The National Gallery of Canada (NGC), under the direction of Marc Mayer, has recently announced that the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography (CMCP) will no longer occupy its building at 1 Rideau Canal. In fact, the building will no longer be a public space for the arts. It has been handed over to Parliament, to be gutted and renovated as office and meeting space. This decision marks the final stage in the destruction of the CMCP, a process that began subtly in 1994, and became very aggressive and visible to the public under former NGC director Pierre Théberge. In this brief analysis, I want to recapture for readers the crisis and vision that created the CMCP, and to consider whether anything good could yet come of this recent attack on the arts.
