Artists can be prickly, but we are brave. In this episode, I artsplain why the National Gallery of Canada and its new director, Jean-François Bélisle, need to get out of their offices and into Canadian communities to connect with artists on the ground. If only our national arts institutions would support Canadian artists instead of generating bold yet meaningless policy rhetoric.
I marvel at how the recent National Gallery Annual Public Meeting, held on September 8th in Fredericton, has absolutely zero mention of any kind online. These show notes are the very first mention of the annual meeting online. Do you know how incredibly rare and unusual that is?
Why, in this day and age of smartphones, where there are at least 10 pictures or social media posts about everything, is there nothing online about this annual meeting? No social media posts, no news stories (local or national), no photos, no reviews, no transcripts, no video on the National Gallery’s site. Nothing. Not a single mention anywhere. We looked hard.
What that means is the National Gallery’s Annual Public Meeting had zero organic reach. Zero. Nobody was interested enough to post a single photograph or comment about it. That is telling.
These institutions serve what purpose exactly?
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