National Gallery of Canada Breaks Silence, Says Change Needed
Angela Cassie
The interim director of the National Gallery of Canada has broken her two-week silence on forced departures by four senior staff that sparked wide concern in the arts community, saying that changes were needed.
Angela Cassie, in a public message on the gallery's website, says the National Gallery has not always done enough to reflect "the full breadth of our society," the "widest scope of our history" or the country's "evolving values."
Cassie, who also did interviews Friday with select journalists, says she was given a mandate by the gallery's board to implement the strategic plan, which is based on "principles of collaboration, engagement and inclusion."
"The strategic plan is rooted in the fundamental premise that art and artists have a role to play in creating a better world and that the purpose of the NGC is to offer transformative art experiences that strengthen community connections," the statement reads.
"We’ve needed to look at how we can do things differently and move away from traditional ways of working that are no longer reflective of the kind of institution we need and want to be."
A week ago, seven former senior employees wrote to Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez expressing concern the gallery is being put at risk by the departures, which included chief curator Kitty Scott, also deputy director of the gallery. She is the first woman to hold the post on a permanent basis.
Cassie refused Friday to discuss individual employees for privacy reasons, but did say eliminating the senior curator of Indigenous art relates to "different ways of working in different structures."
That curator, Greg Hill, has posted on Instagram that he was let go because "I don't agree with and am deeply disturbed by the colonial and anti-Indigenous ways the Department of Indigenous Ways and Decolonization is being run." The gallery created the department earlier this year.
Cassie's remarks Friday contain few specifics but she indicated the gallery is:
- examining its collection for gaps in representation by women, Black, racialized and Indigenous artists
- looking at collaborative models of stewardship, where ownership of art may rest with the artist, the community or even the work itself
- instituting new processes and structures to clarify staff roles and responsibilities.
Earlier this week, Peter Julian, NDP MP for New Westminster-Burnaby and a member of Parliament's standing committee on Canadian heritage, called on Rodriguez to take action.
"It's important that the minister, because [he] has an overseeing role for our cultural institutions, get the answers to questions that many people are asking," Julian said in an interview earlier this week with Radio-Canada.
Rodriguez has expressed concern through his staff, while noting that, as a Crown corporation, the gallery operates at arm’s length from the government.
