FESTIVAL TO OPEN ‘NEW’ NAC
Canada Scene debuts July 1, 2017
A massive festival of Canadian arts and culture will greet the opening of the newly renovated National Arts Centre on July 1, 2017.
The Canada Scene will be the culmination of a series of festivals that have celebrated regional cultures since the first, Atlantic Scene, in 2003.
Canada Scene will feature about 1,000 artists, NAC CEO Peter Herrndorf said after the formal groundbreaking ceremony for the $110-million renovation of the centre, which — when it is completed in 18 months — will transform the NAC’s Elgin Street face. The dates for the Scene have not been settled but it will begin anytime from June 1 to 15, 2017, and run until the end of July.
“It will be the final one of the Scene festivals and we’re talking about 1,000 artists from one end of the country to the other coming here and performing over those six or seven weeks. You are seeing Canada showcased in every manifestation during those six or seven weeks,” Herrndorf said.
Long hunkered down into the slope that leads to the Rideau Canal, the new NAC will feature a brilliant glass addition that will sparkle on the edge of the Parliamentary precinct and the National War Memorial.
The NAC project will be one of the largest capital investments made by the federal government as part of the 150th anniversary of Confederation.
It will be built as the capital should also see the emergence, by early 2017, of a major renewal plan for LeBreton Flats. The NCC is considering two proposals that call for an NHL-sized arena, a new central library and other amenities.
“It has always been an issue that various mayors of Ottawa have grappled with; to make sure the downtown core of the city is full of life in the daytime and at night and I think that all of these things will go a long way to achieving that.”
The new minister of Canadian Heritage, Mélanie Joly, said she sees the capital, given the NAC renovation and the LeBreton project, as entering a new era “not only in terms of investments for Ottawa and Gatineau but also for urban planning and economic development.”
Asked whether other federal cultural institutions may see investments, Joly was not specific, but she did say the Liberal government is “committed to investing in cultural infrastructure.”
The National Arts Centre opened its doors on June 2, 1969, at a cost of $46 million. It was designed by Fred Lebensold and is an example of Brutalist architecture, which has not aged that well over the past five decades. In 2006, the NAC was designated a national historic site.
The renovation is led by Donald Schmitt, of the Toronto firm Diamond Schmitt Architects. That firm has worked on the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto, Maison symphonique in Montreal, the legendary Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia and the new David Geffen Hall (formerly Avery Fisher Hall) in New York City.
“People have often remarked that it is unfortunate that the NAC turns its back to the city. This design will change that. The NAC will finally face the city and its most important square, Confederation Square,” Schmitt said.
The NAC presents about 1,300 performances a year. The centre says all public performances will go ahead as scheduled during the renovation.
The glass “lantern” is the centrepiece of the project. It will function as a virtual screen and will capture and present performances going on inside the NAC as well as performances that take place elsewhere in the country, Schmitt told a large gathering of dignitaries at the Fourth Stage on Tuesday morning.
There was a minor flurry of controversy last month about the lantern when the National Capital Commission finally gave its stamp of approval to the renovation.
While it gave the renovation a thumbs-up, some NCC board members expressed concern at a recent meeting about what would be displayed on the lantern.
NAC officials say up to 10 per cent of the messaging space in the lantern could be devoted to corporate recognition and that didn’t sit well with some trustees because of the proximity to the National War Memorial.
Board member Norman Hotson called the lantern “a great intervention” and supported plans to use it to animate the NAC. But, he said, “I would hate to see it used for commercial purposes.”
Another trustee, Mike Pankiw, worried that barring corporate messaging could “handcuff” the NAC’s efforts to get sponsorship money to pay for programming.
Herrndorf says he does not believe this is an issue of major concern. He says the corporate part of any signage “will be a small part of any signage.”
His point of view was supported by Steve Willis, the NCC’s executive director of capital planning, who said at last month’s commission meeting that there was plenty of time to iron out a binding management framework for the lantern that would govern how and when it could deploy lighting and projections.
Herrndorf says he believes that discussion will take place soon and will be resolved quickly.
People have often remarked that it is unfortunate that the NAC turns its back to the city. This design will change that.