Ode to the Audain Museum
My letter to the Editor of Pique Newsmagazine.
Read the full letter here https://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/local-news/letter-ode-to-the-audain-art-museum-12042881
By FARHA GUERRERO
As we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Audain Museum today, I have much to be grateful for. The gratitude I feel to be part of this institution is unwavering. As many of you know, I am a volunteer docent, and it is a privilege to guide visitors through these galleries.
It is thanks to all of you who work tirelessly to ensure that every visitor who comes to this museum experiences something meaningful—a brief moment of joy to be with art, some of the finest from this province and beyond.
I often tell guests at the beginning of my tours that, as a volunteer, I work in the same spirit in which this museum was founded: the spirit of giving. But the truth is that it is not I who gives to the museum—it is I who receives. What I gain from guiding visitors through the galleries is far greater than anything I offer.
As a writer, my tours are not scripted, but rather I try instead to weave a narrative that carries visitors from one work to the next. I work carefully to find connections between pieces so that people move through the collection with a sense of continuity and discovery.
I often draw from great thinkers on my tours. Recently, when speaking about photography, I have been bringing Susan Sontag’s ideas into my narrative. In architectural tours, I reference thinkers such as Kenneth Frampton and Juhani Pallasmaa. And now, through the Wosk Collection in the upper gallery, figures such as Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, and Henri Matisse are helping me better understand the art we hold in the permanent collection, allowing us to glimpse connections across time and place in ways that feel very immediate. Our oldest pieces by John Webber offer a wonderful parallel to the etchings we are currently showing by Picasso, Rembrandt, and Goya. I also draw from master carver James Hart’s wisdom, shared with us last fall during his book launch, that it takes him 10,000 years to complete any work. This is the artist’s journey.
Last weekend I welcomed more than a hundred guests on my tours—visitors from Europe, from across this continent, and many locals who had never entered the museum before. One of the greatest gifts of this work is the conversations that happen afterward. Visitors often pull me aside to share their thoughts, and their kindness always reminds me why this work matters.
Sometimes those responses are deeply emotional. On more than one occasion visitors have cried during a tour. Art can reach something very personal, and perhaps the words around a work allow that emotion to surface. When that happens, I am reminded how powerful these collections are.
For the past two years I have been living with a disability, and guiding at the museum has given me something deeply personal: a renewed joy. It has changed how I prepare, how I remember, and how I move through the galleries. In moments like these I think of artists such as Frida Kahlo, Henri Matisse, and Goya—whose presence we encounter now in the upper gallery—and who created remarkable art despite their limitations.
I remain deeply grateful to everyone who contributes to this institution and the experience it creates for visitors.
For that privilege, and for the joy I continue to find in this work, I thank you.
Farha Guerrero // Whistler