Hall of Mirrors: Museums and the Canadian Public

Christine Hughes is A/Manager, Developmental Services Branch, Ontario
Ministry of Community, Family and Children’s Services.

Gillam describes this book as “an accessible discussion about Canadian
museums for the interested general reader.” In it, she details how
several controversies in the late 1980s and early 1990s in prominent
Canadian cultural institutions were informed by their own history and by
current political and social events.

To set the stage for this discussion, she provide an overview of
museums both worldwide and in Canada. The first two chapters offer a
comprehensive history of the evolution of museums internationally. The
next two chapters, which focus on Canada, are divided by time period:
before World War II and from 1945 to 1993.

The book’s core three chapters each detail a specific museum-related
controversy. The first is the 1988 exhibition at Calgary’s Glenbow
Museum, “The Spirit Sings,” a large show of First Nations’
artifacts collected from a variety of European collections. This
exhibition raised the issue of repatriation of Aboriginal museum
artifacts to their original culture and sparked demonstrations by Native
people urging a public boycott of the show which was sponsored by major
oil companies. The second controversy is related to the construction of
the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Hull, Quebec. It became the most
expensive cultural complex built in Canada and was criticized for its
choice of architect, name change, and use of innovative communications
technology. One critic dubbed it “Disneyland on the Ottawa.” The
third chapter deals with the 1990 controversy surrounding the “Into
the Heart of Africa” exhibition staged by the Royal Ontario Museum in
Toronto. This show evoked the ire of the African-Caribbean community and
led to a boycott by other scheduled museum venues.

The book is well-researched and includes an index and bibliography.
Gillam is a writer and educator who lives in Toronto. She currently
teaches at York University and has worked at the Royal Ontario Museum.