Comments on: The Art Gallery two-step: the dream of a cultural precinct returns to Larwill Park

By: David Allison

David Allison — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 02:30:37 +0000

The Sears Building has a few problems as an option. First off, Sears is in there. Are they willing to just up and leave?

I’m being a bit silly with that comment, of course. But the main reason I am very much in favour of a new purpose-built building on a new site is that our city needs it. We should have an art gallery, a repository and archive of our visual arts output, that is purpose built, useful, inclusive, community oriented and a beacon for cultural tourism. All the talk of “go down” or “go sideways” or etc. seems like so much scotch-tape-and-staples to me.

This will be the fourth move for the gallery in its history. Its not like the current location has some kind of DNA level association with the VAG. It was a great building at the time — at that point in the growth of the gallery and the city — but like a newlywed couple who have a growing family, we all need to move on sometimes.

This should be a celebration of success! Yay! We’ve been successful! The collection has grown! So has the city! Hundreds of thousands of people want to see some art! It’s time to take this to the next level and build something that we can all point to and be proud of, I think.

And, I think your idea of making the current courthouse site into something even MORE central to the community, with the Vancouver Museum, other arts groups, more access, more of all the goodness that everyone wants to preserve — is superb! Let’s do both!

Yes I am a supporter of the gallery, but I think we all are. I just think we should help them get to the next level, and build for tomorrow an amazing new home, instead of making do with a great location that was built as a fabulous courthouse, not a gallery.

Just my two cents.

By: VPSN

VPSN — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 04:29:43 +0000

Hey LB,

I agree – the Sears building is another great big elephant in this discussion. Many of the entries we received for the WTS Competition zeroed in on the space it occupies. Regardless of whether the VAG stays or goes, any future planning around Robson Square needs to address this adjacent building.

By: LB

LB — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:19:59 +0000

With the caveat that I haven’t yet given this topic a great deal of thought, I find myself coming back to an idea that someone else mentioned somewhere….. that the Sears building would make an excellent and enormous art gallery. I mean, we already have an enormous, windowless structure… let’s use it for something more than a dept store. =)

And the Vancouver Museum does put on fantastic exhibits and events and would do so well downtown; I would love to see it in the old courthouse (current art gallery, that is).