Art stoush over VAC

By Ashleigh Fielding | posted on March 5, 2020

ARTISTS from around town claim a proposal to relocate the Albany History Collection into the main exhibition gallery at Vancouver Arts Centre (VAC) would worsen the issue of insufficient space for visiting and resident artists and guests.

Albany Art Group member Helen Heerey learned from a meeting in October that the City of Albany proposed the history collection be moved into the main gallery and that the centre be renamed the Vancouver Arts and History Centre.

She said the main gallery exhibition space was the “only good-sized proper gallery space” at VAC and provided an affordable option for groups and individual artists.

“It is integral to the on-going activities within the VAC,” Ms Heerey told the Weekender.

“With the current and prospective future demand for community art and creative activities and programs, all the space at the VAC is needed as already there is insufficient space to meet current demand.

“This is not just about losing an important gallery space; it is about losing space in the VAC – which has been used by community artists for many years – to permanently house the history collection.”

In a letter addressed to “the arts community” sent last Friday by the City of Albany, Community Services Executive Director Susan Kay explained that City officers were in the process of working through the “detailed planning required to put an operational model for the Albany Town Hall and VAC in place”.

“The proposed operational model will give consideration to accommodating the Albany History Collection within VAC and implementing a management model for both VAC and the Town Hall that has the least change and impact on current operations,” she said.

“As we all know, the history collection has a strong link to arts and culture and is an important and valuable community resource that records and preserves our history.”

Ms Kay added that the repurposing of the Town Hall would provide the space and resources to support more artists, exhibitions, performances, workshops and “any other activities or events that involve our arts and cultural community”.

Ms Heerey agreed that the Town Hall would be a “wonderful” exhibition space.

However, she believes that it would still not address the issue of inadequate space.

“We are informed that the ground floor – which used to be available for the community to hire – will be for curated and visiting exhibitions largely with little availability for Albany community groups,” she said.

“In any event, even before the refurbishment, the Town Hall gallery was much more expensive to hire than the VAC galleries and not affordable for many artists and groups.

“The upper floor of the Town Hall, we are informed, will eventually provide space for mixed use including exhibitions, but at this stage we do not know when there will be a budget to carry out the work on the upper floor and also whether it will be affordable or suitable as an exhibition space.”

Ms Kay said improvements to the Town Hall were planned in consultation with the community through the Town Hall Community Advisory Group, which involved representatives from Albany Art Group, Art South WA, Creative Albany and eight other creative bodies.