Vancouver Museum launches “Austerity Tours”: tours denouncing decades of frozen government funding

The Museum of Vancouver (MOV) has launched new “Austerity Tours” this week to highlight the severe impact of decades of frozen funding and reduced government support. The tours, running from September 24 to October 17, coincide with Vancouver’s civic elections on October 17 and provincial elections to be held before the end of October.

The museum receives most of its funding from the City of Vancouver, then from the province of British Columbia and the federal government. Executive director Ryan Hunt told The Art Newspaper that, despite national awards and visitor growth above the industry average, “sustainable funding seems unattainable” — government support has declined against inflation over the past 30 years, a situation he described as “like bailing water from a boat with more and more holes.”

Examples shown on the tour: the building designed by Gerald Hamilton in 1968 needs major repairs; the lobby window cannot be fully lit due to a hydraulic fluid leak; staff cuts have removed the once-lush greenery. In the long-term exhibition “c̓əsnaʔəm: The City before the City,” dedicated to local Indigenous history, the aging heating and ventilation system has damaged stone, shell and bone fragments, which have been replaced with cut-out photographs. In another space, a tray collects moisture from yet another failing HVAC unit.

The tour also visits the collections depot: the museum’s own freezer, in operation since 1968, is compared with the relatively new municipal archives freezer — the city decided last year to stop funding its annual maintenance. “If this freezer breaks down, it will be catastrophic for the MOV,” Hunt warned. In the taxidermy depot, visitors learn about the “hazards” of historic preservation, including arsenic, mercury and other toxic chemicals once used for conservation.

Hunt called for government support: arts and culture return C$29 for every dollar of funding. According to him, the money governments spent on the FIFA World Cup would have doubled every arts grant in British Columbia for the next seven years. “Even the money spent on a single match would fund us for nearly a decade,” he said.

Source: The Art Newspaper (via USA Art News)