Barry Lord literally wrote the book on museum planning — 1983’s Planning Our Museums was the first text of its kind and it launched the author and his editor, wife and business partner, Gail Dexter Lord, on a hugely successful international career planning and advising museums and galleries around the globe. In the ensuing 27 years, Lord Cultural Resources has consulted on 17,000 cultural institutions in 45 countries, including Toronto’s own Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, which is where I interviewed Barry, left (with David LaChappelle’s Lady Gaga: Electric Chair, 2009, courtesy of the artist and Fred Torres Collaborations), and where the Lords’ latest book, Artists, Patrons and the Public: Why Culture Changes, will be launched on Thursday.
Lord Cultural Resources is based in Toronto with offices in New York, Paris and Madrid plus project offices in Beijing and Bahrain. The company’s global ambitions could not have flowered at a better time; while Toronto has undergone a spectacular cultural renaissance during the past decade, other cities large and small are equally determined to compete in the cultural marketplace and that has meant lots of work for the Lords.
“There are lots of people who can provide input,” notes Lord, “architects, designers, management consultants — but to put it all together and build an integrated institution is what we’re about. This book really comes out of that practice and while it has a lot of theory, it also has a lot of narrative, a lot of our anecdotal experience is used to illustrate what we’re saying.”
The question underlying the Lords’ new book title, Why Culture Changes, might seem obvious and yet, as Barry posits, “We start with the question, why should culture change at all? Why should it not achieve an idealized Greek or Renaissance level of perfection and then just stay there? But it doesn’t, it’s always evolving.”
Rita Davies, Executive Director of City of Toronto Cultural Services, will steer the conversation at MOCCA on Thursday: “This book is relevant to Toronto because as the world’s most multicultural city, we live cultural change every day,” she observes. “I look forward to exploring our real life urban cultural challenges with Gail and Barry.”
WHERE/WHEN: Book launch, Artists, Patrons and the Public: Why Culture Changes by Gail Dexter Lord and Barry Lord at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (952 Queen Street West), Thursday, May 27 at 7 pm.
Photo by Christopher Jones, book jacket image by Edward Burtynsky
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