CANADA SCRAPS NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY; NEW YORK PRESENTS ARTS AWARDS
The Canadian government has announced that it will abandon a plan to build an eighty-four-million-dollar national portrait gallery, the Globe and Mail reported via the New York Times. James Moore, the minister of Canadian heritage and official languages, announced on Friday that the government’s efforts to select a permanent home for the gallery—Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton were under consideration—had ended. “In this time of global economic instability, it is important that the federal government continue to manage its own affairs prudently and pragmatically,” Moore said in a statement. “The selection process failed to meet the best interests of both the gallery and taxpayers.” The news came several months after the prime minister, Stephen Harper, announced approximately thirty-eight million dollars in budget cuts for arts programs. The gallery had been in the works in fits and starts since 2001 and was to house more than twenty thousand paintings and millions of photographs that are currently stored in archives in Gatineau, Quebec.
In other news, the New York Times also reports that New York City mayor Michael R. Bloomberg will present the 2008 Mayor’s Awards for Arts and Culture tonight at the Apollo Theater, where he will honor six individuals and organizations for their contributions to the city’s cultural life. This year’s winners in visual arts include the Rush Arts Gallery and Resource Center, and the Corridor Gallery, both of which present the work of emerging and underrepresented artists. Other award recipients include the Alliance of Resident Theaters/New York, which provides assistance to more than 330 theater companies, and the dancer and choreographer Arthur Aviles. Bloomberg will also present the Handel Medallion, the city’s highest award for achievement in the arts, to Neil Simon. The medallion has been presented sporadically and at the mayor’s discretion since 1959; this will be the first time Bloomberg has presented one.
