Visual artists in this province are calling on the Board of Directors at the Rooms and Minister Bernard Davis to hire a designated Art Gallery Director for the province’s largest cultural institution.

Visual Artists of Newfoundland and Labrador (VANL) says the Rooms’ Art Gallery requires a dedicated director once more, after the position was abolished in 2017 for budgetary reasons.

In a release, the group suggests the position should have been reinstated after a funding increase from the Canada Council for the Arts. Failure to do so diminishes this province’s standing within the national arts dialogue, according to VANL.

They go on to suggest that recent improper hiring processes at the Rooms have emphasized the need to reinstate the gallery’s autonomy within the Rooms.