Robert Bevan writes a nice piece (“Let’s build a great museum and worry about what goes in it later”) in the AFR Review today – unfortunately it’s not online, so you’ll have to go to the newsagent or your local Library to read it. The essay looks at the global mania for museum building. He bemoans Sydney’s stalled MCA refurbishment (by Saana), and implies that while Queensland’s GoMA may be “boring”, it’s big and gives precedence to the presentation of contemporary art. By contrast he talks about the failure of the new Libeskind addition to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto to attract an audience. This might be explained by its radical dysfunctionality as a gallery space – our spies in Toronto tell us it’s difficult to hang anything in it, and it leaks – which means it’s still empty. For James Howard Kunstler it’s just another eyesore. Let’s hope Canberra’s new National Portrait Gallery (taking shape) and the extension of the National Gallery of Australia (still only a placard) have got their priorities right.