More Worries Over National Gallery, Speculation Over New Leadership
More worried letters about the National Gallery of Canada have been dispatched to the federal government and some donors are getting cold feet as speculation mounts about who could next lead the Crown corporation.
The latest letters to emerge are from the art conservation community and are concerned about the forced departure of the gallery's conservation director, Stephen Gritt, one of four senior managers let go in November by interim director Angela Cassie.
Both the Canadian Association for Conservation of Cultural Property and the Canadian Association of Professional Conservators have sent letters of "deep concern" to Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez, says a report in the Ottawa Citizen.
The gallery says it has filled positions in curation, conservation and research on an acting basis.
“A member of the gallery’s conservation team is capably acting in the interim as team leader," the gallery said in a statement to the Citizen. "We will be posting a conservation lead position in 2023.”
Gritt, pushed out last month as part of a restructuring to increase "equity and inclusion" at the Ottawa gallery, had set up an internship program to mentor Indigenous and racialized art conservation students.
Michael Audain
In other developments, there are signs that major donors are worried about the gallery's instability.
Michael Audain, a former chair of the gallery's board, has told Galleries West "certain generous supporters have told me that their plans for monetary and art donations are currently on hold."
Nathalie Bondil (courtesy Ville de Montréal / Sylvain Légaré)
And speculation is growing about possible candidates for the gallery's top job, which Rodriguez is under pressure to fill quickly.
One oft-touted name, particularly in Quebec, is Nathalie Bondil, former director of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. She drew international attention to the institution, but launched a $2-million wrongful termination lawsuit in 2020 amid a tiff with the board's chair. An undisclosed settlement was eventually reached and she now works at the Institut du monde arabe in Paris, where she is director of exhibitions and collections.
Audain says Bondil did a "marvellous job" running the Montreal gallery, but he doubts a return to Canada is in the cards.
"Nathalie is now probably too prominent on the world stage to consider a move back from Paris to Ottawa," Audain told Galleries West.
Anne Eschapasse (photo courtesy France Museums)
Other names being floated in Ottawa include Anne Eschapasse, a former deputy director of exhibitions and outreach at the National Gallery, who is now managing director with France Museums Abu Dhabi.
Stephen Borys (photo courtesy University of Winnipeg)
Another name is from the West – Stephen Borys, the director of the Winnipeg Art Gallery, and a former assistant curator at the National Gallery. The successful launch of the Winnipeg gallery's new Inuit centre, Qaumajuq, aligns well with the Ottawa gallery's new strategic plan, which centres Indigenous ways of knowing.
