The Chess Game, 2022-23. Encaustic on Khadi paper, wood, acrylic panels, and mirror-coated Plexiglass. Ten chess pieces produced especially for the exhibition at The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto. Courtesy the artist. Installation view: Time of Change, The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto, 2023.TONI HAFKENSCHEID/The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery
The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery in Toronto will become financially independent over the coming months from its long-time host, the Harbourfront Centre cultural complex. And it’s launching a three-year campaign to sustain itself as it loses hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of annual funding and shared services from the complex.
The gallery joins the Toronto International Festival of Authors in separating from the five-decade-old cultural hub as Harbourfront undergoes a vast restructuring at a moment when arts organizations everywhere are struggling with finances. In the past 16 months, Harbourfront has seen its chief executive officer replaced, ended its lease on the renowned Fleck Dance Theatre, and been warned by Ottawa, which provides some of its funding, that it does not “have a sustainable operating foundation.”
The move will separate the Power Plant from the financial troubles of Harbourfront, which has been trying to reduce costs – while at the same time forcing the gallery to reckon with a different kind of financial precarity to make up for its lost Harbourfront Centre funding.
Harbourfront Centre will continue to offer Power Plant free rent, maintenance and security, Power Plant executive director Carolyn Vesely said in an interview Monday. But in the organizations’ new fiscal year, which starts Tuesday, Power Plant will no longer receive annual cash contributions from Harbourfront that have averaged about $120,000 and were $380,000 last year.
The complex will also no longer share costs such as IT and phone contracts with the gallery, which Ms. Vesely estimates could cost another $300,000 to replicate each year.
Staying rent-free gives Power Plant “a stable base from which to move forward,” Ms. Vesely said, though the organizations have not yet signed a formal lease agreement, which she expects would be signed for three- to five-year terms at a time. The new independence also means the Power Plant will have its own bank accounts for the first time, though it has not yet settled on a banking partner.
“We’re quite confident we can make this work, and Harbourfront Centre will continue to be an essential supporter of Power Plant because of the facilities,” Ms. Vesely said.
In an e-mail, Harbourfront CEO Cathy Loblaw said her team was “pleased to be working in a new structure that sees The Power Plant continue on our campus, while operating as a fully independent and collaborative arts partner.”
Ms. Vesely sent a letter to donors and supporters last week announcing a “critical fundraising campaign” that will formally launch in the next few months to sustain the gallery in its newly independent form. This would include seeking both philanthropic and sponsorship donations, she told The Globe and Mail Monday.
The Power Plant gallery opened at Harbourfront Centre in 1987 and, like a German kunsthalle, hosts rotating exhibitions and has no permanent collection.
Ms. Vesely’s letter also revealed that the Power Plant’s board adopted new bylaws in June, 2024, that ended the long-standing practice of allowing Harbourfront Centre to appoint directors to the gallery’s board.
Ms. Vesely, an interim executive director made permanent in April, 2024, reports to the new 15-member board but is no longer required to also report to Harbourfront.
The streamlining of the board follows a 2022 dispute with Harbourfront over control of the board. Because Harbourfront was then the Power Plant’s parent, it was supposed to appoint half of the 28 board members, although in practice it merely approved Power Plant suggestions. In 2022 Harbourfront fired those members and replaced them with its own picks. The rest of the board viewed this as a coup and resigned, leaving a leadership vacuum at the gallery just after long-time executive director Gaëtane Verna had departed for a job in the United States.
The visual arts community has followed developments at the Power Plant with concern, fearing that the institution might lose its enviable reputation for high-quality exhibitions that have often featured strong pairings of leading Canadian artists with international art stars making their debuts in this country.
“The Power Plant has always had curatorial independence from Harbourfront Centre so there will be no artistic changes,” Ms. Veseley said, also promising that the gallery will retain free admission.
However, the Power Plant has already had to cut back its three-season programming schedule to two seasons a year, with a pair of spring-summer shows opening next week and running through to Sept. 14. The shows feature work by two Toronto artists, Emmanuel Osahor and Shelagh Keeley.
The move eliminates a third of the gallery’s exhibition slots, but Ms. Veseley said it allows the organization to concentrate on the physical transformation of its spaces, which has been a hallmark of the way it presents contemporary art while also reducing its carbon footprint.
Yves Trépanier, a leading contemporary art dealer based in Calgary, said the move gives the gallery much needed autonomy. “If the City of Toronto leans in with some support and the Power Plant board rises to the occasion … I think the future of the Power Plant will be assured,” he said. “This may be the perfect moment for this to happen.”
