New centre goes beyond art
Gallery that enhances the Inner Harbour is part of artist’s goal to put nature in our lives
The paintings of Robert Bateman are wonderful. It’s reasonable to call him the world’s greatest wildlife artist. But they come with a lot of baggage. For example, money gets in the way. Rich artist, you say, and he charges $12.50 to get in to see his paintings ($8.50 for seniors and students, $25 for families). Let’s deal with that first.
The money does not go to Robert Bateman, as far as I can tell. This gallery is a way for the Robert Bateman Foundation to raise funds to provide programs and financial assistance for activities that encourage people to put nature first in their lives.
“Parents and children in urban centres are our first priority,” we are told. This is Bateman’s personal goal, and to make it happen he has donated 600 works of art (and much else) to create a foundation that uses his name and creations to attract contributions.
The foundation came into being some years ago in co-operation with Royal Roads University, but both parties found that the fit wasn’t quite right. When the light-filled space on the upper level of the restored CPR Steamship Terminal became a possibility, the foundation recognized this as a very attractive location for the gallery dedicated to art and education.
It’s a lovely space. At the moment the ground floor is vacant, except for the classy Bateman Centre gift shop featuring carefully chosen local artwork. Glass sculptures by Waine Ryzak and dichroic fused glass “things of beauty” by Jo Ludwig caught my eye. Upstairs you discover a spacious loft with windows looking down into the Inner Harbour and 11 open-plan galleries dedicated to different aspects of Bateman’s art. It’s a fresh, calm exhibit space that any of our local institutions would be proud of.
Naturally, the paintings are the main attraction. Some of Bateman’s largest and most dramatic canvases are here: a great shaggy bison, a flock of snow geese striking poses like a ballet company in the morning mist. A smaller space is devoted to his African subjects, and it bears noting that Bateman taught school in Nigeria for seven years. My favourite exhibit is made up of paintings from his youth, when he imitated the Group of Seven in the ravines of Toronto and filled pages in his sketchbook with the utterly engaged watercolours of a teenage birdwatcher.
You’ll see striking large oils inspired by Franz Kline that have all the compositional vigour of that abstract expressionist, but still provide a place for a redwinged blackbird. Another gallery features his most ardent paintings with a “save the planet” theme. A dolphin and a seagull are depicted in his signature close tonal values, overlaid with a real piece of monofilament driftnet.
A life-size eagle fishes on the shore beside a huge cedar stump. If you point your smartphone (or a borrowed tablet) at the QR code beside it, much information is offered. At the moment, Bateman is recording video stories for each picture. A born storyteller and teacher, he is a superb guide. There is also a “Bateman app” under development, and positions in the gallery where you can “curate” your own selection of his art and send it home. Irresistible for the young ones is a “virtual forest” in which the bird pictures come alive with recordings of their songs. It must be noted that many of the images are largescale prints. But then, Bateman’s actual paintings look like prints.
Aimée Ippersiel, the communications manager, told me this location is just the first step. Eventually, when the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority builds a new ferry terminal on Belleville Street, the Bateman Foundation will be ready to take it to the next stage. For now, the foundation contributes millions of dollars to help not-for-profit organizations in the “nature movement” and to influence government. Toronto has recently opened an 18-kilometre Robert Bateman Urban Nature Trail.
Personally, I had hoped that the entire former steamship terminal would become a home for the Maritime Museum of B.C. Or, in my fondest dream, I prayed for a shrine to Emily Carr in which the Royal B.C. Museum and Provincial Archives could display (finally!) its peerless collection of her work. But I am pleased to have this attraction in our harbour, one that is noble in intention and artistic in expression. Let’s wait and see if the public is willing to support such a worthy enterprise.