2014’s top cultural gaffes
There have been many moments of glory in Toronto’s arts and entertainment world over the past 12 months, but also several notable gaffes. The year’s top dubious achievements tend to get overlooked, largely because few organizations like to send out media releases about how they slipped on a banana peel. But as 2014 comes to a conclusion with an excess of sugar and sentiment, it may be useful to do a reality checklist of the year’s most memorable cultural mishaps: cases of what I call the Whoops! Factor. Beware of Greeks Bearing Blockbusters The largest travelling exhibition on ancient Greece ever assembled opened on Dec. 12 in Montreal. It’s called The Greeks — Agamemnon to Alexander the Great, spanning 6,000 years of history and featuring more than 500 archeological treasures from 21 Greek museums (300 of which have never before left Greece).
Canada’s Museum of History, which led the charge to create the show and bring it to North America, will present the show for four months starting June 5. Then it will travel to museums in Chicago and Washington.
I’m sorry to report it won’t be coming to Toronto. Why not? Because after months of discussion about being a partner in the consortium of museums needed to share costs, the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) decided to opt out. According to its press office, the ROM gave the Greek show serious consideration but decided it did not fit into its schedule, given other exhibits booked.
That seems a pity since this sounds like the sort of blockbuster that could have cured the ROM’s chronic case of underwhelming attendance numbers.
Currently you can catch the show in Old Montreal at the Pointe-àCallière Museum, where it runs until April 26. Woeful Aria of Red Ink How could one of Toronto’s greatest and most popular cultural treasures slip into a financial danger zone despite drawing full houses? The Canadian Opera Company (COC) consistently produces excellent work at its pitch-perfect home, the Four Seasons Centre. But opera is one of the most expensive of all art forms. And in November, the COC announced the distressing news that in 2013-14 it spent close to $3 million more than it took in, despite average attendance of over 90 per cent.
After a transfer of almost $2 million from the COC Foundation, the opera company reduced the year’s deficit to the still worrisome $952,000. The good news is that a solution to the problem has already been introduced. Starting now, the COC is cutting expenses by presenting six operas a year on its main stage instead of seven and expects to balance its books for the current season.
Meanwhile, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) keeps being described as “in the black” based on the fact that it recorded a very small surplus in its 2013/14 season after two consecutive seasons of huge deficits. But let’s get real. The TSO won’t truly be “in the black” until its new CEO, Jeff Melanson, finds a way to pay off its scary accumulated debt of about $12 million. How CBC Spoiled the Screen Awards It’s hard to sustain an arts and entertainment industry in this country if Canada’s public broadcaster, which should be the champion of our cultural scene, sabotages it at the most crucial moment of the year. That’s what happened on a Sunday night in March.
A nationally televised bash for the Canadian Screen Awards should been a celebration of our vibrant film and TV industry. Instead the telecast, controlled by the CBC, was marked by many gaffes and miscues. When the moment came to honour the best Canadian movie of 2013, we should have seen clips from the nominees. We did not. And almost unbelievably, the audience was never given the titles of the nominated films.
OK, the show was running a few minutes late. But instead of allowing the telecast to run beyond its scheduled time, as commonly happens with hockey and football games, CBC producers turned the event into a farce.
The envelope was ripped open, we were told Gabrielle had won . . . and then the winners were given exactly 20 seconds to accept the award. All of which added up to an insult rather than a celebration.
Let’s hope the 2015 edition of the Screen Awards is vastly improved. One piece of good news: that marvellous funny girl, Andrea Martin, will host. Trashing the Sony Centre After spending a great deal of time and money considering what the city of Toronto should do with three city-owned theatres, the city hall watchdogs of culture achieved nothing.
Then just as Dan Brambilla was about to retire after 12 years as CEO of the Sony Centre, he was attacked with allegations from the city auditor of improper and excessive spending.
What was the outcome of all the mudslinging? Its ultimate effect was to damage the brand of the theatre itself, making it even harder for this historic performing arts centre to flourish in the future. Meanwhile, the centre’s board of directors had to resign and the search for a new CEO was put on indefinite hold.
Also back-burnered was the question of whether the Sony and its neighbour, the city-owned St. Lawrence Centre, might fare better if they were merged rather than being operated separately.
My prediction: It will take a year before the city gets around to repairing some of the damage inflicted on the Sony and deciding the future of all three theatres, including the Toronto Centre for the Arts.
If it were up to me, I would merge the three under the umbrella of a theatre group run by a single CEO and an independent board, and enact an arm’s-length relationship with city hall. Toronto city councillors should no longer be allowed to play the roles of showbiz tycoons. mknelman@thestar.ca