Zainub Verjee will be delivering a talk on the feasibility of Public Art Gallery in the Town of Huntsville this week. She has been invited as the expert by the Town of Huntsville, Muskoka Region, to advise on the feasibility of opening a new Public Art Gallery for the artists of the Town and region. The Town of Huntsville is in process of developing its Municipal Culture Strategy. At the City of Mississauga, as the inaugural Director, Verjee set up the city’s first Culture Division and developed the first comprehensive Culture Master Plan. Verjee has worked closely with, H.E.Gordon Campbell (ex-mayor Vancouver), Glen Murray (ex-mayor Winnipeg) and Hazel McCallion (ex-mayor Mississauga) to develop master plans for culture for cities of Mississauga and Vancouver.
Zainub will be speaking on the role of Public Art Gallery and Public Art Museum in our society. She will underline the primary role that these cultural institutions play as custodial institutions as well as programming institutions. As Custodial institutions they look after cultural property and interpret it to the public. Cultural property is not ordinary property. It has a special status in International legislation and national laws to protect it. The collection of such institutions represents an important contribution to knowledge. It is significant in defining cultural identity, nationally and internationally. While as programming institutions they are the sites of learning.
Elaborating the cost involved in making these institutions sustainable, Verjee will inform about the challenges that these institutions face. Canada has about 2,500 not-for-profit heritage institutions, including 1,309 museums, 477 historic sites, 364 archives, 206 art galleries and 107 zoos and botanical gardens. The federal programs available to them are relatively small. She says, “depleted” budgets have led museums to reduce staff and spend less on exhibits, “creating a cycle where cuts to curation, collections, exhibits and programs attract fewer visitors, sponsors and donors.” She points out, even other Cultural Spaces, such as represented by the Artist Run Centres, have hit a rough patch in terms of its relevance as a model as well as its sustainability.
She will talk about the new hybrid models that are emerging, and often termed “pop-up”, as part of a new ecosystem which is driven by “sharing economy”, “temporary nature”, “flexibility” and “new public”. The pop-up models are actively being supported by many local governments around the world.
Over three decades, Zainub has been at the forefront of building cultural institutions, cultural policy, and cultural planning in Canada. Working across all levels of government, she was engaged by Gordon Campbell, Canadian diplomat and the 35th Mayor of Vancouver on his landmark Vancouver Arts initiative, and among many appointments to Boards, she is proud of her work at the B.C. Arts Board that led to the formation of the B.C.Arts Council.
Zainub Verjee is the Executive Director of Ontario Association of Art Galleries. Through network-building, professional development and advocacy, the Ontario Association of Art Galleries fosters sustainable, healthy, diverse public art galleries, furthering the visual arts as a key component of the cultural life of Ontario. OAAG serves and represents 102 public art gallery and visual art organization members in 61 municipalities across the province.
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