Encana's cultural space: What should we use it for?

[Bad Grizzly]

I say go with the NPG if you can get it. Any type of art gallery would be good.

The opera house would be good as well, but isn't there already a performing arts centre for concerts and operas? I know various concerts hit Jack Singer Hall...would the opera house be the same thing?

[walli]

Originally Posted by Bad Grizzly

The opera house would be good as well, but isn't there already a performing arts centre for concerts and operas? I know various concerts hit Jack Singer Hall...would the opera house be the same thing?

Yeah - we already have three or four in the Epcore centre, with the Jack Singer being a major one. In addition we have the recently renovated Jubilee Auditorium (re-done for the provinces 2005 centenary celebration). I'd be okay with this idea if we didn't have existing spaces, or if the existing spaces were being over-booked. That is not the case.

[Western Spaghetti]

I'm with the art gallery school of thought. Whether it's the NPG or our own art gallery, it doesn't matter, just some kind of art gallery. We already have Jack Singer concert hall, which is one of Canada's best. We have a new library and science centre already in the works. A museum of technology isn't a bad idea, but I still lean toward an art gallery as the best use.

[ScottFromCalgary]

Originally Posted by Boris550

We had a O&G type centre already (which I don't think is around anymore). It was very small and rather boring IMHO.

I think you are referring to the Energeum, which used to be on the main floor of the Energy and Utilities Board's building downtown. I think it was relatively popular for school kids and stuff, it just got axed during the lean years of the 90s to save some provincial dough.

[trueviking]

a giant vault to hold all the money....

[Just Build It]

Originally Posted by trueviking

a giant vault to hold all the money....

No kidding. What was the profit for the last year? 6 Billion? Whatever it was, it was sick.

[Only The Lonely..]

Originally Posted by Lecom

The tower looks futuristic as hell, and I don't mean the cheesy 60's futurism - I mean a viable high-profile high-tech design that's likely to push architecture, and progress in general, to new directions. Reminds me of futuristic buildings in new movies that were actually based on viable scientific predictions, such as the stuff in Minority Report and I Robot.

Somehow I doubt you'll think this in the future.

[Only The Lonely..]

Will this new gallery have anything brainy or conceptual in it, like dead squirrels nailed to trees?

Fuck, I hate having to think.

[vid]

Dead squirrels nailed to trees would really say a lot about the current geo-political climate. But frankly, that would deserve it's own thread!! It is a very deep and controversial issue.

[jeffwhit]

Ok,

I don't know who's actually seen the plans, but a lot of these suggestions are impossible.

Opera House- those have to be designed from scratch, you can adapt a space, especially this one. There are 100000 sq. feet spread over three floors, with the atrium cutting through the centre. You might be able to get a 200 seat recital hall in there, but even then the building likely isn't designed to fit a space that would require more than one floor, like a concert venue.

Public Art Gallery- Of course this would be great, but I think we need far more than 100k sqft for this, and if Encana becomes the Calgary Art Gallery, we'll never get the kind of facility we actually need.

Library - This space is no bigger than the current library, so no.

National Portrait Gallery - My choice. I know I'm selfish, I know Harper wanting to move it here is pure political maneuvering, I know there's a facility half-built in Ottawa, I don't care. I want this here, purely selfish and homeristic. I believe this option would provide the highest quality experience to visitors of all these choices.

FYI: Calgary's opera facility is the shitty, shitty Jube, Jack Singer is a concert hall. We need a 500 person facility far more than anything right now.

[jeffwhit]

Originally Posted by walli

Yeah - we already have three or four in the Epcore centre, with the Jack Singer being a major one. In addition we have the recently renovated Jubilee Auditorium (re-done for the provinces 2005 centenary celebration). I'd be okay with this idea if we didn't have existing spaces, or if the existing spaces were being over-booked. That is not the case.

Point of info, Jack Singer is the only concert facility in Epcor, the rest are all theatres for plays, and that is all that happens in them.

Calgary needs a new concert hall of some kind though, or Jack Singer's stage system needs to be automated now, as opposed to in 2010, when there is a minor reno happening.

[walli]

Originally Posted by jeffwhit

Point of info, Jack Singer is the only concert facility in Epcor, the rest are all theatres for plays, and that is all that happens in them.

Calgary needs a new concert hall of some kind though, or Jack Singer's stage system needs to be automated now, as opposed to in 2010, when there is a minor reno happening.

Even then - take a look at Jack Singer bookings ... there are far too many openings to consider building another one virtually next door. In addition, the opportunity cost for building a semi-duplicate would be huge.

[jeffwhit]

^^ You aren't accounting for the fact that 5 days of almost every week the Calgary Philharmonic is rehearsing in there, we are the primary tenant. Those bookings don't show up on the calendar of events. Jack Singer is in use every single day. Trust, me the hall is at capacity and it is impossible to have the stage reconfigured properly for every event. Of course, it's the CPO that gets screwed by this but that's a different topic for a different day.

[Rusty van Reddick]

Originally Posted by Grendel

The culture of the oilpatch is deeply conservative, and this building will represent the image that EnCana projects to its colleagues and the world. As a result, I find it highly unlikely that EnCana will be able to find any room in this cultural space for any truly original or creative art. Sadly, there's no shortage of existing venues in Calgary to go see derivative, unchallenging, meaningless and boring art.

Where can we see "derivative, unchallenging, meaningless, and boring art"? We don't have a proper public gallery- we do have many very interesting, provocative, edgy private galleries, a new anarchists' bookstore and gallery, the High Performance Rodeo, a queer film festival... it's so fucking trite to be one of these "I hated Calgary and left it for ______" (usually Vancouver, Montreal, or Toronto, natch), citing a lack of "arts," but that characterization is simply false and lazy. You can get away with these sorts of comments on disovervancouver.com or lonelyplanet.com. You can't get away with this sort of thing here.

[Grendel]

^ The other day, I had some business I had to attend to at the Royal Bank Building downtown. I entered through the south lobby of Bankers Hall, the one that faces onto 9th ave. You skyscraper types will recall that for the 10 years while we waited for the west tower to be built, there was a model of the complex living in there. My point is this; go down in there one of these days and take a look at the sort of art that corporations buy. That lobby is full of dull landscapes, paintings of grain elevators, etc. For corporations, the purpose of art is not the pursuit of art itself, but to either complement the aesthetic of an existing building, or to make a statement about the corporate image. If the cultural space in the Bow becomes and art gallery, and EnCana can a) hire a creative, thoughtful curator and b) refrain from interfering with that person, then bravo, let's have an art gallery. On the other hand, I think that the National Portait Gallery would be a more suitable tenant because it will be inherently uncontoversial and will add to the prestige of the city, both of which I think are laudable goals.

[walli]

Originally Posted by jeffwhit

Jack Singer is in use every single day. Trust, me the hall is at capacity ...

Does the 3k seat Jubilee Auditorium not count?



The opportunity cost of putting in yet another 'hall' is too great, particularly if the current capacity issue with Jack Singer is simply *practice time*.

This new EnCana space should be something for the broadest cross-section of the city, and I'd like it to be something unique and different - not a repeat or a copy, or simply a bandwidth expander. I'd really like to see a 'transformational planning & architecture' gallery / museum, represented in a way that celebrates different cultures.

[Zilla]

Interesting poll. I would be most happy with either the NPG (my first vote, if just for the pizzazz) or a civic art gallery, which we very much need.

[jeffwhit]

Originally Posted by walli

This new EnCana space should be something for the broadest cross-section of the city, and I'd like it to be something unique and different - not a repeat or a copy, or simply a bandwidth expander. I'd really like to see a 'transformational planning & architecture' gallery / museum, represented in a way that celebrates different cultures.

Why are you arguing with me on something we agree on? As for your assy comment about 'practice time...' you should maybe try not to sound so ignorant. When you have a $40000 instrument run into by a half retarded roadie for the fucking Goo Goo Dolls then you may understand where I'm coming from.

Calgary lacks a venue in the 500-1000 people range, particularly for rock shows, and I said Encana's space cannot accommodate such a facility and I didn't advocate that it should. The Jube has almost 3000 seats, I'm talking about something less than a 3rd that size, closer to the Chan centre at UBC or The Toronto Centre for the Performing Arts in North York. Try not to forget that the CPO is the sole reason the Jack Singer exists in the first place. Jack Singer's upper balconies are closed off for a huge number of it's events, like stand-up comedy.

[jeffwhit]

Originally Posted by Zilla

Interesting poll. I would be most happy with either the NPG (my first vote, if just for the pizzazz) or a civic art gallery, which we very much need.

I'll repeat my personal argument that I think we need a civic art gallery that is larger than the space Encana is providing, and if that is where it ends up we'll never get the facility we need and deserve. All things considered though, I would prefer that to anything else should the NPG deal fall through.

[walli]

Originally Posted by jeffwhit

Calgary lacks a venue in the 500-1000 people range

Glad that we agree on not using the EnCana space for a theatre. With respect to the issue you've mentioned, a couple additional locations come to mind.

The university theatre is excellent, and at 505 seats, fits the size requirements you're looking for. In addition, the Boyce theatre at Stampede Park just got re-done, and looks fabulous (big change from the previously looking like something appropriate for a highschool). It has 500 seats.

University Theatre:


Boyce Theatre:


There are several others between 300 and 500, including at SAIT and other UofC facilities such as the Reeve Theatre and others.