Remai Modern’s success proving naysayers wrong

To understand how tremendous a triumph the Remai Modern art gallery’s first year of operation represents, you need to go back to last year’s budget talks.

Last November, members of Saskatoon city council expressed skepticism about the gallery’s lofty revenue goals for its first full year of operation in 2018.

“I think that your projections are high,” Coun. Bev Dubois said at the time. “I hope that I’m wrong.”

The budget document prepared by the gallery’s own board also acknowledged the projections were “very ambitious” and represented a “particular vulnerability.” Fear of a mid-year ask for more money from council was raised.

Last week, Remai Modern executive director and CEO Gregory Burke admitted again the revenue targets were “a stretch” as he basked in the glow of a better-than-expected first year.

The gallery, which has been dogged by controversy since the decision was made to shutter the Mendel Art Gallery and build new, beat handily most of its launch year targets.

More than 450,000 people visited Remai Modern in its first year, which ended Sunday, well beyond the projection of 190,000. The Mendel, where admission was free, attracted 163,181 people in its last full year of operation, 2014.

Though Remai Modern’s first-year attendance is impressive by any measure, not all of those folks paid the full admission fee or bought an annual membership.

The 453,176 visitors includes 44,365 who visited Shift Restaurant, 54,525 who participated in gallery programs, 8,300 who attended live events and more than 20,000 who took advantage of free admissions days.

The free admission days bring in revenue, too, since they are sponsored by Rawlco Radio.

Even with all the freebies, single admissions brought in $484,579 (above the budget goal of $410,000), while $364,133 worth of memberships were sold ( beating the goal for both 2017 and 2018 of $247,500).

Burke says he is most happy that the number of memberships sold topped 9,000, far surpassing expectations.

For Burke, that means the community has embraced the facility, following anger over the decision to close the Mendel and then years of delays and rising construction costs.

The city and its contractor, Ellisdon, are still tussling over the final cost of construction, which is at least $84.6 million, not including the $19.5-million parkade underneath the gallery.

(Remai Modern does not appear on EllisDon’s website, despite the numerous accolades the building has received for its architecture and design. So not everybody’s celebrating.)

Ultimately, the city went more than two years without a public art gallery.

Would that gap create demand for the new gallery or would people have lost interest? The gallery’s first year seems to have answered that question definitively. The success has also provided some vindication for politicians who backed the project, like Mayor Charlie Clark and his predecessor, Don Atchison.

Burke says the gallery is now considering abandoning its plan to charge extra for special exhibitions, a key plank in the gallery’s business plan — even dating back to the days when regular admission was going to be free.

The gallery did not host any special exhibitions in its first year and still easily met its revenue targets.

Burke sounds like a CEO when he says he thinks the price of admission ($12 for an adult, $55 for an individual year’s membership) is working well. The gallery sold all those memberships during a time when Saskatoon’s economy is still recovering, too.

But challenges await, even after a first year that surpassed expectations. The gallery’s revenue goals accelerate in its second year and such attractions almost always experience a drop in attendance after the novelty has abated.

But to judge the gallery’s impact on Saskatoon solely by its internal finances would be short-sighted.

About 40 per cent of people who visited the gallery came from outside the province, no doubt lured by glowing coverage that included the New York Times. Those visitors likely rented hotel rooms and ate at restaurants.

A study being conducted to measure the gallery’s economic impact should paint a more complete picture of Remai Modern’s true value.