William Thorsell, director and chief executive officer of the
Royal Ontario Museum
, was on-line earlier today to take questions from Globe readers.
Mr. Thorsell was
profiled recently
by Val Ross as part of the
Renaissance City
series. Hired in 2000 to pilot the venerable institution through its ambitious transformation , Mr. Thorsell has overseen a fund-raising drive that has collected more than $140-million toward the estimated $240-million total cost. As Mr. Thorsell relates in Ms. Ross's article: "The boards asked me, 'How can we possibly raise $200-million?' I said, 'If you come up with something modest, you can't. You have to create a landscape of desire'."
Mr. Thorsell was appointed president and CEO of the ROM in June, 2000. Previously, he served as the chairman of the editorial board of The Globe and Mail and was the paper's editor-in-chief from 1989-1999. Before becoming editor, Mr. Thorsell wrote on national politics, law and the constitution, economics and culture, and was also a book reviewer for Report on Business magazine. Prior to The Globe and Mail, he was an associate editor at The Edmonton Journal and assistant dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. Mr. Thorsell received his Bachelor and Masters in History from the University of Alberta and later earned his Master of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.
Editor's Note: globeandmail.com editors will read and allow or reject each question/comment. Comments/questions may be edited for length or clarity. HTML is not allowed. We will not publish questions/comments that include personal attacks on participants in these discussions, that make false or unsubstantiated allegations, that purport to quote people or reports where the purported quote or fact cannot be easily verified, or questions/comments that include vulgar language or libellous statements. Preference will be given to readers who submit questions/comments using their full name and home town, rather than a pseudonym.
Additional note to our readers:
Today's discussion will be set up a bit differently than other, past discussions. Rather than having all of the questions flowing from you, the readers, we will hold more of a round-table talk. Both Mr. Thorsell and Mr. Teitelbaum will each be asked several general questions from Globe and Mail editors to start off the conversation. From there, we will be happy to pose questions from readers to Mr. Thorsell and Mr. Teitelbaum. Feel free to continue sending your questions to Mr. Thorsell right up until 2:30 and to Mr. Teitelbaum right until 3 p.m.
Allison Dunfield, globeandmail.com, writes: Hi, Mr. Thorsell, and thank you very much for agreeing to take part it today's live discussion on the Royal Ontario Museum and its transformation. Our first question is: with such a major project, worth an estimated $240-million, underway to renew the ROM, can you reflect on what you think the ROM means to Ontarians (and indeed,Canadians as a whole?). And secondly, why is such a massive project necessary? Why the need for a new image, at this time?
Mr. Thorsell writes:Good opening question. The ROM has the broadest mandate of any museum in the world: It is both a universal museum of culture - all cultures, all places, all times -and a major museum of natural history, all under one roof. Culture and nature were separated in most of the world's museums - Toronto kept them together, and a good thing too, given that they are really inseparable in fact.
The ROM should be a place where visitors find both depth in the collections of culture and nature AND discover relationships among them--comparisons, parallels and foils. Most cultures express their power and values through beautiful works, and through the tools of daily life. While there are great differences in style, there are also many points of commonality, of shared means and insights. Indeed, you can see parallels with nature, where the beauty of the weapons rivals that of mankind, and the beauty of the plumage exceeds it.
