AR 2001 Layout_Final - Royal Ontario Museum

Report of the Chairman of the Board of Trustees and the Director and CEO
The Royal Ontario Museum is breaking out from the constraints it has experienced
in recent decades to create a much stronger instrument of public service,
pleasure and scholarship. This past year has seen a dramatic transformation in
the prospects and plans for the ROM. Not since it was founded in 1912 has the
Museum embraced such ambitious goals in the context of the public interest.
A year ago, Renaissance ROM was an idea to marshal all the valued assets of
the Museum through a major capital investment. Today, Renaissance ROM is a
formally approved project to spend $200 million in two phases, on a robust
expansion of the Museum’s public galleries and facilities—the most significant
cultural project in Canada today.
Funding for the project was won in March
2002, with the announcement of $30 million
from Ontario’s SuperBuild Corporation for the
first phase. That was matched in May by the
federal government through its infrastructure
program. Meanwhile, a feasibility study by ROM
consultants showed that there is convincing
support to raise an additional $110 million
through a private-sector fundraising campaign
soon to be underway.
Work will begin in May 2003 with a beautiful
Bloor Street “Crystal” design by Studio Daniel
Libeskind, in association with Bregman +
Hamann Architects of Toronto, construction
management by Vanbots Construction Corporation,
and exhibit development by Haley Sharpe
Design UK. Together with restoration of the
ROM’s heritage buildings, The Crystal will add
more than 40,000 square feet to the ROM’s
William Thorsell (L) and Jack Cockwell (R), in front of the Ming Tomb.
public galleries, in addition to new facilities for
education and public programs and excellent amenities.
With more than a million visitors this past year, and a decade of declining
budgets, funding and staff, Renaissance ROM looms even larger in the life of
the Museum and its public. By doubling paid admissions, the expanded
Jack Cockwell
Museum will generate a surplus on its basic operating budget, reversing the Chairman of the Board of Trustees
decline in support of the core missions in collections, research and public
Royal Ontario Museum
programs. Renaissance ROM is the essential instrument in rebuilding the
ROM’s economic health.
The next several years will be among the most creative and memorable since
the ROM’s founding in 1912. We will need the help of the whole community to
William Thorsell
achieve the vision from which the community as a whole will derive such lasting
Director and CEO
pleasure and value.
Royal Ontario Museum
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