The diversity revolution is underway at the National Gallery of Canada. And heads are rolling, and tensions are rising.
After universities, Radio-Canada/CBC, libraries, political parties such as public space and its toponymy, it is the turn of the country’s museums to enter into crisis around new identity issues.
The effects of this fundamental change are becoming more visible at the National Gallery of Canada, the sector’s flagship. The internal discord began shortly after Alexandra Suda was appointed as director in 2019. She left the post in July. Angela Cassie has been acting since and continues the great transformation of the establishment.
A new step was taken in mid-November with the dismissal of four professionals, including the director of conservation and technical research, Stephen Gritt, and the deputy director and chief curator, Kitty Scott. These departures are in addition to several others, estimated at more than twenty over the past two years.
Denunciations of the work climate at the museum and its strategic reorientation are increasing. The two large unions, representing four-fifths of the establishment’s employees, wrote in November to the Minister of Heritage, Pablo Rodriguez, to complain about the managerial culture.
Seven former employees wrote to him again last week to denounce the new bloodletting, which “will influence the security of the works, the development of knowledge of the collections and future acquisitions and the realization of a world-class exhibition program write the signatories, including two ex-curators, Diana Nemiroff (contemporary art) and Ann Thomas (photography).
Ex-director Marc Mayer has been even harsher in his attacks on the changes underway since his 2019 departure. In an interview with journalist Paul Wells, he spoke of a “major Canadian cultural tragedy” . He also used the word “revolution,” comparing his successor, Sasha Suda, to Lenin and acting director Angela Cassie to Stalin. “It’s a total mess [an absolute mess] “, he summarized.
Mr. Mayer did not respond to interview requests from the To have to. The chair of the NGC’s board of directors, Montrealer Françoise Lyon, also refused the request for an interview, as did the Department of Heritage.
Did you say decolonization?
The revolution has its breviary, a very first strategic plan for the years 2021-2026 that the director, Sasha Suda, had adopted around the slogan of decolonization. In this increasingly significant perspective in the sector, the museum is conceived as a central place of colonization and national construction that must now be called into question by opening up to the culture and visions of world of cultural communities, and First Nations in particular.
The 23-page document, titled transform togetherwritten in inclusive language (“employee.es racisé.es”), says from the outset that, “to ensure real and lasting change, a perspective of justice, equity, diversity, inclusion and Accessibility must guide all Museum activities”.
The adopted approach requires working on two axes. The first wants to include “Indigenous ways of being and forms of knowledge alongside Western norms”. The second focuses on justice, equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility “to counter systemic racism, discrimination and other barriers to inclusion”.
The goal is to make the Museum “a home of hope and healing”. The plan speaks of resilience and sustainability, of a “diverse and collaborative” team, but also of the desire to “place Indigenous ways of being and standards of knowing at the heart [des] shares”.
The Museum created an Indigenous consultation committee to develop enriched perspectives on the collections. It changed its slogan (“Ankosé — Everything is connected — Everything is connected”) and its logo following the recommendations of members of the Algonquin Nation. Access to the museum is now free for First Nations, Inuit and Métis.
A new department, Indigenous Way and Diversity, has been set up. Prior to her appointment as Acting Director, Ms.me Cassie had served as Vice President of Strategic Transformation and Inclusion since January 2021.
The EDI shift
UQAM museology professor Jean-Philipe Uzel sees this upheaval as “a perfect example” of decolonization. “All institutions are moving towards inclusion, diversity and inclusion (EDI), universities and museums alike, but the NGC is going even further by adding the dimensions of justice and accessibility,” he says.
“We are not talking about just any institution. The NGC gives the the in the sector, in many fields, and shows the way. We must make this observation: museums are colonial institutions and they must be transformed. Which creates tension, that’s for sure. It is a painful process. »
The professor approves of this transfer, but is surprised by the dismissal in mid-November of Craig A. Hill, senior curator of Aboriginal art, which seems to contradict the foundations and objectives of the strategic plan.
Mr. Hill also sees a paradox in it, and he finds it hard to explain. He says to To have to to have been consulted and to have participated like many other employees in the definition of the revolutionary project.
“I still believe in it,” he said. I believe the Museum is moving in the right direction, even in turmoil. I also believe that the elimination of my position is contradictory. There is no public statement from the Museum to explain how the disappearance of my position helps the implementation of the strategic plan. I have been wondering for days about leadership for Indigenous ways and decolonization. »
He himself was able to organize exhibitions respecting the new axes, including Abadakone/Continual Fire on international indigenous contemporary art. All exposures actually pass through the new filter. In the summer of 2021, the NGC presented Rembrandt in Amsterdamexhibition in preparation before the arrival of Mme Suda, which she modified to include works by contemporary Aboriginal artists, including Ruth Cutland and Kent Monkman.
Decolonization affects the preparation of the major retrospective that will be devoted to Jean-Paul Riopelle in the fall of 2023. A great collector, Pierre Lassonde, and independent curator Sylvie Lacerte told Radio-Canada that the idea of presenting another homage to a white man did not attract the direction, which would have finally very weakly supported it.