Construction has officially commenced for the new Vancouver Art Gallery, marking the beginning of a large-scale project that will thrust Coast Salish art into the spotlight.
The new VAG building, to be located east of the former site at the intersection of Cambie Street and West Georgia Street, will have its exterior designed by Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) artists Skwetsimeltxw Willard “Buddy” Joseph and hereditary chief Chepximiya Siyam’ Janice George, Musqueam artist Qwasen, Debra Sparrow and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh Nation) artist qʷənat, Angela George.
Crafted from a thin, veil-like copper sheet, the building’s facade has been designed to incorporate traditional Coast Salish weaving methods.
It will be fashioned in a way so the design reflects the light as the sun moves through the building, leading to an undulating exterior evocative of the fluid movements of a blanket, according to Tseil-Waututh artist and weaver Angela George.
“Our blankets that we wrap people in are meant to protect, so that was a big part of the design discussion, creating something that really protects everything that is housed in this building. Protecting the people that are in there, and the visitors that come,” she said.
A rendering of the design for the new Vancouver Art Gallery, released on Nov. 4, 2021. (Supplied by the Vancouver Art Gallery)
The new gallery, designed by Swiss architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron, is set to tower nine levels and span 350,000 square feet. The rest of the building will be crafted from wood and glass, and will house classrooms, artist studios, an Indigenous community space, a theatre, a number of restaurants and some retail, among its exhibition spaces.
The monumental project is penned for completion in 2028.
WATCH | Dances held at ‘ground awakening’ ceremony for new gallery:
Indigenous dancers take part in a ceremony at future site of Vancouver Art Gallery
6 months ago
Duration 0:38
Family and friends of the renowned late Kwakwaka’wakw artist Beau Dick took part in what the Vancouver Art Gallery called a “ground awakening” ceremony Friday at the site of the gallery’s new building, which will be at a different location than the current 107-year-old facility.
Vancouver Art Gallery CEO and executive director Anthony Kiendl said the new building is an act of reconciliation, with the project designed and created in a way that respects and accurately represents the land that it was built on.
“This is a custom-designed, purpose-built art gallery with Indigenous living at its heart,” he said. “It’s not like this building can be plopped down anywhere in the world, it really speaks to Vancouver. It is very much about this place, this culture, and it will be a huge expression of the Coast Salish worldview.”
The new gallery, designed by Swiss architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron, will be nine levels. (Nav Rahi/CBC)
Kiendl said he hopes the new building will help build awareness around Indigenous culture for both tourists and locals, and will instil pride in the Musqueam, Tsleil-Waututh and Squamish Nations.
Coming up with a design that would honour Vancouver’s past while also embracing its future was of paramount importance to the four artists and the architects, said George.
“It had been a large discussion we had with the whole team and so what we landed on perfectly shows the unity and the harmony of the city, and the desire we have here to understand and respect and honour all of our collective histories,” she said.
“It is a huge honour to be able to work on a project of this magnitude, of this importance, and it’s an honour to speak on behalf of our Coast Salish families, our Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish and Musqueam people and our ancestors.”
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LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”
It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.
“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.
