VANCOUVER, BC.- Like virtually all cultural institutions in Canada, the Museum of Vancouver (MOV) is facing the consequences of decades of deferred investment. To show the tangible impacts of stagnant public funding, Ryan Hunt, the MOV’s CEO, is offering behind-the-scenes “Austerity Tours,” showing what is lost when all levels of government choose not to invest in public assets.

“We’re winning national awards for our impact one day and then watching decades-old pieces of critical equipment inch ever-closer to failure the next. No matter how successful we are, sustainable funding feels unreachable,” the MOV’s CEO says. “Over the past 30 years, admissions have grown faster than the industry average and even faster than Vancouver’s population growth, but during that same period, we’ve seen government support decrease against the rate of inflation. It feels like we’re bailing out a boat with more and more holes in it.”

The Tours will highlight the problems, risks and missed opportunities museums typically hide from view: buckets that catch leaks, the oldest continuously operating freezer in Vancouver, a vintage iPod used to power exhibitions, and, depending on the weather, a hallway filled with ants. The aim is to make voters understand the risks austerity pose to irreplaceable cultural heritage—which is why they’ll be offered during the 2026 municipal election period.

While visitation has nearly tripled since the 1990s and creative revenue-generating programs like wedding rentals, drop-in yoga, and craft fairs have launched, inflationary pressures have decreased public funding by an average of 4% year-over-year while the cost of goods and labour have doubled. Despite increases in earned revenue, stagnant public funding means that even though the MOV is earning more money than ever, its operations are less sustainable than ever.





“On the one hand, we want to see big, exciting events come to Vancouver, but for the money the municipal, provincial and federal governments spent on the FIFA World Cup, those same governments could have doubled every arts grant available in BC for the next seven years,” says Hunt. “The economic and social impacts of a funding increase of this magnitude would be transformative. Even the money spent on one game would fund us for nearly a decade.”

In addition to hidden buckets and 20-year-old iPods, the Austerity Tour will include:

• Access to areas not normally available to the public;

• How MOV’s fabrication team produces new exhibitions at a fraction of the cost of the industry standard;

• Discussions with the team responsible for safeguarding the largest civic collection of objects in Canada;

• and, imagining what a revitalized civic museum could achieve.