Top left: Anishinaabeg: Art & Power was co-curated by Arni Brownstone (middle), ROM assistant curator of Plains Indian Culture; Alan Corbiere (left), a historian of the M’Chigeeng First Nation; and Saul Williams (right), a Woodlands School painter of the North Caribou Lake First Nation. Bottom left: Vikings: The Exhibition. Right: Christian Dior.
Behind the scenes at the Royal Ontario Museum – known worldwide as the ROM – are almost 70 curators and researchers who worked in 32 different countries in the past year alone. Their efforts, along with those of generous donors throughout the museum's history, have made it the largest field research institution in the country, ranked among the most celebrated in the world.
"The ROM is one of the handful of large institutions around the globe that cuts across the spheres of art, culture and nature," says Josh Basseches, its director and CEO. For the 1.3 million people who visited this past year, and the many who have visited ROM internationally exhibited installations, this synergy creates unparalleled opportunities to address life's most challenging questions.
Many of the ROM's collections are or are among the most important of their kind, he notes. "In a world in which Asia is so important to the 21st century, for instance, we have the largest collection of [Asian] art and culture outside of China; we have a very strong South Asian collection. Altogether, we have 12million works of art and culture and natural history specimens."
The museum's long history of reflecting the many diasporas that have come together in Canada's uniquely multicultural society is increasingly relevant as cities throughout the country and the world become ever more diverse, Mr. Basseches points out. At the same time, as the digital world disrupts cultural activities, the ROM has responded by building on its traditional strengths of excellence in collection, exceptional research and scholarship to become a hub of civic engagement. The result is an institution increasingly known as one where people engage with the most meaningful questions of modern life through exhibitions, programs, salons and symposiums. "For us, diversity is not just about place or background, but about being able to present multiple voices and points of view. It means being open to innovation and change," he says.
At the heart of that effort is the ROM's approach to stewarding one of the world's most important Indigenous art, culture and heritage collections. "We're committed to ensuring it tells the story of the Indigenous communities of Canada from an Indigenous viewpoint, and we're about to launch a search for a new curator of art culture who is from the Indigenous community," says Mr. Basseches. "We are also looking at ways to engage larger numbers of Indigenous youth and with non-Indigenous youth to help them understand the importance of Indigenous heritage."
The phenomenally multitalented artist, painter and performance artist Kent Monkman recently presented at the ROM, addressing issues of sexuality and sexual orientation, colonization and political engagement from the vantage point of an Indigenous person whose parents were taken from their homes by the residential school system. An exhibition on through November, called Anishinaabeg Art & Power was curated by Arni Brownstone, the ROM's specialist on cultures of the North American Great Plains, in collaboration with Saul Williams, a painter and Woodlands School of Art member from North Caribou Lake First Nation in northern Ontario, and historian Alan Corbiere, from M'Chigeeng First Nation on Manitoulin Island.
"In February, an exhibit called Here We Are Here will examine the contribution of African Canadians over the last several hundred years through the eyes of contemporary black Canadian artists with the aim of filling in some of the voids in our understanding of history and art and culture. It is a show we hope will travel to other institutions across Canada," says Mr. Basseches.
Other notable upcoming exhibitions include:
- The Vikings, opening in November, looks at the brief period of Viking colonization at L'Anse aux Meadows in Canada as well as a more nuanced examination of who the Vikings were beyond marauders;
- An exhibit tied to the 70 anniversary of the House of Dior will draw from the ROM’s collection of fashion and textiles, the third largest in the world, to examine a post-war period when Christian Dior was alive and Holt Renfrew, among others, responded to the interest of Canadian women in being dressed in the new look; and
- A new Dawn of Life Gallery will feature the museum’s enormous collection of Burgess shale to help reveal the formation and development of the Earth long before life existed on Earth.
Canada's 2016 Statistics Canada census shows that 51.5% of the residents of Toronto self-identify as belonging to a visible minority. "That trend is only going to continue, and it strengthens our communities," says Mr. Basseches. "As a museum devoted to the global perspective, with collections from every continent, we're committed to communities abroad and the diasporic communities here in Toronto, Ontario and Canada."
Reflecting on former U.S. president Barack Obama's comment that "the world needs more Canada," Mr. Basseches points to the ROM's work outside the country. Recent examples include an installation of Egyptian artifacts that went to three different museums in China and was seen by a million people there, and a popular Japanese collection exhibited in New York City last year.
"Steven Weil of the Smithsonian Institution once said that museums must transform from being 'about something' to being 'for somebody,'" Mr. Basseches quotes. "We care a lot about being about something, but it's not enough – we've turned our attention to presenting art, culture and nature in a way that allows people to understand how they connect with the world around them. It's led to an almost 40% increase in our attendance over the last three years and dramatic growth in our membership; more and more people are saying, 'the ROM matters to me.'"
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