Save the CMCP
Since posting about the Canadian Museum of Photography (CMCP) and the news about their building being pulled right under them for Public Works Canada to restructure the interior of the museum to make board rooms and office spaces for the “displaced parliamentarians”, things have heated up.
To get a full understanding of the situation, you might want to read the following. Below is an article printed in the Globe and Mail April 18, 2009. I’m posting it because it’s not available on online and I think relevant to understand what’s going on. There is then the article from Marc Mayer director of the National Gallery of Canada (NGC) with the title This is a chance to end the segregation of our photography, which I find the article hard to digest. And when you are finished reading that, PLEASE go read In Defence of the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography by Martha Lang, the founding director of the CMCP. And you can also read her response to Marc Mayer’s article. So after getting up to speed, go sign the petition to save the CMCP.
Excerpt from Martha Lang’s response to Marc Mayer’s article:
“The NGC is putting itself forward as “the ideal champion of contemporary Canadian photography,” but the Director “cannot fathom the difference between photography and art.” This has to be answered because the CMCP was never an instrument of segregation. It was created to symbolize and strengthen a particularly potent area of creative work in Canada, whose roots ran deep into documentary photography, vernacular photography, photojournalism, and all manner of image-making – its function was to perpetuate the meaningful discourse between photographic art and photographic communication. This is what museums of photography do all around the world – this dialogue is what makes photography so fascinating. This is what Mayer is now dismissing as “absurd redundancy,” as “comical,” as a “sad” story.”
Just before I started school in photography, I saw Robert Franks’ Hold Still-keep going in 2002 at the CMCP. Seeing Franks work was an awesome experience, one that I can still recall vividly today. So, this really baffles me that something like this is happening. The CMCP was an institution collecting and exhibiting photography from all kinds of genres. They had not only created a voice for photographers in Canada but also a community. Photography is a medium of it’s own and needs it’s own space.
PLEASE sign the petition and pass it along.
About Aislinn
Aislinn Leggett is a Montreal-based visual artist. You can learn more about her work on her website and on her personal blog. You can also follow her Twitter @aislinnleggett and on Facebook.
