THE VOICE OF MUSEUMS: SOCIETAL EXPECTATIONS: THE FUTURE ROLE OF

MUSEUMS

KEYNOTE ADDRESS TO THE BRITISH COLUMBIA MUSEUMS ASSOCIATION

Patricia Bovey, FRSA, FCMA

Independent Senator for Manitoba

OCTOBER 4, 2017

It is great to be back again with my colleagues in the BCMA – thank you for

inviting me!

It is a particular honour to be here as a member of the Senate of Canada. As the

first art historian and museologist ever in the 150 years of the Senate’s existence,

I feel a great responsibility and hope I am beginning to bring an increased

awareness to the Chamber of the arts, the visual arts and material history.

As Canada enters its second 150 years as a nation we face huge challenges. As we

all know we are a country built on diverse immigrant peoples, our citizenry is

comprised of people from every country around the world – the only nation to be

so – and of course we are blessed with the richness and depth of Canada’s

Indigenous, Métis and Inuit peoples, many of whom have been here for millennia.

With this diversity and depth, we are the envy of many around the world. Globally

people are wanting to know more about Canada. We can fulfil that need!

The Prime Minister said last Thursday, as reported in Friday’s Globe and Mail:

“Canadians have world-class content creators and creative industries and we

1

know that investing in them and supporting our creators is the best way to ensure

that Canadians hear our stories [and] people around the world hear stories

Canadians have to tell.” Canada’s museum community tells our stories, and does

so with real objects and works of art – the immediate voice of makers and artists.

It was clear from the recent discussions I was part of with the Speaker of the

Senate, in both France and Latvia, that culture is essential in all our international

relationships.

We are now in the midst of NAFTA negotiations, having concluded the CETA

agreement. And, with the US having pulled out of TPP, we are now facing the

question of future Pacific trade deals. The arts, culture, intellectual property and

copyright are critical in each of these trade negotiations. I am very sorry that I was

not able to accept John McAvity’s invitation to be part of the recent museum

delegation to China. I am trying to learn that I cannot be in two places at once! I

gather it was a great success and I cannot stress enough how important those

delegations are. We as the museum sector must be aware of the details on the

international table. We must take our place in ensuring a strong cultural

understanding of Canada and between nations.

Museums by virtue of their nature have the tools to take a lead in those

international cultural understandings – in our exhibitions at home, our

publications, our digital presence and through our artist, staff and exhibition

exchanges. The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, for instance, has done much over

many years to further cultural understandings with Japan, China, and more

recently with Korean and Viet Nam; the Royal British Columbia Museum is doing

2

that with Egypt next year; and has done so in sharing exhibitions of BC’s First

Nations internationally over a number of decades. All have met with tremendous

interest and support. So too did the Group of Seven exhibition at the Dulwich

Picture Gallery in London, which was followed the more recently by the Emily Carr

exhibition. Both of these major exhibitions included works from BC’s public

collections, from the Island and from Vancouver.

How is what I do now different from what I have done for decades in the

gallery/museum sector? There are many commonalities between my curatorial

and gallery director roles and that as senator. Both involve the presentation of

multiple viewpoints, vision, and national and international concerns, issues,

scholarship, and information. Canadian museums and the Senate of Canada both

give voice to those who may not otherwise have the opportunity to be heard,

either within our gallery’s walls and outreach, or in the Senate itself. Both strive

to give hope.

When I received the call to serve in the Senate, the Prime Minister made it very

clear to me that I was to work on everything, I was an independent and my role

was to improve legislation, and that I was to look at it all through the lens of arts

and culture. That is what I am doing. I have spoken on a number of issues in the

Senate Chamber, including basic income and poverty, palliative care, the Churchill

crisis with the broken railway link, and the many interconnected short and long-

term issues in the Arctic affecting its peoples, mobility, lifestyles and traditions,

climate change and sovereignty. Indeed, last Wednesday, we agreed to establish

a special committee on the Arctic and I can assure you we will start our work

3

soon. As we know Canada’s artists are affected by all these issues. They make up

the highest percentage of working Canadians who earn less than the poverty line.

On the arts front specifically, I have sponsored a bill calling for a Visual Artist

Laureate on Parliament Hill, to take advantage of the visual arts as an

international language in highlighting the work of Parliament, and making it

accessible to all. That Bill is now through second reading and in Committee.

I have also supported and spoken on the need for a National Portrait Gallery. This

summer I received a letter from the Prime Minister in which he says: “We look

forward to continuing the conversation on the establishment of a National

Portrait Gallery in the National Capital Region.” I know this initiative will continue,

and I will be updating its progress in Kingston later this month when I speak at this

year’s exhibition of the National Portrait Competition.

In addition, I truly hope that my request for the Foreign Affairs and International

Trade Committee to undertake a special study on Cultural Diplomacy, will become

a reality. Dreaming in technicolour, I would dearly love to see commenced this

fall. I think this discussion would be particularly timely given Minister Joly’s

announcement on Thursday to provide money for Canada’s cultural efforts

abroad. The museum and gallery sector must be ready to be recipients of those

funds. As the Minister said: “We must find a new way – a Canadian way – to

support our content creators, to ensure they can compete, and to create a space

for them in markets and platforms at home and around the world”. Even though

her primary concern the other day was for the digital industries, I challenge us to

4

help define those ways. Minister Joly did underline that museums are part of the

creative sector, and the framework noted that “Museums are also digital content

creators in their own right by providing cross-platform access to virtual

exhibitions, interactive tools and online programming. … By promoting user-

generated content alongside museum content, (museums) help Canadians to be

both critics and creators of digital culture.” The Minister has said that the “door is

wide open for innovative ways to modernize museum policies and programs.” I

know the CMA is moving proactively and quickly on this work. All museums and

museum professionals should be involved in this invitation! We must remember

too that the revision of the Copyright Act is underway, and that will have a huge

effect on our work, internally, with collections, publications, exhibitions, outreach,

education and trade and cultural exchanges. I think we need to be part of the

discussion on data security too – an issue with ever greater concerns.

My overriding hope on the global stage is that Culture will once again be a strong

aspect of Canada’s Foreign Policy, and that we will reinstate Cultural Attaches in

all Canadian Embassies, not just a few, and give greater presentation of Canadian

art and historical artifacts in our embassies, and that Canadian artists and arts

organizations will once again be part of our international trade missions.

I have begun meeting with arts leaders in Ottawa – the Director of the National

War Museum, the CEO of the Museum of Canadian History, the Director of the

National Gallery, the National Arts Centre, the Ottawa Art Gallery – and all are of

5

one voice – the critical need for the arts to take centre stage as we move further

into the 21st century. I will continue these sessions through the fall and winter

sittings of the Senate.

To round out my responsibilities, my committee work also includes a study on

autonomous vehicles by the Transportation and Communications Committee, and

the needed re-tooling of the Official Languages Act for the Official Languages

Committee, plus the work in Chamber. And, I am just back from France and Latvia

with the delegation with the Speaker of the Senate, where we discussed many of

these overarching issues.

So, what IS my goal on top of these initiatives? In many ways, it is the same as

that held by every museum and gallery represented here and across the country –

to ensure the preservation and knowledge of our diverse cultural heritage, our

treasures, to encourage new and significant research, to herald our artists of all

backgrounds, and to reach wide audiences. The museum community has done an

excellent job of that. The presentation of the ‘real thing’ is our forte – and one

that now is more appreciated than ever before in this new world of ‘fake or

alternative news’. There is nothing fake about our museological work – or indeed

our collections of documents, artifacts and works of art. We know from many

polls and studies that museums are the most trusted institutions in contemporary

society. We must use that trust carefully and fearlessly, respecting our societal

responsibility. It is indeed an honour to make our collections, exhibitions and

scholarship accessible to all – to those who are able to visit us and those who

cannot. Museums are a people to people business – connecting people of today

6

to people of the past; to people from other parts of Canada and to people from

other parts of the world; to people who agree with us, and people who don't; and

to people who speak our language and people who don't.

The objects and art we hold in trust and with which we connect people are real

things, created and used by people. They present both the direct and indirect

messages of the artist and makers. Museums by their nature are in a unique

position to present multiple views on multiple issues – issues which affect us as

individuals and those which affect us as communities and whole societies. Our

strength is the human – the hand which fashioned the object, made the work of

art, or used the object. We can tell the human stories, the stories that happened

to people whom we knew, touched, or preceded us. Indeed, the first of the seven

entities which Peter van Mensch noted in his publication Towards a Methodology

of Museology, is the curatorial responsibility to the maker, while the first of the

curator’s values as articulated in the AAM Code of Curatorial Ethics is “to serve

the public good”. These come together naturally in all our work.

Let me tell you briefly about my MA Curatorial Practice student last year at the

University of Winnipeg. He hailed from Ghana, having earned his BA in cultural

tourism. He worked in the Ghana National Museum before receiving an Elizabeth

II scholarship enabling him to enter our program. For his placement, I put him

with the Winnipeg Art Gallery to research the potential tourist applications and

impacts of their planned Inuit Center –from Ghana to our North! The

juxtaposition was great, and his research of value. But for him it was the stories

behind the objects themselves which were of particular interest. The depth of

7

connections spiritually and the similarities of the stories in each of these two

diverse cultures were inspiring. The world of real objects is unquestionably an

international connector. I ask, have we fully explored the full potential of these

connections?

Do we have laurels on which we can rest? Yes of course we do; but

simultaneously, NO, as in one sense our work is only beginning. Each gallery and

museum has defined their platforms for collecting, preserving, exhibiting and

educating, but societal needs are challenging us to do more, and our audiences

and publics need more. That has become doubly evident to me, and encouraging,

given the support I have had from every corner in the Chamber ever since my first

few speeches on arts and culture. I realize even more strongly than ever before,

that there IS a real hunger for the work we do as museologists. We must do this

with care, honesty and directness.

So, Societal Expectations: The Future Role of Museums, what do I mean? There is

no question that the changing external world order is having tremendous impacts

on us all in every part of the country, and beyond, with climate change, our own

challenges for reconciliation and healing between Canada’s Indigenous peoples

and the non-Indigenous populations, and the increased immigration from war

torn parts of the world. These issues only serve to enhance our responsibilities.

I have spoken on various occasions over the past decade and more of my research

on the integral role the arts play in every aspect of society. I developed an

8

Octopus, with each of the eight tentacles representing a key issue with which

every level of government of every political stripe is concerned: the economy;

labour and employment; health; education; sustainability of rural communities;

tourism; the environment; and crime prevention. My research over these years,

both empirical and anecdotal, proves that none of these societal issues can be

achieved without the arts. I will spare you details, but do want to address a few

for which we as museums have the key, and likewise the ability to engage the

public in meaningful dialogue. They are reconciliation and public education,

introducing whole families to our history and values, as families attend museums

together but do not go to school together. We can also assist in language

acquisition for immigrants; and provide essential information on climate change,

the environment, patterns of life, expressions of social inequities and injustices,

and much more.

Some of you heard my Manitoba senate colleague and Commissioner of the Truth

and Reconciliation Commission, the honourable Murray Sinclair, at the CMA

conference last April. His Fellows’ Lecture was a heartfelt, passionate call for the

Museum community to lead the way in reconciliation. He posited that it is

museums, with the public coming into our institutions, which have the

responsibility to tell the real truth about our past, including residential schools

and murdered and missing women. He felt museums should open the way to a

future of reconciliation based on the knowledge, understanding and acceptance

of that past. Unless we do, we cannot move forward as a society.

9

I was struck by the words of one of the commentators at the raising of the

Reconciliation Pole at UBC this spring who expressed her sorrow for non-

Indigenous people who have yet to accept the truth, as she clearly said we cannot

move forward without acceptance of fact. She noted that as a result of the

Commission’s hearings many Indigenous peoples who have told their stories,

have come to a basic acceptance of that truth. Now they are able to build. It IS

acknowledged by many Indigenous leaders that this will be a long, hard process,

but one that is beginning.

However, first we as a society must stop compartmentalizing and shielding

ourselves from past realities. We must listen, see, understand, present and

encourage dialogue. Senator Sinclair underlined the critical importance for

museums to start and be actively engaged in that work.

Artists have defined so many critical issues for us, long before they were seen or

even acknowledge by wider society. Do you remember Joane Cardinal’s

installation The Lesson, a work from the early 1990s, which we presented at the

Art Gallery of Greater Victoria several decades ago now? This work, seen in

various galleries across Canada, certainly gave voice to the deeply concerning

impacts on First Nations education, our understanding of Residential Schools and

the need for reconciliation. Or, did we listen to the heartfelt message in Faye

Heavyshield’s Sisters, her 1985 poignant work of the outward facing circle of gold

shoes? It took decades after she created that installation before the Commission

on Murdered and Missing Women was established. These are only two western

Canadian artists who viscerally brought the issues of residential schools and

10

murdered and missing women to the fore, long before they were topics in the

contemporary lexicon of issues with which we must deal.

Another is Trace, the compelling work by Rebecca Belmore commissioned by the

Canadian Museum for Human Rights which hangs through the many stories in the

middle of their building. This ‘blanket’ was made from hand-formed beads of Red

River clay, shaped by people of all ages and diversities who attended her many

public workshops held throughout Winnipeg. This compelling piece hangs through

the floors as a towel does on the back of a bathroom door. Its meaning is

multiple: The ‘blanket’ aptly refers to the HBC blankets which spread small pox

through so many First Nations communities, virtually wiping out thousands of

people; a ‘blanket’ also wraps around us to keep us warm protecting us from cold;

or like the towel on the bathroom door, it evokes cleansing.

Theatre and music are equally compelling in drawing issues to the public’s

attention, as showcased by the National Arts Centre in their Canada Scene festival

last spring. It included Café Daughter, about the life of my colleague Senator

Lillian Dyck, from Saskatchewan, of both Chinese and First Nations’ descent. You

can imagine the double discrimination she faced as she fulfilled her dream against

all odds to be a doctor. Winnipeg’s Camarata Nova’s work, TAKEN, composed and

produced by first Nations composer and musician, Andrew Balfour, portrayed the

realities of the residential schools and the history of Sir John Franklin taking Inuit

people to England to prove that he had found Asia. All died in the hold of his ship.

The power of these works and Children of God was visceral – and the truths

inescapable.

11

Museums also have increasing responsibility to be a leader in the education for all

our publics, giving voice through our collections, research, exhibitions,

publications and programs, to showcase Canada’s many immigrants, and in turn

to tell them our stories. Society expects us to enable the understanding of the

multi-cultural dimensions of our country. While we have all presented exhibitions

showing aspects of many of our immigrant cultures, are we reaching out to recent

refugees and immigrants as we might, both showcasing their roots AND giving

them an understanding of Canada, our history and our values as a nation? Are we

presenting stories in a way that have currency to those who may not speak either

of our official languages? Are we in fact presenting opportunities for language

acquisition?

We naturally like to show the positive developments of Canadian society and how

far we have come, but we should not be fearful of giving witness to societal

injustices and the darker side of our history and present– whether that within our

prisons, or our treatment of trans-gendered people, the issues of murdered and

missing women, or of those living in conditions far below the national norm who

lack running water, insulated houses, whose food is far more expensive and with

less security than that in cities, or for whom milk costs more than alcohol. The list

goes on.

Indeed, I believe museums can and should take a positive role in coming up with

solutions to some of our contemporary problems, both by presenting and defining

the issues and by suggesting resolutions. Providing increasing foundations to

12

engage audiences in discussion and debate is important – often more poignant

and compelling than just reading about current issues. Our ‘language’ of material

history and art IS an international one.

How many of us learned about the Holocaust in school? In books? From the

stories told by those who survived? From exhibitions? Here or abroad? Our

experiences obviously differ given our respective ages. Suffice it to say, we learn

from multiple sources, and true learning is life-long learning. Museums afford our

publics the opportunity of lifelong learning through our multi-dimensional means

– artifacts, didactic panels, digitally, through books, catalogues, films, talks,

interviews. We must use every possible way, actual and virtual, to provide for

meaningful engagement. In some cases our individual mandates may overlap –

and that is fine –it serves to deepen the substance of the engagement. The Royal

BC Museum, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Vancouver Museum, the Art Gallery

of Greater Victoria and Campbell River Museum, for instance, each delve into

some of the same issues, though with differing perspectives and for differing

reasons. Through collaborations we can further enhance our ongoing

reassessment of history as more information comes to the fore – I am not

speaking about revisionist history, but the adding of newly realized facts to what

we have already known. Are our dioramas correct? Are our installations of

decades past still relevant?

Museums provide time and space for reflection, nostalgia, learning, hope, fun,

visioning, and for dialogue and meaningful engagement. Our work also has a

13

positive impact on well-being and health. Decades of cumulative research has

shown that those who participate in the arts –including museums—live two years

longer and cost the health system less, and they get out of hospital a day or two

earlier after elective surgery. I am delighted to say that museums have changed

their perspective on that involvement over the past few decades. I well remember

the rebuking I received from colleagues for the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria’s

award-winning program for the blind which we launched in the early 1980s! I was

told many times that I was just “jumping on the socialist bandwagon”. In initiated

that program we were endeavouring to provide accessibility to those who for

various reasons could not participate or benefit from traditional museum

programming. It was a huge success and it has subsequently been copied and

further developed by many institutions. I can also say that when we started our

pioneering public Buhler Gallery at St Boniface Hospital, exactly ten years ago, we

more than met our wildest initial goals within our first year! We therefore shifted

and pushed our expectations and I am proud to say our impact has been

transformational for patients, their families, hospital staff and volunteers and the

wider public.

Likewise, international studies have proven that active participation in the arts

has had a hugely positive impact on reducing arrest rates for youth, and on

reducing recidivism rates for those aged 11 to 14. The youth take on

responsibility. It is certainly more productive and rewarding to work as a team on

something creative than being part of a gang. Given the public’s trust in our work,

and the strength of our resources in our collections, staff and spaces, I think

14

museums can take a more active role in this work too – especially as we are not a

‘school’.

Professional training is also critically important and I believe museums could, and

should, increasingly partner with our universities to allow for the balance of

theory and practice so those entering the field will be able to fulfill their potential.

I know museums hire students, and have interns and practicums. But we can do

more. Experiential learning has been the corner stone of the University of

Winnipeg’s MA in Curatorial Practice. The students have year-long placements –

which have included the Manitoba Museum, the Winnipeg Art Gallery, the Buhler

Gallery, Plug-In Institute of Contemporary Art, the Royal Aviation Museum, and

the Hudson Bay Archives. Undergraduates in the program undertook a year-long

internship in the Buhler Gallery. All the graduates from the program have either

gone on to do PhDs or have work in the field.

Looking ahead, it is also my hope that museum researchers will play an ever-

increasing role in research across Canada in all fields. Contributing solid research

in partnership with other agencies as we raise difficult societal issues, will

strengthen the impact of public discussion and debate. We know that museums

have the expertise to lead research teams in many fields, building on past

museological accomplishments in so many areas, including science, aviation,

transportation, technology and human and natural history. Canadian artists do

too as they create their work, giving voice to their insights and visions.

15

In meeting with the Minister of Natural Resources the other day, he underlined

the responsibility of the Federal Government to protect our environment and do

ongoing scientific research on climate change and the preservation of our

environment. Last week the government announced the appointment of Canada’s

new Chief Science Officer, Mona Nemer, who has been Vice-President of Research

at the University of Ottawa. As Prime Minister Trudeau said in making the

announcement, “Scientists need to have a voice.” The mandate of the office

includes “providing scientific advice to government ministers, helping keep

government-funded science accessible to the public, and protecting government

scientists from being muzzled.” I challenge us to contact Dr. Nemer and to enter

into the dialogues even more fully that we have to date. I believe we are past the

time when our scientists and university and museum researchers were silenced.

Museum researchers are rightly part of the conversation, and do work not being

done elsewhere.

I had an interesting visit last month to a relatively new seasonal museum in

Telegraph Cove – the Whale Museum. Its mandate? Among other things to tell

the story of climate change and environmental issues so people take charge. The

ongoing critical research on sea ice, led by the University of Manitoba, and that at

Dalhousie University on the traditional routes of Inuit mobility links are vital in

this time of melting sea ice. I hope museums are at the center of all this work too

and not just on the periphery.

16

There is much more – but time is too short – so suffice it to say in conclusion, as I

have always said, museums connect creators and community, and provide access

between artists and audiences. We do that more now than ever before. The ‘I’ in

the word society heralds innovation, inclusion, integrity; the ‘E’ tying the two

syllables in the word Museum together, evokes engagement, experimentation,

excellence, exploration and ethics.

Thus, as we seek to meet the societal expectations before us, and fulfill our roles

as museums, regardless of our individual fields of endeavour, we must present

ourselves as we are, ensuring our audiences leave having learned something,

participated in something, and had fun doing so!

I would be happy to take questions or comments. But before we close, please

know that I am sincere in asking for input and feedback on my work in the Senate

and let me know of issues or concerns that I might be well advised to take

forward. Remember, my gallery past is engrained in me, as is my ongoing

research and writing on Western Canadian artists.

Thank you!

17