Art and the Public Space, or doublespeak on the part of the Banque Nationale du Canada

Howdy!

Shame on them… The Banque Nationale du Canada has one of the better corporate art collections in the City/Province/Country (take your pick). Apparently it comprises more than 7,000 pieces, from 1895 to now and was worthy of a press release when they loaned a piece of art to the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal earlier this year. The curator of the collection appears to know what she is doing.

So why did they reduce the size of the exhibition space in their building? Back in June this was the total extent of what was viewable

La Collection de la Banque Nationale du Canada
La Collection de la Banque Nationale du Canada

Where they used to have approximately 100 linear feet of exhibition space in the lobby of their head office, they now have what appears to be 40 linear feet of exhibition space buried in the branch outlet in the basement (and beside the food court) in their head office. Can you say “being set up to fail?” Like the once mighty Alcan collection or the Les Femmeuses exhibits that Pratt & Whitney used to organize before deciding to stop, it appears that the Banque Nationale du Canada’s art collection is not long for this world.

Pity.