The International Journal of Museum Management and Curatorship (19 8 S), 4, 40 l-406

Publications Digest

1985.4.1.1 Art Gallery Handbook, edited by W. McAllister Johnson and Frances K. Smith. 227 x 202 mm, 164 pp. Toronto, Ontario Association of Art Galleries, 1982, CblS.00, OAAG members CB10.00 (ISBN 0-9690187-1-l). Ontario Association of Art Galleries, 38 Charles Street East, Toronto, Ontario M4Y lT1, Canada.

Prepared as a project of the Ontario Association of Art Galleries (OAAG) Gallery Development Committee, the Art Gallery Handbook brings together the experience of a wide spread of authors and editors, and sprang from the need of the rapidly growing Ontario community of art galleries for a publication that dealt with the various aspects of the operation of a public art gallery. In ‘The Art Gallery and the Public Trust’, Michael Bell sets the scene, whilst the legal bases of public art galleries in Canada are covered by Michael Burtch and John Hamilton (‘Incorporation, Constitution and By-Laws’). ‘Funding’ is reviewed by David McNeil, within the context of the Province of Ontario and the federal resources available, and the addresses of all these are listed in the appendices. Ted Pietrzak covers ‘Management and Operation’, almost entirely from the financial viewpoint, though a brief review of professionalism and ethics is included, and the appendices include a range of sample forms. ‘The Building and Its Facilities’, by Ches Taylor, deals primarily with environmental standards and other technical criteria related to the safe exhibition and storage of art objects, and the means of achieving them, much of it from a strictly practical viewpoint. Security and insurance is included under this heading, whilst Robert Swain covers the crucial area of ‘Approaching and Involving Your Community’ and the advice offered is by no means only relevant to the Canadian public. Lyn Barbeau and Robert Swain review briefly ‘Exhibition Policy and Programmes’ including their evaluation, and the appendices reproduce sample loan agreements and condition reports recommended by the authors. More sensitive is ‘The Gallery/Artist Relationship’, treated by Anne Kolisnyk and

John Leonard, and this is in many aspects specific to the Ontario artistic environment, but the Draft Model Artist-Public Gallery Agreement reproduced in Appendix I has much to recommend it, together with the Exhibiting Agreement (Appendix II). Particularly thorough is Andrew J. Oko’s ‘Building and Preserving a Permanent Collection’, which includes shrewdly drafted acquisition policy documents and registration material in the appendices. The handbook concludes with a chapter on ‘Education’, by Maggie Mitchell and Megan Bite, which briefly covers both internal and external programmes, and a schedule of ‘Contact and Resource Organisations’. Each chapter is backed b y a short bibliography, and in themselves these are a most useful source of detailed information published in Canada.

1985.4.3.1 ‘Dulwich Picture Gallery’, by C. Davies (pp. 44-65, with colour and black and white illustrations); ‘Art of Invention’, by R. MacCormac (pp. 40-41); in The Architects’ Journal, 24 April 1985, Vol. 181, No. 17, 80~. The Architectural Press Ltd, 9 Queen Anne’s Gate, London SWlH 9BY, UK.

One of the most influential seminal museum and art gallery buildings is Sir John Soane’s Dulwich Picture Gallery, and his designs are attracting ever closer attention from contemporary architects. In this issue of The Architects’ Journal Richard MacCormac, as a practising architect, discusses the lessons which can be learnt from the Dulwich Picture Gallery, and Colin Davies provides a particularly well-illustrated account of it. Since its completion in 18 13 there have been additions and alterations, by no means all felicitous, and the excessively high light levels experienced as a result of introducing additional glazing to the lantern rooflights, which originally had flat plastered soffits, is passed over in silence.

1985.4.3.2 ‘Preview: National Gallery and Museum of Man’, by R. Gretton (p. 21); ‘Canada’s New