Wow, I thought for sure that this was a Gehry! Glad that loads of the art galleries are getting built/updated across the country (ROM, AGO, etc). If the Gov. funding and civic support can be re-established in the creative sector, we will be set up to make these galleries really buzz.

In the Spring 2010 issue of _Galleries West_ magazine (available as a free PDF [here](http://www.gallerieswest.ca/back_issues.html)), Richard White had a great piece about these new spaces. A representative snippet: “…More currently, it looks like Bilbao is starting to lose its effect. The New York Times recently reported that cities were abandoning, or significantly scaling back, plans for grand new cultural spaces. They cite the University of California’s now-cancelled Berkeley Art Museum, with a design by Toyo Ito. The fever for newer, grander, more expensive galleries and museums, part of the wider frenzy of financial ‘irrational exuberance’ of the past decade, has already led to a hangover in the cultural sector. ‘The economic downturn has reined in a lot of these big dreams and has also led to questions about whether ambitious building projects from Buffalo to Berkeley ever made sense to begin with,’ the Times writes. “Internally, executive directors and boards are increasingly focusing on generating more revenue with space rentals for special events, gift shop sales, and onsite dining. Tony Luppino, former executive director of the Art Gallery of Alberta, laments ‘More and more we are turning our public galleries into special event spaces that host events that have little or nothing to do with the appreciation of art. In today’s museum world, fundraising and event managers’ salaries are often higher than those of the chief curators. What does that say?'”