Evidence of meeting #96 for Canadian Heritage in the 42nd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was maritime.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Arif Virani Liberal Parkdale—High Park, ON
The size of the financial investment either from the Aga Khan or the Aga Khan Cultural Trust was...?
Director and Chief Executive Officer, Aga Khan Museum
Correct.
Right now we receive about $5 million a year from the Aga Khan Development Network. That's through the Aga Khan Trust for Culture. That is their contribution to the museum, but that is a declining amount. Right now that's $5 million out of an operating budget of $16.5 million. That amount will decline year by year as we build up our fundraising opportunities. We're very grateful for the contribution that the Aga Khan Development Network makes to this museum, but I think there's a real opportunity for Canadians to truly support this museum, because what we're talking about is something that is very Canadian.
Liberal
Arif Virani Liberal Parkdale—High Park, ON
You said the original building and land was a gift from the Aga Khan.
Director and Chief Executive Officer, Aga Khan Museum
Correct. For the entire development of the Wynford Drive site, where the museum, the Aga Khan Park, and the Ismaili Centre exist, that was all capital that was contributed by the Aga Khan. That is a major gift to this country.
Liberal
Arif Virani Liberal Parkdale—High Park, ON
I want to ask you a bit about what you mentioned in your first response about the mandate to promote diversity and pluralism. We obviously know that there is a global centre for pluralism right here in Ottawa and that this is a key focus of the Aga Khan. Tell me about how that manifests through some of the exhibits, the temporary exhibits. I'm thinking specifically about the exhibit on Syria that ran in part of 2016 and part of 2017. At the same time that the country was receiving 48,000 Syrian refugees, there was an exhibit that documented and detailed Syrian civilization through the ages. Tell me about how that achieves the goals of promoting pluralism, diversity, and inclusion and combatting the forces of division and ignorance about Islam and Islamic culture.
Director and Chief Executive Officer, Aga Khan Museum
Exactly.
I think that exhibition in pluralism is very much at the heart of what we as a museum stand for. When it came to the Syrian crisis, we all remember what happened at the end of 2015 and into 2016 with the influx of Syrian refugees into this country. I think it was a very important moment in this country's history, because while many refugees have come to this country, the case of the Syrians was one of the most poignant of all, given the civil war that was raging and also the doors that were closing. Canada opened its doors.
As a museum we decided to respond to that in a very short period of time by coming up with an exhibition that looked at the cultural diversity of Syria. Part of the reason was that with 40,000 refugees coming into the country, we wanted people to understand who Syrians were. We didn't want them simply typecast as being Syrians, refugees.
We wanted people to realize that if you look at their past, over 5,000 years, Syrians are Greeks, Romans, Babylonians, Mesopotamians, Byzantines, Mameluks, and so on and so forth. The cultures that are part of Syria are extremely diverse. People who are Syrian are diverse. That's something a museum and museums in general should be able to grasp and showcase, because what other public institution can do this?
We felt it was very important to showcase that to address an issue that was burning at that very moment. Again, if you can show people what diversity and pluralism are, that's the beginning of learning, understanding, and getting people to think outside of the box.
Liberal
Arif Virani Liberal Parkdale—High Park, ON
The last piece is that outward-looking piece. You talked about how it situates the museum in a global context. Can you tell me about how it situates this museum and how it revitalizes the understanding of culture here in Canada and creates here in Canada a new centre for revitalizing Islamic civilization, the study of Islamic art and culture broadly speaking, and engaging internationally with other museums or institutions of its kind?
Director and Chief Executive Officer, Aga Khan Museum
Yes.
Planting a museum in Toronto of this nature means that suddenly the Islamic art world starts looking to Canada. Our name recognition abroad is actually very strong, but I think most important of all is that it reflects one of the fastest-growing populations in this country and in Toronto, the Muslim population, and we can showcase the cultures from which these works of art come.
Liberal
Conservative
Jim Eglinski Conservative Yellowhead, AB
Thank you, Madam Chair, and I thank both of our contributors today.
I will go to Ms. Price first. You talked about an evaluation process that you have within your province and you threw out quite a few numbers during your presentation. I realize that you have some very large and some very small museums. Isn't Pier 21 part of it?
Executive Director, Association of Nova Scotia Museums
It's a national museum.
Conservative
Jim Eglinski Conservative Yellowhead, AB
Do you evaluate all of your museums on the same level, or is there a different level? A lot of museums across Canada, especially our smaller ones in smaller communities, are run mostly by volunteers. Then we have the larger ones that have professional people like Mr. Kim leading the charge, and they probably have better training and stuff like that.
When you're doing your evaluations within your provincial thing, do they all have to reach a certain standard?
Executive Director, Association of Nova Scotia Museums
At this point in time, the evaluation program is really intended to create a benchmark baseline of a standard approach to operating a museum. It's not a Cadillac version. All the governance and management pieces of evaluation, for example, ask is simply whether you have a governance structure. Do you have a board of directors? If you're managing a museum, do you have an HR policy? Do you have contracts for your staff? It's all these sorts of very basic things. In terms of collections management, do you have a collections management policy? Can you find your stuff, and do you know what your stuff is? It's very basic at this point.
One of our recognitions was that we are working with a lot of smaller institutions. Nevertheless, they're public institutions. They're accepting personal property from people. They need to be accountable for that. They need to be accountable for the information they're providing to the Canadian public and they need to be accountable for the taxpayers' dollars that they receive to help with their operations.
Conservative
Jim Eglinski Conservative Yellowhead, AB
Is your organization helping the smaller museums to achieve this? I think it would be difficult for a very small museum to try to match some of the larger ones.
Executive Director, Association of Nova Scotia Museums
What we do is work with them through 12 months of the year. When they are scheduled for an evaluation in a year, they will know that well in advance. Obviously we have just started the evaluation program, but it's not a sneak attack. They have lot of time to prepare. We have a staff person who is dedicated—that's their job—to work with the museums. They are on call. For any questions that they have in any area of evaluation, they have a resource person there to provide them with meaningful help. That helps a lot.
One of the stats I didn't share with you is the difference between those institutions that engaged with us as they prepared for evaluation and those that didn't. There was a big difference in the evaluation scores. It's a supported process.
Conservative
Jim Eglinski Conservative Yellowhead, AB
Thank you very much.
On Friday, I was visiting the University of Alberta and had some spare time in the afternoon, so I went to the Alberta Aviation Museum. I had to get an airplane fix because I'm a pilot, so I wandered around. There were a couple of volunteers sitting there. One of them asked if they could help, and I said maybe after I've had my fix. I met him afterward and we chatted for three hours. I just stayed there. It was so interesting.
I know of many museums where volunteers spend all their time. This gentleman was 75 years old, a very successful retired businessman. He said that he spends three days a week at this museum and two days a week at another museum in Edmonton. I said that was great, and he said that he loves meeting with people. He is a self-taught historian on World War I and World War II, so we had some great conversation.
We have so many people like that across Canada. Is there any program, maybe funded by the federal government, maybe that we should be funding, whereby we recognize outstanding volunteers? I go back to Mr. Kim's comment about having 400 volunteers.
Is there any type of program, or should we be looking at some type of program, to recognize some of these great Canadians who spend a lot of their time to pass on the history of their communities to others?
Liberal
Executive Director, Association of Nova Scotia Museums
There is a recognition program through the Office of the Governor General of Canada. There is a whole section that acknowledges exemplary museum volunteerism support.
Liberal
February 27th, 2018 / 9:40 a.m.
Liberal
Julie Dzerowicz Liberal Davenport, ON
Thank you.
Thank you so much for your great presentations.
My riding is also in downtown west Toronto. It's Davenport. I have a very multi-ethnic community and a growing Muslim population for sure. I have not had a chance yet to go to the Aga Khan Museum, although your marketing is excellent. Every week I think I have to go and I haven't gone yet. Believe me, there is a huge draw, so I want to say kudos to you for the excellent marketing.
One of the comments that struck me a little was a comment around tourism and how, for the most part, tourism will go to some of the larger museums here in Toronto. Do you have some thoughts of how we can be helpful, at a national level, to help promote some of those smaller museums or other museums across the country? I don't know if you have any comments on that. I don't think we can promote everything, but to be honest, I would promote the Aga Khan as much as I would the Royal Ontario Museum or the Art Gallery of Ontario.
Do you have any comments on that?
Director and Chief Executive Officer, Aga Khan Museum
Yes.
I think that when it comes to tourism, any help is going to be appreciated. When it comes to marketing museums, it's a tough sell, because people have so many other things to do. If there is a way the government can help, I think it would come through....
To tell you the truth, I think it would be looking at the hidden stories you have around not just Toronto but everywhere. Small museums have wonderful stories to tell. We have wonderful stories. I think the museums in Nova Scotia have wonderful stories to tell. If you can get people to realize that there's heritage and history in people's midst.... They don't have to go downtown; it might be right around the corner.
That's very important, because heritage is quite literally everywhere. We just forget it's there. I think that's probably the biggest challenge we face as a museum sector. Everyone hears about museums and everyone has heard about us, but what gets people there is usually some sort of trigger. One method could very well be looking at how you look at heritage within people's living spaces, because it exists, but we just don't recognize it.
Liberal
Julie Dzerowicz Liberal Davenport, ON
You talked a lot about how your museum is funded and some of the things you would be looking for in terms of support from the national level. I know you come from Oxford where you spent some time previously.
Who does museums well? Who supports their museums? Which country supports their museums? Is there a model that you think we might want to look at?
