Momentum building for downtown portrait gallery in former U.S. embassy

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Six years after the Conservative government pulled the plug on the Portrait Gallery of Canada, momentum is building to restart the project and make it a legacy of Canada’s 150th birthday.

A group of local politicians, including Environment Minister Catherine McKenna and Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson, toured the shuttered former U.S. embassy across from Parliament Hill this week. Ottawa MP McKenna has pledged to hold consultations about the building, which has been vacant for 18 years. 

On Friday, she said she is excited about the possibilities.

“I have heard a lot from the residents of Ottawa about a possible portrait gallery in the space, both recently and during my campaign. With the upcoming 150th birthday of our country, the public’s attention is focused on the nation’s capital, and it would be great to give this space new life.”

Liberal Senator Serge Joyal, one of the original proponents of the portrait gallery when Jean Chrétien’s Liberals were in power, was also on the tour. 

Joyal said he believes the timing is perfect to restart the portrait gallery project and leave it as a legacy of Canada’s 150th birthday next year — similar to the way the National Arts Centre marked Centennial year in 1967.

“I feel the planets are more or less aligned now that we have that celebration,” said Joyal.

“Besides the hoopla and fireworks, there has to be a permanent legacy. This would be as important for Canada as the NAC was in 1967.”

McKenna has indicated there will be public consultations, but Joyal said he hopes, given the work already done on the building and the importance of Canada’s portrait collection, that a political decision can soon be made to restart work on the gallery.

He called the portrait gallery’s collection of more than 20,000 paintings, drawings, prints and photographs “a treasure trove,” and a “reflection of who we are as a people.”

Portrait galleries in Washington, London and elsewhere are often the most popular galleries, he said, because people are drawn to portraits and the stories they tell. “It is not without reason that around the world the portrait galleries are the most attended museums.”

Joyal said he and former senator Jerry Grafstein convinced the Chretien government to turn the former embassy into a portrait gallery.

Work was well under way when the Conservative government shut the project down in 2006. About $11 million had been spent to prepare the building to become a portrait gallery. More than a million has also been spent maintaining the abandoned building.

The former Tory government initially talked about putting a portrait gallery in Calgary, partly funded by energy company EnCana. Later, they invited nine cities to bid on the gallery, but that plan was scrapped.

Joyal said there would not be time to complete the project for 2017, even if it is approved quickly. But work could begin and a small exhibition space could be opened inside during Canada’s 150th celebration to give the public some idea of the “wealth of the portraits” and what the finished gallery would look like.

“There is momentum, “ he said. “Really, for the first time, since the day the project was abandoned in 2006, I feel rejuvenated. This is such an important thing to build for the future.”

epayne@postmedia.com