ART MUSEUM UNVEILED IN WHISTLER
$30-million bet: Art lovers will adore gallery, but the ski-and-snow-board crowd may be a tough one
‘A vivid and powerful window’: Michael Audain’s collection of B.C. historic and contemporary art — and the building showcasing it — combine to deliver an ‘extraordinary gift’ to the province and Canada.
The transforming power of art is usually spoken of metaphorically. But when the Audain Art Museum officially opens March 12, it has the potential to fundamentally change people’s perception of this luxury ski resort town.
This is no tourist gallery in the woods. In fact, there is nothing quite like either the $30-million museum or the multimillion-dollar collection anywhere else, and certainly not at a ski resort.
The museum is home to nearly 200 works selected from the collection of Michael Audain and his wife Yoshiko Karasawa.
Generally regarded as one of the best private collections in Canada and the finest private collection of B.C. art, it is stunning and spans more than two centuries of work from early First Nations carvings to current artists including Brian Jungen, whose sculptures are made from running shoes and golf bags.
The museum’s size alone is staggering. The initial plan was for 25,000 square feet. But after consulting curator Ian Thom made his initial selections and talked to architect John Patkau about how it might all fit in, they presented Audain with a choice: edit the collection or make the museum bigger.
With the blessing of Whistler’s council, it grew to 56,000 square feet, rivalling the 41,400 square feet of exhibition space at the current Vancouver Art Gallery.
Of course, it’s a huge risk to have invested so much. Sure, Whistler is one of North America’s premier resorts, known for its vertical drop (second biggest in North America), its role as host mountain for the 2010 Winter Olympics and its longstanding reputation for sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll.
But will the winter ski and snowboard crowd or the summer hikers, mountain bikers and golfers visit an art museum, even one as stunning as this?
That’s the big question, especially since Audain himself was a rare visitor to Whistler before embarking on this project. Even now, more than four years after signing the agreement with the resort municipality to build the museum, he has never been up either Whistler or Blackcomb mountains, never ridden the Peak 2 Peak gondola that is one of its big summer attractions.
The vagaries and eccentricities of the 2.5 million visitors who come to Whistler annually have been the subject of much debate and consideration by executive director Suzanne Greening and her staff.
One of the most delightful results is that there will be slippers at the door for anyone who arrives in ski boots. Beyond that, the museum will be open late on Thursdays and Fridays. It’s so, as Greening says, “people can ski, go to the hot tub, have drinks, dinner and then come here.”
The hope is also that temporary exhibitions — up to three a year, according to chief curator Darrin Martens — will continue to lure new visitors and repeat visits.
Still, the museum is a nonprofit that needs to earn its keep. And while Audain has committed to raising a $150-million endowment fund for operating expenses, Greening and the board know they have to generate enough revenue to cover most, if not all, the annual costs through donations, grants, rentals, retail, memberships and admissions.
(Free admission for children under 17 was one of Audain’s requirements. There was no public art gallery in Victoria when he grew up and he believes strongly that children ought to have easy access to art. Everyone else will pay $18. There will be no discounts for local residents or seniors.)
“We are a ski resort first and foremost, no question about that, and the experience of being on the hill in the winter is still a No. 1 experience,” Mayor Nancy Wilhelm-Morden said.
But she went on to say, “I keep talking about this as a gamechanger, but I can’t think of another phrase, because that’s exactly what this is going to do for Whistler … I have absolutely no doubt people will be coming from Vancouver — either visitors or residents — specifically to visit this museum.”
By building the private museum, Audain and Karasawa hope visitors to British Columbia as well as British Columbians themselves can see and appreciate the province’s rich artistic heritage.
The range is extraordinary, from neon artwork to a very rare early Coast Salish carving, and everything in between. There’s James Hart’s majestic The Dance Screen (The Scream Too), a rare example of Emily Carr’s work done in Paris, plus a whole room filled with the work of E.J. Hughes. Modern B.C. works include First Nations pieces that blend the traditional, photo-conceptualists, painters, sculptors and ceramicists.
As Thom said Thursday, the museum is “noteworthy both for its rarity and quality … an extraordinary gift.”
Now all that’s needed are enough people to appreciate and sustain it.