Former Senior Staff Say National Gallery of Canada at Risk
Former senior staff at the National Gallery of Canada have written to Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez expressing "dismay" at the recent dismissal of four key employees, saying it puts the gallery and its work at risk.
"The newest dismissals of senior staff will impact the security of the artworks, the development of knowledge of the collections and future acquisitions, and the delivery of a world-class exhibition programme," says the letter, signed by seven former employees, some of the country's most influential guardians of art.
Diana Nemiroff
They include Diana Nemiroff, a longtime curator of contemporary art; Charles Hill, a veteran curator of Canadian art; and Ann Thomas, a former photography curator who served as the gallery’s interim chief curator.
The strongly worded letter draws a dire picture of a troubled institution with at least 10 dismissals in management ranks, mostly during Sasha Suda's time as director, and says this has led to internal instability, low morale and anemic programming.
Charles Hill on the cover of Canadian Art magazine in the fall of 1995.
Suda left in July, three years into her five-year term, for a job as head of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Angela Cassie, who had been hired the previous year as chief strategy and inclusion officer, became interim director.
The letter notes "an indifference to a circumspect use of funding" in recent years. "Money spent on non-disclosure agreements for the dismissed non-unionized employees, consultancy firms hired in the first years of Dr. Suda's tenure, and the retirement packages for employees who took early retirement in 2022, represent a significant burden for a Crown corporation."
Ann Thomas (courtesy of NGC/Mdba)
The letter urges the government to choose a new director with "a proven record" as the head of a major art museum who can re-establish stability and restore the gallery's national and international credibility, while continuing to promote inclusivity.
"It is time to shift the focus from restructuring to rebuilding from the ground up, nurturing existing knowledge and the expertise of specialists who can mentor the next generation of museum professionals," the letter says.
Rodriguez was not immediately available Friday and his office has offered no comment on the letter. However, Galleries West has learned he is reviewing concerns raised in the letter while remaining cognizant that the gallery operates at arm's length from the government and it is the gallery's board, rather than the minister, that has oversight of the institution.
Liliane Lê, the gallery's vice-president of public affairs and marketing, has not responded to Galleries West's request for comment. Nor has Françoise Lyon, the chair of the gallery's board. However, the Globe and Mail is reporting that Lyon said in a brief message earlier last week that "the reorganization announced is entirely consistent with the gallery's strategic plan" and the board has "full confidence" in Cassie and the senior management team.
The full text of the letter follows:
25 November 2022
The Honourable Pablo Rodriguez
Minister of Canadian Heritage
Confederation Building
Room 485
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6
And at: pablo.rodriguez@parl.gc.ca
Dear Minister,
In response to the recent dismissal by the National Gallery of Canada of four senior members of its staff, we feel compelled to add our voices to the expressions of concern in the media in recent days.
As former members of the Gallery’s staff who have held senior positions in core areas of the institution, including the curatorial, conservation, and collections management departments, we were dismayed to learn of these departures, which leave vacant key positions in areas critical to the realization of the Gallery’s mandate.
The latest restructuring purporting to “better align the Gallery’s leadership team with the organization’s new strategic plan” comes on the heels at least ten dismissals among management ranks at the Gallery, most of them during former director Sasha Suda’s three and a half years in office. The cumulative effect has created a high degree of internal uncertainty and instability. It is impossible to reconcile these actions with the Gallery’s new strategic plan to “empower, support and build [a] diverse and collaborative team.”
The message conveyed to Canadian and international audiences in recent years has been sadly devoid of celebrating art, the Gallery’s collections, and its artists, without which there is no National Gallery of Canada. The newest dismissals of senior staff will impact the security of the artworks, the development of knowledge of the collections and future acquisitions, and the delivery of a world-class exhibition programme.
Mandated to “collect works of art and other museum material” and to “document, record, preserve, conserve and restore” these collections, the latest firings have left the institution without a Director of Conservation and a Chief Curator who supervise and support the specialized knowledge of the teams of conservators and curators.
The Gallery is mandated to “develop, maintain, and make known, throughout Canada and internationally, a collection of works of art, both historic and contemporary, … and to further knowledge, understanding and enjoyment of art in general among all Canadians.” The dismissal of the Chief Curator and significant vacancies in the curatorial ranks impede the development and diffusion of such knowledge.
Several key positions in important collecting areas are either unstaffed or understaffed. There is currently only one assistant curator of contemporary art; no curator with expertise in early Canadian art and Canadian silver; no senior curator of Indigenous art; no senior curator of historical European and American art; no specialist in Canadian prints and drawings; and the internationally recognized photographs collection is down to one senior curator and an assistant.
In eliminating the position of Director of Conservation and Technical Research, the administration displays little regard for the mandate to “preserve, conserve and restore” works of art and raises the risk level to works of art in the collection, as well as loans from other collections.
The National Gallery’s library and archives, the national art library, is the recognized national resource for the fostering of research and knowledge about art and museology. This respected facility is currently without a chief librarian, having already lost a significant number of specialized staff through attrition and layoffs.
The Gallery is responsible for communicating the results of research through exhibitions and publications and the web. Over the last few years there has been a dramatic decrease in exhibitions organized in house and an almost total collapse of the national exhibition programme. The publications department has recently lost staff and there is no chief of publications. In addition, there has been a decrease in the availability of images and contextual information about the collections on the Gallery’s digital platform.
With the lack of attention being paid to the institution’s national role in sharing its collection through touring exhibitions, publications and the web, the risk of the National Gallery of Canada’s irrelevance to national culture is high.
Less visible, but equally troubling are the actions of the National Gallery administration over the past few years that signal an indifference to a circumspect use of funding. Money spent on non-disclosure agreements for the dismissed non-unionized employees, consultancy firms hired in the first years of Dr. Suda’s tenure, and the retirement packages for employees who took early retirement in 2022, represent a significant burden for a Crown corporation.
Staff morale is at an all-time low. The Gallery’s organizational chart demonstrates a lack of logical reporting relationships that privileges hierarchy over sound content-based management principles.
It is time to shift the focus from restructuring to rebuilding from the ground up, nurturing existing knowledge and the expertise of specialists who can mentor the next generation of museum professionals. The Gallery’s strategic plan affirms the critical role played by the past: “The path ahead will demand of us our well-honed experience, passion, and knowledge of art and audience.” It is just this knowledge and experience that is threatened by recent dismissals.
A search is underway for a new director for the National Gallery. It is of paramount importance that the successful candidate have a proven record as a director of a major art museum and the ability to re-establish stability and restore the institution’s national and international credibility, while continuing its important mission of inclusivity, which we unreservedly support.
Original signed by: Delphine Bishop, Charles Hill, J. P. McElhone, Diana Nemiroff, Greg Spurgeon, Ann Thomas, Rosemarie Tovell
UPDATE: This story was updated with government reaction at 2:30 p.m. MST on Nov. 26, 2022, and again at 11:15 a.m. MST on Nov. 27, 2022, this time with comments from board chair Françoise Lyon.
