This series focuses on the boards of directors of state cultural corporations in Quebec. Second angle: their role.
What are the purposes of the boards of directors of cultural state corporations in Quebec? In any case, certainly not to understand what is happening on the ground within the establishments and environments that they manage, replies Professor Yves Bergeron, using the example of museums, which he has studied for years. decades.
“The boards of directors are a little bit obscure,” says the holder of the Research Chair on Museum Governance and Cultural Law at UQAM. “In the sector that I know, that of museums, the base staff are always cut off from this top. Totally. It’s very opaque, a CA. »
He explains that this higher authority generally revolves around the directors general (dg), ex officio members of a board of directors, period. “The CEOs generally do everything to ensure that the other members do not know anything about what is happening on the floor. Wherever I have had to document cases, the general management has always done everything to ensure that the members of the CA do not learn anything by documenting it with the employees. »
The professor cites examples where administrators are taken care of as soon as they arrive in the establishment they supervise. “Sometimes we pick up administrators arriving from outside the museum city at the airport. Their agenda is booked from morning to night. If they go to visit the rooms during a break, which is totally fine, we arrange to accompany them in case they chat with an employee. »
The crisis at the turn of the decade surrounding Nathalie Bondil’s contested leadership at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) fits with this general rule of the divide between the base and the top. This establishment retains its private status and is not a state corporation, although it is largely financed by the latter. The Quebec government also appoints nine of its 21 administrators.
“Things accelerated when the members of the board began to meet the professionals. Which clearly proves the importance for people administering beings and things to know them,” points out Yves Bergeron. After the crisis, the MMFA’s governance structure was reviewed to ensure that the executive committee within the Board no longer makes all important decisions on the sly.
A model “ made in USA »
Professor Bergeron also notes that museum boards take care to receive members affiliated with the different major political parties to ensure they always have branches in the government. “We are looking for leaders so that people in power follow and support the museum. Basically, there is no problem, and that makes sense. Except that it’s still the same world and others don’t have a say. »
The constitution of collections presents a topical case. Both Canada and Quebec have adopted the American model, which lets private collectors enrich museum vaults with their donations in exchange for tax credits. Conservative purchases only account for a very small portion of this game.
Museums may therefore be tempted to increase alliances with major collectors who are members of CAs, who would themselves be able to take advantage of their positions, if only by knowing the programming developed over several years. “They receive sensitive information in a privileged manner,” says Professor Bergeron. “Collectors choose according to their tastes or the market. The most strategic can collect works while being sure that they will be of interest to museums. »
At the MMFA, the historic pavilion has been named since 2012 after Michal Hornstein (and his wife Renata), philanthropist, major donor to the Montreal museum and long-time member of its board. At the National Museum of Fine Arts of Quebec (MNBAQ), the Lassonde pavilion honors the businessman Pierre Lassonde, who partly financed its construction when he chaired the board of directors. As a great collector of Riopelle, Mr. Lassonde was also very active in bringing about the new Espace Riopelle under construction at the MNBAQ. He also defended tooth and nail the centennial retrospective organized at the National Gallery of Canada in the face of diverse critics regretting the eternal return to the rooms of a white man of artistic modernity.
The concerns of CA members — or their classes of people with degrees in administration or law who are fortunate enough to satisfy their artistic passions — can Conversely leaving aside other perspectives on the museum as a socio-cultural institution. The over-representation of business people and management professionals is also the norm in all cultural state corporations in Quebec.
The International Council of Museums adopted a definition of the museum in 2022 which presents it as “a non-profit institution serving society, […] open to the public, accessible and inclusive, which encourages diversity and sustainability.”
“Other voices from society and communities are not heard on the boards of our large museum establishments,” concludes the holder of the Research Chair on Museum Governance and Cultural Law at UQAM. “Who, for example, constantly worries about entry prices? Making room for other perspectives could also have impacts on programming, partnerships…”
In Quebec, the MNBAQ board of directors is led by Christiane Germain, of the Germain hotel group; she declined our interview request. The Board of Directors of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Montreal (MACM) is led by Claudie Imbleau-Chagnon, associate lawyer at Blakes. She herself had this laconic response to our request to meet her: “We share with you the conviction that our museum serves the public interest when its governance structure reflects the diversity of our society. »
The MACM must even ask itself if the over-representation of people from the same mold on its board serves it that much. In Quebec, the MNBAQ raised more than $22 million during its fundraising campaign to support the construction of the Lassonde pavilion, a project worth around a hundred million dollars — and half was provided by Mr. Lassonde himself . The MMFA hopes to draw half as much (11.5 million dollars) by passing the hat to the greater Montreal region, several times richer and more populous than that of Quebec, for a reconstruction project worth 116.5 million…