Climate Activists Throw Maple Syrup on Painting at Vancouver Art Gallery

Expand

The Vancouver Art Gallery has condemned an action Saturday by two climate activists who threw maple syrup on a painting by Emily Carr, the latest in a series of similar protests in art galleries around the world to draw attention to the global climate crisis.

"The Vancouver Art Gallery condemns acts of vandalism towards the works of cultural significance in our care, or in any museum," said Anthony Kiendl, the gallery's director. "A central part of our mission is to make safer spaces for communication and ideas.

"As a non-profit charity, we are an institution of memory and care for future generations. We do support the free expression of ideas, but not at the expense of suppressing the ideas and artistic expressions of others, or otherwise inhibiting people from access to those ideas.”

The gallery said the work, Stumps and Sky, painted by Carr around 1934, has not suffered permanent damage.

CBC News identified the activists as Emily Kelsall and Erin Fletcher, from a group called Stop Fracking Around. Police are investigating.

The gallery cited a position taken earlier this month by the Association of Art Museum Directors that attacks on works of art cannot be justified.

"Art crosses boundaries of time and place to underscore the creativity that people everywhere have expressed, and they represent our shared humanity," says the association, a New York-based group that includes museum directors from Canada, Mexico and the United States . "Attacking art for any purpose undermines those common bonds. Such protests are misdirected, and the ends do not justify the means."

Source: Vancouver Art Gallery, CBC News