The Vancouver city councillor tasked with taking the lead on the Vancouver Art Gallery’s proposed move to a purpose-built gallery says approval for the project is likely to be a long way off. The VAG has submitted a proposal to the city to build a new home on the city-owned land behind the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, formerly Larwill Park.

“We’re not just asking that one question of should we give Larwill Park in part or in its entirety to the VAG,” Vision Coun. Heather Deal said. “It’s a broader question around land use, around real estate, around cultural institutions, and all those good things, and because of that we’ve got multiple departments at the city who are working together on coming up with some ideas on how to move forward.”

Deal suggested that public consultation was lacking, despite the VAG’s efforts at holding public-information sessions, as well as launching a dedicated website about the proposed new gallery. “The gallery has been advocating through public meetings, but we haven’t had anything that we would consider actual public consultation,” said Deal. “I will say this: I think they’ve made a compelling case that they need more space. But I would like the conversation to be much broader about what options they have, whether it’s a new grand building at Larwill Park—it’s a grand idea, a very expensive one, [or] whether it is expanding where they are with some creative addition to the architecture like they’ve done in so many other places, like Toronto.”

Deal noted that the main post office branch at 349 West Georgia Street is rumoured to be considering a move, and that its large building might be another option for the VAG. “We want to look at the broader options before I’m going to go out there and say, ”˜I believe they [the VAG] should be given this site to build a brand new building,’” she said. “I want to make sure that I know what all the options are and the cost and all those kinds of things.”

Kathleen Bartels, the VAG’s director, said she believed the gallery’s proposal to the city makes a strong case for the move. “We submitted a very in-depth proposal to the city back in June, so that covers the history of what we’ve been doing since 2004, which would include our master planning for the current site to determine what all those options would be, our need to move, budgeting, questions, fundraising schemes,” she said.

Deal, however, maintained that city staff will likely need to do their own consultations. “We basically want to start with a fresh slate,” she said. “There’s a lot of history, a lot of studies that are quite old now. And again, because the art gallery is taking a very firm position on what they want, they’re not a neutral party.”¦We need to review all those reports, and comb through them and see if any of them need to be updated. It’s a piece of work that we want to start getting our teeth into, and that’s what our staff are going to come back with—a report on how do we do that? What’s the appropriate timeline? Do we have the resources? All those kinds of things.”¦This wasn’t really on our agenda,” she added. “The VAG put it on the agenda, so they had to wait until we had space on the radar screen for it ourselves.”

Bartels remains convinced that the VAG’s proposed move will take place soon. “We’ve been working very closely with the city over the last many months, and I feel very confident that we will get to a positive resolution for both the gallery and the city,” she insisted.