round of renos included new office windows that will open onto the street. Cooper could probably use a breath of fresh air.

On the day we met in her sunny office - furnishings donated by Ikea, a couple of paintings by William Perehudoff on the walls - the floors of the upper gallery were being sanded. The work could clearly be heard through the wall, but Cooper was unfazed. As has been evident since her arrival on the job, she knows how to screen out distractions.

This ability served her well when the AGC's financial straits became apparent a short time into her tenure. "The gallery was in a bankruptcy position," she recalls. "There were various liens on the building - people who had been looking for their money for upwards of three years."

Cooper began by calling creditors and offering them a paydown on the debt (in some cases 20 or 30 cents on the dollar) and meeting with the four banks that held the Gallery's accounts to see if any of them would extend the $1 million or so the gallery needed to deal with its debt, as well as its mortgage payments.

The fact that First Calgary Savings agreed is proof of its commitment but also to Cooper's financial acumen - she has a master's degree in management and worked at the Glenbow Museum for seven years - and persuasive powers. Those powers were tested further when, about three weeks into her job, city inspectors paid a visit, declared the building unsafe and announced that it should be closed. Cooper convinced these officials to give her three weeks to correct the deficiencies, and the gallery remained open. Barely.

When she found the time to look up, Cooper saw more problems. "You can imagine where I was sitting," she says. "We don't have the money to meet payroll, we have a building that is not up to code, and management before me had made a commitment to bring in a blockbuster exhibition." That show had a price tag of $80,000 and its title - The Basement Show- was appropriate because the AGC had hit rock bottom.

The tumble had been a long one, but it spoke to the unique circumstances of the AGC. In 1977 when it was founded as the Muttart Gallery, the organization was the brainchild of the Calgary Public Library, which was seeking to raise money to restore its Memorial Park branch. According to Richard White, director of the Muttart from 1985 to 1995, the library created the gallery and then sold the naming rights to the Muttart Foundation.

This curious relationship meant the gallery paid no rent from its inception until 1990 - it also meant that it was never a collecting gallery. In those 13 years, the Muttart grew from a grassroots organization to a professionally run operation, one that enjoyed good community support by virtue of hosting student groups and a slate of art classes. In fact, it had outgrown its space, so when the library began charging rent a few things became clear. "We thought, If we were going to pay for our space we might as well start looking for a facility that would accommodate our programs," White says.

By the end of White's tenure, an anonymous donor had offered to fund the purchase of a new space and the search was on. It wasn't until 1997 that the two buildings - one completed in 1902, the other in 1903 - on Calgary's historic Stephen Avenue were secured. White served as chairman of the smART Move campaign, which raised more than $2.3 million to finance the move and renovations. Looking back he says, "We knew it was a big job, but you never quite appreciate how big a job it is to renovate an old building."

The size of it is evidenced by the fact that the work is just wrapping up (10 years on) and by the financial strain it engendered. But the move had other, perhaps larger, organizational implications. "If you go back on the history of the gallery there are probably two or three times in the 30 years that we really jumped into bigger boots," says Cooper. "That move was a milestone."

With the installation of environmental controls in the upper gallery, the work will (finally) be finished. More importantly, this final touch will allow the gallery to book museum-quality shows that have previously bypassed the AGC, and to some extent, the city. "The argument in this city keeps swirling around and around: 'Oh, we need a public, contemporary art gallery,'" Cooper says. "We are the public contemporary art gallery."

Her job now is to convince others of that fact. While Cooper says support has been strong in the community - plumbers and the floor refinishers have worked for reduced rates, appliances, moving services and furniture have been donated - government funders cut support when the gallery was in trouble. "We are still fighting for funding to come back to 2002-2003 levels," Cooper says. "Currently about 24 per cent of our budget - $1 million - comes from government, that's federal, municipal and provincial, and the other 76 per cent we fundraise every year." She is confident government funders will step up, in no small part because the gallery reported a surplus of $72,711 at the end of fiscal 2006, its first surplus since 1999.

Even as the gallery's financial health has improved, there have been some issues around curatorial staffing. In February chief curator Alexandra Keim left her post after six months on the job. Her successor, Donna Wawzonek, arrived in March from Regina's Dunlop Gallery and has been settling in.

Cooper is now looking forward to shifting her focus from the AGC's balance sheet. She is in the final stages of establishing a foundation that will administer an endowment - she is shooting for $10 million - that will be raised by a new organization, the Friends of the AGC.

That money will ensure financial stability for the gallery, and allow it to turn its attention to other concerns. "The last three years have been very focused on creating financial stability and getting the building to a point where it does justice to the exhibitions and public programming that happen under its roof," Cooper says. The new environmental controls mark the end of that process. "Then everything - the effort, the time, the donations we're going after - will shift from completing the building and move more toward programming," she adds.

This fall, Cooper plans to be sipping champagne with staff, board members and invited guests. It should suffice to celebrate the 30th anniversary of an organization that was on life support only a few years ago.