Upheaval at the National Gallery of Canada

Unions and a former director say Canada's flagship art museum is in deep trouble

Two unions representing four-fifths of the National Gallery of Canada's employees wrote to Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez in early November expressing alarm at the art museum's management culture.

The unions' letter had already been sent before four experienced senior managers were dismissed on Nov. 18, a source familiar with the unionized employees' concerns says.

And in an interview, Marc Mayer, who served as the Gallery's 10th director and CEO from 2008-2019, called recent changes at the Gallery "a major Canadian cultural tragedy."

"It's just so heartbreaking for me to see this because it's a bloody mess," Mayer said in a telephone interview. "It's an absolute mess. To put someone in charge to reinvent the National Gallery of Canada who's never worked in an art museum before... is unconscionable."