Artist Martin Creed (L) and collector Bob Rennie (R) at the Rennie Collection at Wing Sang, May 17, 2011.Brett Beadle for The Globe and Mail
The cultural institution which documents British Columbia's history is teaming up with a sleek contemporary art space to create a satellite gallery in Vancouver. Victoria's Royal BC Museum will operate a gallery out of Bob Rennie's historic Wing Sang museum in Chinatown during the summer, beginning in 2012.
"As a museum and archive of B.C., we're always seeking ways of getting our collection and our stories to British Columbians," said Royal BC Museum CEO Pauline Rafferty, in the Wing Sang's bright, airy second floor gallery on Thursday. "And we'd heard from a lot of people in Vancouver that they'd like us to have a location in Vancouver."
Mr. Rennie, a real estate marketing mogul with a passion for contemporary art (he chairs the Tate Modern's North American Acquisitions Committee), undertook extensive renovations to the Wing Sang building, which dates back to 1889, to house his company, Rennie Marketing Systems, and to mount exhibitions of works from his own extensive collection, which are on limited view to the public.
Beginning next year, the Royal BC Museum will take over the gallery space from mid-June until Labour Day, and install exhibitions featuring works from its collection and archives. Under the five year agreement, Rennie Marketing Systems will donate the space.
"It's an arranged marriage," said Mr. Rennie, adding that he likes the juxtaposition between his contemporary space and the museum charged with marking the province's past.
The idea was first proposed to Mr. Rennie over dinner by his friend Donald Hayes, then chair of the Royal BC Museum's board of directors. "Right away I went, 'No, that's not us'," Mr. Rennie recalled. "That's the instant defensive reaction of my baby. And then we just sort of moved it along to a dialogue about what's right for the area, what's right for us. And it just seemed to be a really nice fit."
The agreement means The Rennie Collection at Wing Sang will only be able to mount two exhibitions per year, as opposed to the 2-and-a-half to three Mr. Rennie had originally planned. The current Martin Creed exhibition closes next month.
In June, the Royal BC Museum at Wing Sang will open with the popular exhibition The Other Emily: Redefining Emily Carr, about the early life of the iconic B.C. artist, currently installed at the museum in Victoria.
The satellite gallery is expected to attract between 20,000 and 30,000 visitors over the summer, and Mr. Rennie says bringing all that traffic to the Chinatown/Downtown Eastside neighbourhood was a big part of the reason he agreed to the collaboration.
"It's a very sensitive area and it needs sensitive solutions," he said. "I think that soft cultural solutions as opposed to condo solutions are probably the answer.
"We have to calm the area and my goal is always to have the fortunate and the less fortunate walking down the street together, and respecting each other."
Marsha Lederman