TTAG's Legacy: The Future of the Tom Thomson Art Gallery
Let's talk about compromise and viable alternatives to two opposing plans for the gallery: expanding it or shutting down completely
FEATURE
Thank you for sticking with me through this series on the Tom Thomson Art Gallery’s past. Evaluating where something went wrong is never fun, yet the insights gained and lessons learned in looking back are essential for building a better future.
And so, what comes next?
To date, City of Owen Sound staff have offered only two solutions for the Art Gallery:
Build an expanded Art Gallery, or
Build a really expanded Art Gallery.
Both solutions will cost in the order of $20 to $30 million, and City Council hasn’t requested any alternatives. They’ve given the go-ahead for staff to explore funding options.
However, neither of these begins to address the underlying problem. That is, city taxpayers can no longer afford to shoulder the burden of an Art Gallery that continues to grow in expense every year without offsetting those costs with revenue.
More space to store art no one sees doesn’t fix a broken business model.
In case you missed it…
In 1967, the City of Owen Sound purchased the Tom Thomson Art Gallery (TTAG) from the Grey County Historical and Art Society, as verified in a letter from the Deputy Clerk on January 10, 2012. The collection, at the time, consisted of works of art from artists throughout the county. Such is the case today. The TTAG collection includes works from regional artists, as opposed to only Owen Sound artists.
At the time that the city purchased the Art Gallery, Owen Sound had a strong industrial tax base. Industries like Pittsburg Glass, Goodyear, Black Clawson Kennedy and Russel-Hipwell, to name just a few provided good, high-paying middle-class jobs.
Our community was thriving, and the population was growing. At the time this collection was acquired, Owen Sound taxpayers could well afford the luxury of supporting a cultural facility on their own.
Owen Sound is very different today.
Almost all of those industries, with their high-paying middle-class jobs, have disappeared. The size of our middle class has reduced significantly, to a point where over half of Owen Sound households now take home less than $57,600 in after-tax household income.
Owen Sound is no longer growing. In fact, our population has 77 fewer residents today than it had 20 years ago.
The bottom line is that today’s Owen Sound, unlike the community of 1967, does not have the means to support the gallery’s current tax burden of more than $500,000 a year. It was challenging enough in 2018 when the tax burden was $285,000, but it has now reached a point where Council needs to act.
It is inconceivable that we are even considering building an expansion on to the gallery, which will cost even more to run and maintain in future. The gallery’s legacy of mismanagement, declining revenue, and increasing operating costs has to stop.
How can we come together to discuss a solution?
There are those in the community who would like to see the city close the Art Gallery and sell the multi-million dollar collection.
The last community survey I’m aware of showed that less than 8% of Owen Sound residents frequented the Gallery. Many of those who want the gallery shut down expect they’d see the proceeds from the sale invested in housing and in addressing the many social issues facing Owen Sound by providing a permanent solution for our unhoused.
Then we have some gallery supporters at the other end of the spectrum. They would like the city to build a new or expanded gallery, at a cost that will well exceed $20 million when inflation, contingency and taxes are included. As Pat Kally commented on my first article in this series:
“Investing in the Tom Thomson Art Gallery is a matter of public pride, history, and the shared sense of belonging to a place where artists found inspiration and many of us feel a deep connection.
When we want to put our best foot forward, being able to show off our Tom art gallery or our Carnegie Library, our vibrant history of arts and culture, helps attract not only visitors but new residents - doctors, young families, Owen Sounders coming home, retirees - and business and manufacturing that want to ensure a vibrant community to attract the workforce they need.”
These very different interests and opposing viewpoints set up a “We vs. Them” scenario.
However, framing these different viewpoints as “We vs Them” is only necessary when the parties are unwilling to consider the other’s interests.
A solution that builds a $20 million gallery building satisfies the interests of TOM supporters but completely fails to understand the interests of taxpayers.
Similarly, a solution that closes the gallery completely may satisfy the desires of some taxpayers but completely disregards the interests of the arts and culture community.
Why are these being positioned as our only options? Why aren’t the Mayor and City Council leading a more productive, collaborative conversation?
Let’s talk about partnership.
One potential solution that addresses the interests of both parties is to spread the burden of this cultural facility among all of the municipalities in the area.
Why aren’t we talking to Grey County about having them assume ownership and management responsibilities for the art collection? This would dramatically reduce the burden on Owen Sound taxpayers and, at the same time, ensure the continued operation of the TOM with expanded funding.
City of Owen Sound Manager Tim Simmonds told The Owen Sound Current on April 30, 2024, that it’s important not to overlook the impact of the pandemic when we’re discussing the gallery’s financials. Indeed, COVID significantly affected the gallery and the entire arts, culture and tourism (ACT) sector.
And yet, at the May 9 Grey County Council meeting, Grey Roots Manager Jill Paterson reported, “2023 was a standout year for Grey Roots. We rebounded back to our pre-pandemic numbers with over 24,000 through the doors, an increase of 44% over 2022.”
Last year, Grey Roots revenue increased 39% to $174,567, from $125,807 in 2022.
The local cultural scene is recovering, and we can see that Grey Roots is succeeding in creating engaging programming that not only gets people in the door but drives revenue, too.
So why is the gallery costing more than ever?
Let’s talk about business improvements.
The tax burden of the art gallery has grown to over $500,000 annually, while ancillary revenues have collapsed over the past six years.
The 2024 budget anticipates Grants to be only 40% of what they were in 2016 and Revenue from memberships and the Gift Shop to be only 31.5% and 22.1%, respectively, from what they were in 2018. In spite of the steady decline in ancillary revenues no new revenue streams are identified in the 2024 budget.
There’s more going on here than COVID.
The failure to create a revenue-generating business model, coupled with salary and benefits expenses growing by 49% since 2018, has resulted in the gallery’s tax burden growing by 91% during this period.
The gallery made the case to Council not long ago that they needed an Assistant Curator to generate revenue, but that hire hasn’t turned the tide. Maybe they should have been looking for a business manager, instead.
Let’s talk to the public and local artists about their ideas.
There’s been a complete unwillingness on the part of City staff and council to discuss any alternatives to their expansion plan. And yet people in this community have a lot of great ideas that could help the TTAG address some of its major issues.
Elizabeth Willmott shared her ideas in a comment on my first article in this series:
“I am an artist. Some of my works are in the Tom Thomson collection. It was a factor in my husband and I deciding to move here. I find the present financial situation unjustified. I saw people making dream fantasy plans to move the site. I now see the same thing with plans for expansion that there is no local money to finance.
Separating need from desire, I do not think the gallery needs more exhibition space. What is important is more storage space set to universal standards for storage of art. On site storage has to be maintained, but expansion can be off site.
These works are a valuable asset for the City of Owen Sound, and should be known to more of our citizens. I know that theft is a real problem, with insurance rates increasing if works are placed off site in unprotected areas. Still, I think a way should be found to place less valuable works in the community where they can become part of our shared daily life.
Schools? City Hall? Bayshore? Indigenous Center? Seniors Center at Harrison Park?
I met with the Director of the Art Gallery myself early last year. She graciously gave me a personal tour of the many works of art, and I have to admit, the collection is very impressive.
During our post-tour discussion, I identified two major hurdles that she needed to address:
Visibility and the TTAG Brand
I suggested it was important to enhance the visibility of the art gallery in the eyes of the community by rolling out a number of initiatives aimed at winning over the hearts and minds of the community.
How about presentations at all Owen Sound schools at least twice a year? Win over the students, and they will bend the minds of their parents in favour of the Gallery.
What about more involvement in major community events? Perhaps staff could create stand-alone kiosks at the mall or in major retailers, containing prints of a couple of paintings along with TOM marketing material.
How about partnering with the Artists’ Co-op for special events? The Artists’ Co-op was established in 1994 by local artists and is very involved in the community developing young artists at our high schools. The TOM could learn from their success in gaining support in the community.
New Revenue Streams
What is happening to open new revenue streams and reduce the Art Gallery’s dependency on tax dollars?
Could the beauty and ample spaces of the Gallery be leveraged by making it available as a venue for special events in the evenings?
Could the gallery get a liquor license and open the gallery for wine & cheese social events? It could be an ideal environment for business socials and office parties particularly around Christmas, New Year’s and other occasions.
The Ottawa Art Gallery, for example, offers a variety of venues for private functions, including weddings. Such events would give the art gallery many opportunities to upsell the attendees through the gift shop and provide other promotional material.
The TTAG needs innovative, dedicated marketing and business planning support. Why not reach out to business schools with a proposal for an MBA project aimed at developing business and marketing plans for the TOM? Schools are always looking for viable projects for their MBA candidates.
This strategy could give the gallery access to some $30,000 in business and marketing plans, with valuable new perspectives and business acumen, at no cost to taxpayers.
Let’s talk about an entrance fee.
Gallery supporters tell us it’s a major attraction that brings tourists to Owen Sound. If people travel great distances to come to Owen Sound to view the art collection at the gallery, they certainly would not object to paying a small entrance fee.
For example, Grey Roots Museum and Archives charges adults $8.00 plus tax to visit the Museum. The Art Gallery of Ontario charges adults $30.00 for a day pass to visit the gallery, and the Art Gallery of Hamilton charges $15.00 per visit.
Tourists willingly pay $10.00 to park and visit Inglis Falls, but the Art Gallery doesn’t charge a dime to view a collection of Tom Thomson paintings worth millions of dollars.
Given the purported popularity of the gallery as a destination attraction, this is clearly a missed business opportunity. The TOM tells us that they have at least 10,000 visitors per year. At this rate, they could offset the tax burden by as much as $100,000 if they charged $10.00 per visit.
Let’s talk about how exposed our assets are.
Council has their work cut out for them in addressing the issues that came to light through the TOM’s financial boondoggle. Critical failures still have not been addressed.
In Part 2 of my series, you learned that the 2017 Council had drafted 25-year lease agreements that would have literally given away tens of millions of dollars in Owen Sound assets to a private corporation. This was a Council that was elected for a four-year term making a discretionary decision to encumber millions of dollars of city assets for decades.
No Council should have the power to tie the hands of future councils by making unnecessary, non-emergency, discretionary decisions to commit assets for a quarter of a century.
This can happen again. Four members of that 2017 Council are members of our current Council.
Here is a hypothetical situation to consider.
What if a future Council decided to sign a 25-year lease with a private corporation for the exclusive use of Harrison Park, with an annual lease payment of one dollar?
Does it sound unbelievable? Well, this is exactly the lease agreement that Council approved in 2017 for the Art Gallery. Nothing has changed since then. It can happen again!
If this were to happen, our only recourse would be to vote them all out of office in the next election. However, the damage will have already been done and irreversible, since the lease would be legally binding and the cost to break it unaffordable. As a result, we would lose our park for 25 years, just like we were about to lose our multimillion-dollar building and art collection for 25 years had Council signed the lease they prepared in 2017.
Although it’s highly unlikely that a future Council would attempt to lease Harrison Park, there is nothing in place to prevent them from doing so. Hence, we need legislation to prevent Council from making such non-emergency, discretionary decisions in the future.
One way to stop this from happening would be for the current Council to pass a bylaw requiring that discretionary decisions involving commitments of $2 million or more be decided through a referendum.
If you agree, call or email members of the Council and ask them to mitigate this risk to our community.
Can’t we just talk?
Where is Council on this? The City of Owen Sound needs a compromise in the best interests of all Owen Sound residents – not a multi-million dollar expansion, but not a gallery driven into the ground by inaction, either.
Do you think it’s time for the City of Owen Sound to open up the conversation about the gallery’s future?
Full subscribers, share your thoughts and let’s talk about it in the comments.
As one of those new young families/returning Owen Sounders, I will say that a major factor in our decision to move from Toronto's Roncesvalles neighbourhood to downtown was exactly as pointed out in previous comments. The library and gallery, that beautiful walk along the river, the new coffee shops and restaurants and cultural hubs... it made it feel like a place we really connected with and wanted to call home. Involving regional partners is a creative idea and definitely merits exploration, but I can definitely speak to the intrinsic value of a vibrant cultural scene bringing people back to the area.