ABSTRACT
This chapter offers some insights into the history of the museum, and the ideas and processes behind the Renaissance Royal Ontario Museum (RenROM) project. The ROM is the most well-known museum in Canada because of its long history, the breadth of its collections, numbers of visitors, and international reputation. In 1999, the ROM had crafted a strategic, long-range master plan to expand and update its crowded facilities and revitalize the museum’s public image ‘to help sustain the Museum into the next millennium’. ROM directors had a long history of absolute power within the institution, and the director’s vision has always been inextricably linked to the museum’s goals and performance. The redevelopment propelled the ROM into an unprecedented public prominence in the minds of ordinary Torontonians. For William Thorsell, the debate and passion provoked by the Crystal was evidence of its success as a piece of public culture.
