It wasn’t quite what they wanted, but a group of Burnaby artists are encouraged the city will at least consider a request for a feasibility study for a new art gallery.
On Monday, a delegation from the Burnaby Arts Council made the pitch to council asking for help in building a new art gallery for the city.
Specifically, the group was asking council to approve, and the city to take the lead on, a feasibility and desirability study for the project.
What the artists got was a recommendation that staff look at some of the issues brought up by the arts council and a report on whether the city should embark on a full study.
The recommendation came after a 30-minute back-and-forth between members of the arts council and city council over the new gallery idea.
Some city councillors appeared sympathetic to the request but also expressed a number of concerns, mostly over the cost to operate a new gallery once built.
Mayor Derek Corrigan argued cultural amenities like a gallery are extremely expensive, adding the ability for suburban local governments to get major funding from the provincial or federal government for that kind of facility is almost non-existent.
While he encouraged the group to consider reaching out to the private sector to form a partnership for funding the project, he also appeared to express disappointment that the arts council wasn’t more involved in the city’s Art Walk program.
“The idea to have an art gallery simply so that a small group of people can have a place to go isn’t viable,” Corrigan said. “It’s got to be something that is going to have significant engagement for the public, and that is where the real issue lies.”
The mayor was also critical of the group’s presentation to council, pointing out their research on the topic missed a failed referendum in 1987 on a new art gallery.
Despite the tepid response from Corrigan, Dave Handelman, a member of the arts council, said the decision by council represents progress in the push for a new gallery.
“We came and made the best possible argument,” he told the NOW, acknowledging the city’s concerns about the group’s presentation and the need for the arts council to address them.
Though council wants to see the private sector and other government resources at the table first, Handelman said the arts council feels if the city initiates the process, there’s a reasonable chance those groups will come along.
In its request, the arts council said it supports the location in the Metrotown area at the Burnaby Civic Square near the Art Walk, as it provides critical elements that are missing in the Deer Lake Park area. The group argued the civic square location offers easy access to public transit with a SkyTrain station nearby, a large and growing population, proximity to the popular main branch of the Burnaby Public Library, and it would be strategically located in a central business area.
At Monday’s meeting, the group repeated that it was open to ideas from the city on the project, including location.
While the issue of a new gallery has been around for decades, it was recently reignited by the arts council. The group has been working on the issue for about a year now, holding a public forum in early November that drew a full house.
The arts council has made a number of arguments for a new art gallery, among them the fact that the current gallery, located in Ceperley House at Deer Lake, is too small to hold the city’s vast art collection of more than 5,000 pieces.
