Why was the Art Gallery delegation this morning rushed through - and why were there no questions from Councillors?

By Pepper Parr

June 9^th, 2025

BURLINGTON, ON

Emma Sankey, Executive Director Art Gallery of Burlington along with Susan Busby, the past chair of the AGB board. appeared before Council this morning. The current chair was on vacation.

They were there to speak to the final facility master plan and future needs feasibility study authored by Lord Cultural Resources and Brooke McElroy, architects. They were not able to take part in the Council presentation due to prior commitments. Their work was described as being instrumental to the shaping of the path forward.

Susan Busby didn’t seem impressed with what Emma Sankey was saying.

At this point my ears twitched.

The AGB is asking the city to spend $116 million on what will basically be a new Art Gallery and the Chair of the AGB was not able to arrange her vacation time around the Council meeting schedule.

And the people who designed the master plan had a “prior commitment”.

Council members were listening – but they didn’t have any questions during the delegation.

These Council meetings are put together weeks before they take place.

Something of this size calls for a thorough presentation during which all the stakeholders get to voice their views.

There was nothing from the Guilds, nothing from the people who put on the numerous programs at the AGB.

Why weren’t these people at the podium, especially when Emma said on several occasions that “these plans are foundational to our future vision, supporting Community Access, cultural vibrancy and long-term sustainability.”

The tone throughout was set by Sankey who put it this way:

“We’ll just go quickly. So next slide please. We’re proposing a three-story building. It would be the basement, ground floor, second floor, third floor, the ground floor would be very free, open access. It would have the gift shop, it would have a cafe, and it would have the studios that would be animating the act of making. Would also have space for free family programming. Next slide, please. The second floor, we would become a mission-based gallery. At this point, the second floor would have all of the gallery spaces. So we currently have two and a half, let’s say so we’re going to about five different gallery spaces in this layout with the education center and expansion of the studios. Next slide, please. The third floor would become our events venue rental space, allowing us to maximize revenue with venue rentals in a beautiful space with sweeping views of Lake Ontario and outdoor terraces. Next slide, please. The basement would now host the collection, and there would also be some underground parking. Next slide, please.

This took all of three minutes.

What was the rush – Council had already given the delegation more time if they needed it.

Councillor Kearns asked Susan Busby, through the chair, to talk to us a little bit about how the voices in our community helped to shape this plan, and what engagement activities did you undertake?

At the end of the delegation, one wondered why there were no Guild members on hand to support the proposal. Where was the architect?

Susan Busby: “We had multiple layers of consultation. At first, we started heavily internally with staff. Then we went out and we were working with city staff. I mean, this is city land and the city building, so the consultants interviewed extensively within the staff team.

“We also went out to other cultural partners, like the Joseph Brant Museum, Burlington Performing Arts Center, the libraries, Burlington Downtown, BIA; into the different school systems as well.

“We talked to Sheridan College, Mohawk, Brock University, really trying to be as diverse as possible. We had meetings with the Guild members that utilize the space as well as other AGB members. I would say fairly extensively. And then we also held an indigenous sharing circle. We brought together a significant number of indigenous community members to really speak to the vision of what the gallery would be.

“I have presented the findings to every member of council independently, along with the mayor. I’ve also presented with Executive Director of Economic Development Burlington Tourism. So yes, extensive, constant consultation.

We recall no mention whatsoever about a new building at the 50th Anniversary fundraising event. We do recall the Ontario Arts Council mentioning that they have been financial supporters from the day the Gallery opened.

Suzanne Carte

During an extensive interview with Suzanne Carte, which is yet to be published, she made no mention of a new structure.