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Art Business News

 

 
*Building pillars of Canadian art history (04/09)
*AGO director tops government salaries list (04/09)
*New Arts Council in Nova Scotia (04/09)
*Toronto art auction to aid Lubicon Cree against forestry multinational (03/31)
*Chalmers Foundation vs. Ontario Arts Council, round two (03/31)
*Willem De Kooning, pioneer of abstract expressionism (03/24)
*Canadian Copyright Reform Update
*Alberta Craft Council adopts commercial business practices (03/10)
*Canada Council has a new name (03/10)
*14 laid off at the Art Gallery of Hamilton (03/03)
*Amendments to Canadian Copyright bill -- the rights of makers and the needs of users (03/03)
*Alberta law suit involves emotional issues and conflicting rights (03/03)
*Federal government levels the field for Canadian arts charities through new donor incentives (02/24)
*The ancient art of skulduggery, trouble at Sotheby's (02/24)
*Korper's Toronto gallery complex finally purchased (02/24)
 

Building pillars of Canadian art history (April 9)
Toronto - The Art Gallery of Ontario has expressed plans to build "pillars" of art history from artists that the Globe & Mail has crowned the "unassailables". The AGO plans to make the institution a primary location not only to view but also to research Canadian art history.
 
The Globe article (April 5) revealed the AGO's chief curator's strategy to make the museum a magnet for future donations of Canadian art by establishing a number of landmark artists in their collection. The first two are London painter Paterson Ewen (1994) and Montreal artist Betty Goodwin (1996). The third, Greg Curnoe, who was tragically killed in 1992 at 55, is the recent choice for this special position.
 
Sheila Curnoe, the artist's widow, has donated 121 works by Greg Curnoe. Another 26 by the artist were bought with money from the museum's volunteer committee. Another 14 were acquired with the help of the Walter and Duncan Gordon Charitable Foundation. These plus the 11 works previously in the AGO's permanent collection make 172. The "initiative" is being supported, says the chief curator by the community , individuals who are "offering significant work".
 
In an interview, Teitelbaum said that the Curnoe works are worth "nicely over $1-million, not quite nudging $2-million." But, says Teitelbaum,"It's really about building pillars of Canadian art history."
 
The Curnoe collection will be celebrated in the fall of 2000 with an exhibition sponsored by Rogers Communications. A Betty Goodwin show will precede it in 1998. The Ewen show wrapped up in fall 1996.
AGO director tops government salaries list (April 9)
Toronto - In accordance with Government of Ontario legislation, all government ministries and agencies including arts council, museums, universities, hospitals, municipalities receiving transfer payments must disclose salaries of all staff members who earn over $100,000. This is the second year for the disclosures.
 
Topping the list of salary earners is Art Gallery of Ontario Director Maxwell Anderson who was paid $225,999. plus $20,935. in taxable benefits in 1996. Two other AGO staff are on the over $100,000. list including Chief curator Teitelbaum who earned $110, 249. in 1995 and $122,389. this past year. AGO's director of development Shawn St. Michael's also received an increase from $102,492. to $117,999. Commenting on these high salaries a staff spokesperson said that the AGO is the 8th largest art gallery in North America in terms of square footage and that it has a budget of $24-million and full-time staff of 250.
 
Other salaries of note include that of then director and president of the Royal Ontario Museum, John McNeill at $151,473. The Ontario Arts Council's executive director, Gwenlyn Setterfield earned $106,000. in 1995 and $100,435. in 1996. Barbara Tyler, executive director of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, Ont., had a salary increase from $103,930. to $104,363.
 
New arts council in Nova Scotia (April 9)
Halifax - $1-million will be granted annually through the newly founded Nova Scotia Arts Council. Nova Scotia is the last province in the country to establish such a funding body.
 
While details of how the money is to be allocated has not been announced, grants will be reserved for small organisations and individuals. Large organisations such as Symphony Nova Scotia and Theatre Neptune will not be funded through the council.
 
The council was the intiative of recently ousted premier John Savage. The council's annual budget of $1.4-million includes $400,000. for administrative costs including a three person staff. Russell Kelly is the new council's executive director. He spent the last five years working at the Canada Council, Ottawa. The new council began operating April 1.
 
Toronto art auction to aid Lubicon against forestry multinational (March 31)
Toronto - Over a hundred Canadian artists have donated their creative efforts to help a small grassroots citizens' group hit with a multi million dollar lawsuit.
 
Toronto Friends of the Lubicon appealed to the arts community for help with the costs of their legal defence against the multinational pulp and paper giant, Daishowa. An overwhelming response from artists means that well over a hundred pieces of quality art will be auctioned on April 5 at 8 pm at A-Space Gallery in Toronto to raise funds for Friends of the Lubicon's legal defence fund. Some of the artists featured in the art show and auction include Roberta Bateman, Robert Houle, Aiko Suzuki, Joane Cardinal-Schubert, Nancy Pallen-Delqe, Ian Carr-Harris, Kent Monkman, Doris McCarthy, John Brown, Rebecca Baird, Rae Johnson and many more.
 
Daishowa hit the Toronto-based group of volunteers, which works to heighten public awareness about the protracted land rights struggle of the Lubicon Cree in northern Alberta, with an $8-million lawsuit in 1995. The Friends worked on a highly successful consumer boycott of Daishowa's paper products in an effort to get a commitment from the company that it would not log or buy wood cut on unceded Lubicon land until the land rights are settled and a timber harvesting agreement respecting Lubicon wildlife and environmental concerns is negotiated.
 
Friends of the Lubicon has sustained phenomenal legal costs in their defence against Daishowa, which used the courts to stop the highly successful consumer boycott of their products. Friends of the Lubicon return to court in September 1997, to defend themselves in this landmark case on the extent of consumers' rights and the extent of Canadian consumers' freedom of expression as it relates to boycotts and business interests.
 
"The response to the call for artwork has been amazing, breathtaking actually," asserts Friends' Stephen Kenda. "We've had Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal artists from right across Canada sending us some truly remarkable works."
 
Many artists have submitted work which focuses on the theme of the "Spirits of Power" Benefit Art Show and Action.
 
"Power and the abuse of it are integral to the story of the Lubicon Cree and the pressure put on their community by huge oil and logging multinationals as well as government. Power, its use and abuse is key to the Friends of the Lubicon's story, now, too," says Lorraine Land, one of the Toronto Friends.
 
"Daishowa uses the power that money gives them to try to crush opposition. But his boycott also shows the incredible power of ordinary Canadian consumers, who want to use their purchasing power to send a clear message to this company that its behaviour is not morally acceptable to most Canadians."
 
The artwork goes on display at A-Space Gallery (401 Richmond St. West, Suite 110 at Spadina) on April 4 and 5, before the April 5, 8 pm auction. Some of the artwork is also being exhibited at Toronto's Juice for Life, Alternative Grounds and the Rivoli.
 
Lubicon Supporters' Web page: http://kafka.uvic.ca/~vipirg/SISIS/Lubicon/main.html
 
Chalmers Foundation vs. Ontario Arts Council, round two (March 31)
 
Toronto - The rift between Ontario Arts Council management and Toronto's Chalmers Foundation has been patched for the time being. While Joan Chalmers appears not to have donated any money this year, she and her Foundation's Director, Barbra Amesbury have reorganised the conditions of future donations. In 1972, the Chalmers family established an endowment at the OAC, the Ontario Arts Foundation, to which it contributes every year. The endowment, now totalling about $13.5-million, funds the Chalmers Awards, nine annual prizes given to artists in all disciplines who have created "exceptional work".
 
Last May, the OAC seemingly lost the financial support of the Chalmers Foundation. The future of continued gifts was at "issue" reported the Globe and Mail (May 16/96). The reasons for the family's decision were summed up in a letter from family representatives Joan Chalmers and her sister-in-law to OAC chairman Paul Hoffert. In the letter the women stated: "... we will never again entrust our money to the whim and fancy of bureaucrats and appointed boards."
 
As a result of the conflict, the Chalmers Awards no longer award life-time achievement but focus on individual works of "excellence". Award winners are selected by a peer committee, its members anonymous until after the awards are given. Criteria for selection is no longer based solely on peer letters of reference, but on the jurors' direct experiences of the works as well. This year the individual prizes have increased by $5,000. each, a windfall from the cancelled awards ceremony. Ms. Amesbury estimated that $75,000 to $100,000. was spent on the gala affair last year.
 
In response to the changes, OAC Chairman Paul Hoffert is quoted in the Globe: "I have no problem saying that Joan Chalmers got what she wants... but what she wants is congruent with the arts council's objectives."
 
From Joan Chalmers point of view, Ms. Amesbury concludes in the Globe,"Bureaucracies are still not her favourite place."
 
Further information on the situation from the OAC is largely unavailable. Although the provincially funded is an agency of the Ministry of Culture, the OAC is exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. Its administration discloses information at its own discretion.
Willem De Kooning, pioneer of abstract expressionism (March 24)
New York - Willem De Kooning, known for his contributions to the painterly style of abstract expressionism, died March 19/97 at the age of 92.
 
De Kooning was born in 1904 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. At the age of 12, he began work in a commercial art firm. He also studied for eight years at the Rotterdam Academy where he obtained a rigorous academic training. In 1926, he came to the U.S. In New York, he painted signs and worked as a carpenter. In 1935 he gained employment in Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration, a New Deal effort aimed at bringing art and the public closer. Finally, in 1948, De Kooning had his first solo show. His expressionist paintings were a critical success. This same year Jackson Pollock exhibited his first "drip" paintings. At the age of 46, in 1950, he took part in a Venice exhibition with other American artists including Pollock. The "irascibles", as they were called in Time magazine in 1951, shocked audiences. In that same year De Kooning began work on Woman I, the first of series of such paintings. Woman I took 2 years to complete. The exhibition of his women paintings in 1953 created a "problem" for art critics and followers of abstraction. De Kooning was criticised for stepping backwards with these "vulgar" images.
Speaking at a 1951 symposium "What Abstract Art Means to Me" at MoMA, N.Y., De Kooning discussed his understanding of "abstraction":
 
"If I do paint abstract art, that's what abstract art means to me. I frankly do not understand the question. About 24 years ago, I knew man in Hoboken, a German who used to visit us... As far as he could remember, he was always hungry in Europe. He found a place in Hoboken where bread was sold a few days old... He bought big stacks of it for very little money, and let it get good and hard and then he crumpled it and spread it on the floor in his flat... I could never figure him out, but now when I think of him, all that I can remember is that he had a very abstract look on his face."
 
Abstract expressionism was imitated by artists throughout the world. De Kooning, as one of the "inventors" of the style, sold his work for increasing amounts. In 1989, Interchange (1955) sold for US$20.8-million.
 
De Kooning painted until he was 75 when Alzheimer's disease forced him to stop.
Canadian Copyright Reform Update (March 17/97)
Ottawa - Bill C-32 was debated in the House of Commons on March 14. Formal votes on all of the articles will take place today.
 
While the vote was to take place in February, it was delayed by a group of Liberal backbenchers led by a Southern Ontario MP, Brenda Chamberlain. Ms. Chamberlain is concerned that the bill threatens small radio stations such as CJOY in Guelph, an agriculture and university community west of Toronto. CJOY provides useful services to its community, but like many AM stations, it loses money. A Globe and Mail report (March 7) revealed that this particular station is owned by a division of Paul Desmarais's Power Corp., the 12th largest broadcaster in Canada. Power Corp. is a member of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) which has been lobbying Members of Parliament throughout this debate.
 
Fears persist that copyright reform, a Liberal "Red Book" promise, will not make it into law. There is no indication when a third reading will take place. Parliament is in recess during the weeks of March 24 and March 31. The Liberals will go to the polls later this year.
Canada Council has a new name (March 10/97)
Ottawa - In celebration of its 40th birthday, the Canada Council has renamed itself the Canada Council for the Arts and has a new logo. Instead of a tree enclosed by a circle, it is a tree growing out of one. In a news conference Feb. 25, Council Director Roch Carrier said that the new logo symbolises the Council's potential for growth. Over the last two years, the council has lost $8-million in federal funding but has, through restructuring, managed to retain its grants budget of about $85-million.
 
Alberta Craft Council adopts commercial business practices (March 10/97)
Calgary - The Alberta Craft Council has implemented new programs and strategies aimed at strengthening the businesses of its members and the council itself.
 
Without waiting for the inevitable, a damaging reduction of government subsidy, Susan Abell, Executive Director of the non-profit service organisation, began to plan for the current "business" programs in 1992. Confirming her direction was a media photo of Alberta Premier Ralph Klein holding a sign which said "Think differently!" This photo, commented Ms. Abell, "crystallised" her thoughts. Like all other Canadian arts organisations, the ACC's operating budget has been eroded -- between 1990 and the present, their grant from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts has fallen from $162,000 to $125,000. Ms. Abell stands firm in her convictions that the best way to strength crafts in Alberta and the ACC is to make them increasingly self-sufficient.
 
The council has completed studies on its marketplace (Alberta's craft artists), its members and their potential to make money. The studies were paid for by funds, about $280,000., secured from a variety of sources including the Alberta Economic Development. The ACC has also borrowed about $723,000., interest free, from the federal government in order to implement the new business programs.
 
The ACC's four main business programs are:
 
* a quality approval program in which an ACC jury will give craft artists a special logo to put on their products;
* an artist's representative program -- for a 17 percent fee, the ACC makes sales and distributes crafts to wholesalers;
* a distribution program in which the ACC places crafts in museum gift shops;
* courses to train craft artists in all areas of business
 
Significantly, the ACC has eschewed euphemisms for its sales staff -- such as "development team" -- which traditionally have led to unfocussed efforts. Sales staff at the ACC are simply called salespeople.
 
The changes at the ACC have upset some members concerned with the denigration of craft aesthetics. Doug Haslam, a Calgary furniture maker and ACC jury member, is quoted in the Globe and Mail (Feb. 25/97). He complains that the council is more interested in "craft in terms of people at home knitting booties. For myself, I have a good deal more interest in the aesthetic and philosophical side of craft." Mr. Haslam commented that the council is promoting home-based, part-time crafts ahead of the "full-time professionals, especially those working to a higher standard of arts-based work."
 
Full details on the ACC's programs will be available in a booklet due out March 10. Another ABM report will be out shortly thereafter.
 
14 laid off at the Art Gallery of Hamilton (March 3/97)
Hamilton, Ontario -- Following a carefree come-one-come-all full page colour spread in the Hamilton Spectator less than a month ago, the Art Gallery of Hamilton has laid off half of its staff. Included in 14 lay-offs is the museum's only curator, Ihor Holubizky. Mr. Holubizky who has been with the medium sized Canadian institution for almost 10 years is consulting his lawyer.
 
Like all Canadian art museums, the AGH has had steep reductions in its government grants. Its budget over the last few years has been reduced from about $2-million to $1.5-million. The gallery is also carrying a growing deficit of almost $200,000., although this amount is rumoured to be higher. In the face of these financial challenges, the gallery recently launched a campaign to intice older community citizens to donate through their wills -- the euphemistically named "planned giving".
 
While insufficient funding is the official reason for the lay-offs, the gallery has announced that it plans to create eight new jobs for which the laid off employees are welcome to apply. The strategy of laying off better paid staff and hiring low salary attendants will save about $79,000. annually. With these new staff members, the gallery plans to implement an outreach program in which they will bring art to their community. Hamiltonians can expect mall windows to be sporting new spring fashions and the permanent collection from the AGH.
 
Gallery Director Ted Pietrzak is quoted in the Globe and Mail (March 1), "(The gallery) will only succeed if the community is behind it.... They have to see the value of an art gallery in their community and they have to translate that value into dollars and usage."
 
Amendments to Canadian Copyright bill -- the rights of makers and the needs of users (March 3/97)
Ottawa - Difficulties in striking a balance between the rights of makers and the needs of users has drawn out the process of amending the Canadian Copyright Act. Wrangling has cost time and there are fears that the reforms may be put off.
The 74 year old copyright laws were first amended in 1989 to include creator collectives. These collectives may not legally negotiate on behalf of its members. New amendments, known as Bill C-32, were begun in 1989 but only introduced to Parliament in the spring of 1996. Hearings on the bill were completed this past December.
With an election rumoured for the spring and a currently heavy legislative agenda, players in heated and complicated exchange over copyright law have concerns that the Bill will not be tabled at all. The third reading of the Bill was to take place in February.
"I think we're on the borderline of having to start again, "says Brian Robertson, President of the Canadian Recording Industry Association in a Globe and Mail report. "That's a very real possibility which, frankly, I don't even want to contemplate."
Lobbying is expected to intensify as time starts to out. Issues in the debates include: remuneration for music and music video publishers from home tapings; controls on imports of foreign editions of books in cases of exclusive Canadian distribution contracts; and royalties for the use of recordings in live performances and broadcasts. Exceptions are being considered for certain users -- libraries, schools and archives. Universities are arguing that they too should be exempt. The use of photocopies of periodical articles is essential for these cash strapped institutions. And the Canadian Association of Broadcasters is arguing that too much given to producers would harm the livelihoods of radio stations.
Alberta Law Suit Involves Emotional Issues and Conflicting Rights (March 3/97)
Courtesy of Lesley Ellen Harris and Copyright and New Media Legal News (Vol. 1, No. 5) February 15, 1997. Ms. Harris is a Copyright and New Media Lawyer who may be reached at copylaw@interlog.com
Calgary - A Calgary (Alberta) artist has sued a local publication over what he calls a distorted version of his photograph of an angel used in connection with the promotion of a controversial theatre production. While his claim asserts unauthorised reproduction and violation of moral rights, the defence argues that it was the theatre group, not the photographer, who owned the image's copyright and that he waived his moral rights by allowing the group to distribute it for promotional purposes. Also raised were questions concerning the originality of the subject photograph as a "parody or satire" of its inspiration and whether it can be considered a form of constitutionally protected expression.
Federal government levels the field for Canadian arts charities through new donor incentives (Feb.24)
Ottawa - Feb. 18th's Federal budget levelled the playing field for all Canadian charities. The recently created arts foundations established under the Crown Foundations Act for specific arts institutions have had their special status reduced: crown foundations can no longer offer donors tax credits of up to 100 per cent of taxable income. Instead, new tax rules allow a 75 per cent credit to all charities. This is a decrease for the crown foundations but an increase from for most other charities. The limit in Ontario is 50 per cent.
 
Ontario's Culture Ministry spent a good deal of time in consultation with the Federal government last year when writing the legislation for the amendment to the Act. On Feb. 6 the Ontario government announced the creation of the Ontario Foundation for the Arts on behalf of the Ontario Arts Council. Other institutions allowed to create a foundation under the Act are: the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Shaw and Stratford Festivals, the National Ballet Company, the Royal Ontario Museum, the Royal Botanical Gardens, the Canadian Opera Company and the Toronto Symphony.
 
The Federal budget also held new rules which reduced by half the capital gains taxes on gifts that have appreciated in value. Such gifts would include stocks. Many cultural workers see these changes as potential windfall. The new incentives for private sector donations outweigh the subsidy cuts experienced by all in the arts. Hal Jackman, chairman of the Ontario Foundation for the Arts was far from crushed at the reduction in his foundation's ability to attract donors.
 
"The way I look at, in the United States about 2.2 per cent of salaries go to philanthropy. In Canada it is about 0.7 or 0.8 per cent... The potential of the private sector to give far outstrips any government cutbacks."
 
The ancient art of skulduggery, trouble at Sotheby's. by David Whittaker (Feb. 24/97)
London - Sotheby's, the venerable old auction house, and bastion of the learned and gentlemanly tradition of the liberal arts, has recently suffered from a rather too liberal application of the international export laws governing fine art. Resulting from a carefully organised 'sting' by Peter Watson, the renown writer and journalist, evidence has been unearthed that not only implicates current staff and operations, but drags a history of illicit practise out of the cupboard, stretching back to the 1970's.
No criminal proceedings have yet taken place, but Sotheby's have suspended certain key staff while they perform a 'full internal inquiry,' Watson's book, Sotheby's: Inside Story, about the scandal was published in early February, serialised in a major British daily paper, and was the subject of a documentary expose on national TV.
 
The book is largely based on documents supplied by a former Sotheby's administrator who left in 1991, charged with false accountancy, forgery, and theft. Hence the retaliation from Diana Brooks, chief executive of the world's largest auction firm, that the scheme is a personal vendetta: yes, some staff may have flouted international regulations, but they're isolated cases, and not just the tip of a corrupt iceberg as the book suggests.
 
The now high-profile sting is the most recent and notorious incident providing fuel for the fire of detractors. It involved a woman, posing as the owner of an 18th century painting, approaching the Milan office of Sotheby's, and arranging for the picture to be shipped illegally to London for sale. The employee in Italy has since resigned, and George Bailey, European managing director, is in charge of the wide ranging internal investigation.
 
Other clandestine goings-on filling out Watson's book include the use of diplomatic immunity to move antiquities from India to England, and sharp practise in the auction room itself, with auctioneers conjuring false bids from non-existent attendees in the audience to 'warm up' potential buyers, thus synthesising a competitive atmosphere, and breakdowns in the system of 'Chinese walls' that's supposed to keep knowledge of commission bids and reserve prices separate.
 
Even the UK government, through their commercial wing, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), have initiated an inquiry into the whole of the London art market, not just Sotheby's, following allegations of widespread malpractise and connivance. Prosecutions still seem unlikely, partly because everyone in the industry is keen to preserve their reputations of integrity, so crucial in a supposedly 'honourable' business, and partly because, as Professor Brian Harvey, an expert on auction law, admits: there are no legal precedents in this area.
 
Without wanting to condone any of the methods catalogued against Sotheby's, it does seem rather ironic, and not a little unlucky, for them to be carrying the can for what is generally regarded as being a problem endemic to the art trade as a whole. Precious artefacts have always been, and probably always will be, pursued by unscrupulous collectors, and what was once seen as colonialism is now regarded as criminal. The Nazis and Russians affected probably the biggest ever exodus of art during World War II. Afghanistan, Pompeii, and Yugoslavia are today being systematically stripped of their cultural heritage. The difference in the Sotheby's case is something like the Lord of the Manor being caught trading his own family silver.
Even more ironic is the fact that while Sotheby's share price dived in London, as the potentially damaging news broke, it soared in New York: the Americans, it seems, are still reassured by zealous business dealings, even if they're on slightly the wrong side of the law's shadow.

Korper's Toronto gallery complex finally purchased (Feb. 24)
Toronto's 16-25 Morrow Ave. gallery complex originally developed by gallerist Olga Korper has been purchased by Toronto criminal lawyer William Halkiw.
 
Ms. Korper and the former brick foundry in Toronto's west end made some headlines when the building was seized last year by the Toronto Dominion Bank. Ms. Korper and the other owners of the property were unable to make good on $3-million in bank loans. Ms. Korper originally purchased the property in the late 1980's for $2-million and, it is reported, made $2.5-million in renovations. The property sold to Mr. Halkiw for $1.57-million. Mr. Halkiw owns property across the street from the complex and another lot next to it on Silver Ave.
Much noise was heard last year when the dismal financial management of the building was revealed. Co-owners lamented that they wanted to help the arts but were hurt by the recession of the early 1990's. Others consider that this story is not about the arts at all but about real estate.