This past weekend, thousands of Americans joyously swarmed the newly renovated historic Patent Office Building to celebrate the return of the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery and American Art Museum. Elizabeth Broun of the Smithsonian American Art Museum declared that the renovated $283-million (U.S.) patent building, originally "a temple of invention," was "symbolic of the American spirit."
And what an outpouring of spirit was on display on July 1: Had an artist designed the grand opening, it wouldn't have been Grant Wood, even though couples outfitted in the overalls, gingham dress and pitchfork of Wood's iconic work American Gothic were much in evidence. Amid the strains of bluegrass and barbershop harmonies, the mood was Norman Rockwell: feel-good and all-American. When Broun and Marc Pachter, director of the National Portrait Gallery, officially snipped the renovated building's ribbon, The Washington Post reported that the crowds were too vast for most people to see it.
If the U.S. National Portrait Gallery's reopening in Washington is "symbolic of the American spirit," what does it say about the Canadian spirit that Canada Day, 2006, has passed with completion funding for the Portrait Gallery of Canada still in limbo?
Although a portrait gallery has been in discussion for almost two decades, Ottawa first announced the creation of the official Portrait Gallery of Canada in 2000. A splendid site was chosen across from the Parliament Buildings in the former U.S. embassy (let's pass over what that says about the Canadian spirit). Teeple Architects and partners designed a renovation that would rise above and beside the building at 100 Wellington St. -- a 1932 edifice designed by Cass Gilbert, the great American beaux arts architect -- adding new gallery space and an atrium entrance with a lofty roof.
However, after the Harper government postponed funding for actual construction while the Conservatives review projects they inherited from the Liberals in order to find ways to eliminate $2-billion from public spending, artists and scholars have taken up the stalled gallery's cause.
This is now: This week, the period for tendered contracts for construction materials runs out and current prices expire -- meaning that if the gallery ever does go ahead, costs will rise and it will no longer be on budget.
Yesterday morning, artist Vera Frenkel and Ruth Phillips, Canada Research Chair in Modern Cultures at Carleton University, spoke on CBC Ottawa's morning radio show to defend the project's merits, reiterating the point that to abandon the gallery now would be a waste of five years of intense planning and $9-million of taxpayers' money. Meanwhile, other arts-community leaders, including Scott McLeod, director of the Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art and editor of the visual-arts magazine Prefix; John Greyson, president of the board of Vtape Distribution; and the 780-member Ontario branch of Canadian Artists Representation all added their voices to those urging Heritage Minister Bev Oda to support the project.
But Oda's office remains cryptic. "We are trying to make sure all options are examined," said Nancy Heppner, a spokeswoman for the Heritage Minister. "We want to find the most effective and cost-efficient way for Canadians to view their collection of portraits."