Lorne Gunter: Onus on Art Gallery of Alberta to attract more visitors

They can’t display only paintings of quarter horses drinking from mountain lakes or black-velvets of dogs playing pool.

I get why places like the Art Gallery of Alberta (AGA) are controversial, especially for residents who never visit, yet are called upon to fund such places through their taxes.

Too much of what passes for art these days is meant to shock or even offend rather than uplift or thought-provoke. That can make many artworks unapproachable to the average visitor to a gallery, who then wonders why he or she has to pay to keep such places open.

However, while I would not put it as melodramatically as Adrienne Stewart, the co-chair of Women for the AGA (WAGA) did, I would agree with her recent statement that, “I don’t want to live in a city that doesn’t have a beautiful art gallery.”

Art galleries, live theatres, museums, symphonies, opera, ballet, modern dance and other displays and performances contribute to the culture and livability of our city. Edmonton would be a poorer place without them, even if you sometimes wonder what use and value they provide.

Is culture like scotch or asparagus, a bit of an acquired taste? For sure.

And tastes change over time. Early 19th-Century British and American landscapes were so overpainted they often resembled nothing of their subjects.

Likewise, the Impressionists, whose works now routinely fetch in the tens of millions and hundreds of millions of dollars, were initially rejected by the official Salon de Paris. Indeed, the name “Impressionist” was intended to be derogatory. Critics said the works looked unfinished and left only an impression of true art.

I’m sure at some point I said there was little to distinguish between the paintings of abstract pioneers Jackson Pollock and Wassily Kandinsky versus chimps throwing paint balloons at blank canvasses.

How wrong I was. With a deeper understanding of Pollock’s technique and Kandinsky’s “eye” for shape and colour, it became easier to appreciate what both men were trying to do and how much better they were at it then their contemporaries.

The works chosen by curators, artistic directors and conductor aren’t all gems. “Experts” often suffer from Emperor’s New Clothes Syndrome — the need to proclaim odd works to be brilliant so they don’t look boorish to their peers.

Everyone who goes to a gallery or an auditorium has to accept the risk that not everything they see or hear will be great.

My wife, some friends and I attended a comedy review on the weekend that was so boring and unfunny we left at intermission. It happens. Still, we were happy we gave it a try, happy to have an evening out, happy to watch local performers bring their ideas to the stage.

Postmedia carried a story Monday in which Stewart and her WAGA co-chair, Teresa Melton, said Edmontonians have to “rediscover” the gallery. Over the past 15 years, membership has dropped by half and attendance is down.

I get their meaning, but the attitude has to be the AGA must re-introduce itself to Edmontonians, not the other way around.

And the city has to do more, not to fund the gallery but to make it easier to get to, to park nearby and to make the district around it safer.

It’s not coincidental that the public attractions that are increasing in popularity — the Valley Zoo, the Telus World of Science and others — are suburban. They’re easy to drive to, to park at and in safe surroundings.

By contrast due to a string of construction projects in the area, it’s hard to get to the AGA, the Winspear and the Citadel. Even if you can get there, finding parking is tricky because the city has convinced itself that everyone coming Downtown should use transit. (If that ever happens it is decades away.)

Fundraising and membership sales are the AGA’s responsibility. But the city has a role in supporting the gallery’s goals.

lgunter@postmedia.com

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