City to release $5 million to cash-strapped Art Gallery project

City council will release its already approved $5 million to the Thunder Bay Art Gallery.

In a unanimous decision, council on Monday decided the city will release the money to help the cash-strapped waterfront project avoid a construction shutdown.

The first $2.5 million will be delivered upon execution of a funding agreement, and the Art Gallery will get the other $2.5 million upon execution of the required land-lease amendments.

“The priority for us is achieving enclosure on that building to protect the asset,” said Mathew Hills, executive director of the Thunder Bay Art Gallery, at Monday’s committee of the whole meeting at city hall.

“But we have looked at partial operations, with the potential of looking at that in September 2026, in terms of being open in operation to the public. That would mean compromises in terms of the space or the programming that we could offer at that space at that time.”

According to the city council report, the gallery currently has funding commitments totalling $52 million, but inflationary pressures, supply-chain issues, and the availability of trades have increased the project to $74.7 million.

Hills said the art gallery is “open to partnerships” with the wider community to help fundraise the $22.6 million shortfall.

Coun. Rajni Agarwal asked if the gallery considered a phased approach to opening the facility, where parts of the building, once completed, can be used sooner while the gallery looks for additional funding.

“It’s a conversation we’re open to and have been responsive in discussion with the city. I think for us as an institution, for us as a gallery, having secured $52 million in support for this project, having experienced some of the challenges of the COVID pandemic, the supply line, material supplies, inflation, potential tariff wars, we know that this project has merited this level of support. We are confident in this process and that we will secure the additional funds,” Hills said.

Hills told council that the gallery is open to many avenues of fundraising through collaboration with local waterfront businesses and local artists in the area, as well as provincial organizations like Science North.

“We are a mid-size not-for-profit with a national reputation because of our collection, because of the strength of culture in this city. We have that level of profile,” Hills said.

“When we look at our growth in that new facility and what it means to our organization, we anticipate a renewed level of outreach being able to serve our region, serve the entire north in a very different way and much along the similar model that Science North has achieved over its time with the support of a provincial agency.” – tbnewswatch.com

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I believe that the building, once enclosed,  will have to be heated.  Who is paying for that? Not mentioned.

How does this fit into the carbon-neutral thing?  Does it matter as just by constructing the building, hundreds of tonnes of carbon has been pumped into the atmosphere.

There is zero chance the Art Gallery is going to raise $23 million without any cash from senior levels of government.   It ain’t going to happen.

Public support in the city for art gallery is not very strong. There are too many demands on people’s wallets by other organizations.  Plus the cost of living keeps going up.  Who has cash to spare?

The existing  funding shortfall is waaaaay beyond anything that Persian sales and car washes can raise.

This is a problem that you see popup on projects that are mainly funded by governments all the time.  It is well known that getting the government funding is the key.  Just get the money.  Once in for a penny, governments tend to be in for a pound.

Governments have an unlimited cash stream.   Having already pumped over $44.1 million into the project, another $23 million to bring the project to a successful completion will be seen by the government as a way to secure votes in Thunder Bay.

Will that happen?  I hope not.

I think that a very large, partially constructed art gallery sitting prominently on the city’s waterfront can be considered a very expensive public art piece.  Think about it.  It could be a large tourist draw.

In fact, leaving it unfinished will create a bigger tourist draw than the finished product.