Vancouver Art Gallery's Financial Woes on Show

Strangled by Growth, by Emily Carr, 1931

Last week I brought my relative visiting from the United States to the Vancouver Art Gallery, and it was eerily quiet.

The lobby was hardly bustling with visitors so there was no line to buy admission tickets. Inside there were probably 20 people looking at art in the entire art museum.

Interestingly there is a rate for British Columbia residents at $29 compared to $35 for everyone else. Children up to 18 years old are free! The VAG may want to rethink allowing teenagers to be free with the severe belt tightening that's going on.

Sans titre, by Riopelle, 1950

In early July there were news reports that the art gallery cut about 30 percent of its total 129 staff. In June, 16 people took voluntary leave benefits, while another 18 were laid off since.

"We're really looking across the institution, trying to leave no stone unturned, and we really tried to save as many roles, as many jobs as possible," explained Eva Respini, the VAG's interim co-CEO.

"This is an incredibly difficult moment," she said. "It's quite literally every department in the museum that has been affected in one way or another."

We could see that. It seemed that some staff took turns acting as security guards, while the ones in uniform didn't seem to know much about the gallery. We asked one a question about an art work and they politely apologised and said they didn't know, but didn't offer to help us find the answer either.

Another way the VAG will cut costs is the number of exhibitions it holds each year, from 12 down to eight, while more shows will feature the gallery's permanent collection. Which means more Emily Carr...

Untitled (Toothpicks), Tara Donovan

The gallery is planning to exhibit more of the BC artist's work from its collection as it has some 250 pieces of Carr's. 

The drastic cuts are due to attendance at the gallery never returned to pre-pandemic levels. 

It's quite sad seeing the VAG so empty and has affected morale in the place. 

The exhibitions we saw were of Emily Carr, Riopelle, and pieces from the collection of a couple who are VAG patrons. One work featured a cube made entirely of toothpicks...

Municipal, provincial and federal governments are all focused on the World Cup next year, making it very difficult for arts and culture institutions to get more money to keep going. 

It seems so tone deaf for the VAG to continue planning for a new gallery space, but apparently it still has funds from various levels of government and donors. A new architect will be announced in the fall.