Media Coverage

The Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum and its next-door neighbor, the National Auto & Truck Museum, are not merging, but they are cooperating in a visitor-oriented effort being termed “The Auburn Automobile Experience.”

Armed with a grant from The James Foundation of Auburn, the neighboring museums launched a 6-person committee and asked the highly recommended Lord Cultural Resources from Canada to do a study last year to determine how the museums could work together for their mutual benefit.

“We have this incredible story to tell, and we have to tell it together,” Brandon Anderson, ACD Museum executive director, told KPC Media Group and its local newspaper, The Star.

The Art Gallery of York University (AGYU) wants to make North York a destination for art lovers. Thanks to a $5-million donation from patrons Joan and Martin Goldfarb, York University is planning to build a stand-alone new home for its contemporary art gallery.

“The gallery’s location on the subway [line] is huge,” says Toronto-based museum planner and consultant Gail Lord. “And the accessibility of North York to the rest of the province is very important.”

Lord sees the initiative as contributing to an ongoing democratization of the arts across the city. Recent developments include the city’s new public art strategy, which will get a big push in 2021, and annual art event Nuit Blanche’s forays into Scarborough, Etobicoke and North York. She notes the new gallery will join the Ontario Science Centre, the Aga Khan Museum and the Meridian Arts Centre as North York venues with an arts focus.

A major new exhibition, Mandela: Struggle for Freedom, opens at the Ken Seiling Waterloo Region Museum in Kitchener on February 7, 2020. A rich sensory experience of imagery, soundscape, digital media and objects is used to explore the earth shaking fight for justice and human dignity in South Africa - and its relevance to issues of today. Among its many dramatic visual features and original artifacts, the exhibition replicates Mandela’s eight by seven foot prison cell. When entered, the cell becomes a digital theatre whose walls tell a story of repression and resilience.

This exhibition was developed by the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (Winnipeg, Canada) in partnership with the Apartheid Museum (Johannesburg, South Africa). Tour management services provided by Lord Cultural Resource.

Construction is well underway on the Canada Pavilion for Expo 2020 in Dubai, which will mark the first time Canada has participated in the World’s Fair since Expo 2020 in Shanghai.

The federal government’s Global Affairs Canada (GAC) department contracted the project to a consortium led by EllisDon Construction, with Toronto-based Moriyama & Teshima Architects behind the design. Other partners in the design, build, and operation contract entail Lord Cultural Resources, along with Hatch, Kubik, Thornton Tomasetti, NGX, and Cisco.

An eventful year for the Farmington Museum at Gateway Park came to an end with the launch of a months-long process to develop a new strategic plan for the facility. A public meeting was held Dec. 11 to solicit public input for the plan, with the global consulting practice Lord Cultural Resources having been hired by the city to facilitate the process. The plan is intended to guide the decision-making of museum officials over the next several years. A final version is expected to be delivered to the City Council for its consideration by May.

The push to add a National Portrait Gallery to the capital’s “constellation” of cultural institutions has reached its next stage with a feasibility report prepared by a citizen-led advisory board. The report includes the proposed gallery’s preliminary concept, with a more detailed operational and business plan to come once the first major hurdle is cleared: finding a site to house the precious portrait collection.

In 2018, the board joined forces with the venerable Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and the renowned Toronto-based museum-planning firm Lord Cultural Resources, which drafted the recent feasibility study.

In less than a year, Expo 2020 Dubai will open its doors to more than 25 million visitors from across the globe on 20 October, 2020, with 70% of the visitors expected to come from outside the UAE. The first World Expo to take place in the region, Expo 2020 Dubai, will be located on an area covering 4.38km2 near Al Maktoum International Airport in Dubai South.

Other companies including Moriyama & Teshima Architects, Lord Cultural Resources, Hatch, Kubik, Thornton Tomasetti, NGX, and Cisco are also working on the pavilion that will be located within the Sustainability District.

AUBURN — Neighbors for 30 years, Auburn’s two historic automobile museums now are sharing their road ahead. The Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum and National Auto & Truck Museum both occupy buildings of the former Auburn Automobile Co. Now they are joining to create “The Auburn Automobile Experience,” encouraging visitors to explore both museums.

“We have two incredible resources right here, on the same property, that are part of the same National Historic Landmarks listing,” said Brandon Anderson, executive director of the ACDA Museum. Together, he said, the museums can tell “a very dynamic story that is history, engineering, innovation, design, technology, based around the automobile.”

To encourage cooperation, The James Foundation of Auburn gave the museums a grant to hire a consultant. A six-member committee, with three leaders from each museum, chose Lord Cultural Resources from five applicants. The study took place throughout 2019, conducting dozens of interviews with museum officials and community members.

The consultants’ report suggests ways both museums can grow and how they can work together for mutual benefit, Anderson said.

A public session to gather the community’s input on future development of the city of Farmington’s museums will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, December 11, at the Farmington Museum, 3041 E. Main St. The city would like to hear what programming, developments and exhibits the community would like to see through the museum system.

The public is invited to share their thoughts and ideas on what these facilities can offer to the community and visitors as they develop a new strategic plan with the contracted assistance of Lord Cultural Resources.

Construction work has begun on Expo 2020 Dubai’s “The Future In Mind”-themed Canada Pavilion, with ground having broken on the wooden structure at the World Expo site. Ontario-based construction heavyweight Ellisdon was picked to design, build, and operate the pavilion.

On November 26, the groundbreaking ceremony for the Canada Pavilion was held at the Expo 2020 grounds in Dubai. As the selected contractor to design, build, and maintain, EllisDon has mobilized on-site and is set to begin construction on the national pavilion. Other companies working associated with the pavilion include Moriyama & Teshima Architects, Lord Cultural Resources, Hatch, Kubik, Thornton Tomasetti, NGX, and Cisco.