Video: War Paintings move out of Centre Block

Start of video

[Music plays]

(Text on screen: Public Services and Procurement Canada)

(Text on screen: This footage was recorded prior to the Government of Canada’s physical distancing guidelines. Canadians are encouraged to continue to follow COVID-19 safety guidelines.)

There are eight war paintings in the Senate Chamber dating just after the First World War.

[Shot of four paintings on the wall of the Senate Chamber.]

[Shot of a partial painting and two wall sculptures of faces.]

[Shot of a painting depicting the fire damage of the Parliament building dating after the first World War.]

[Shot of Pilar Bryson speaking to the camera.]

They are all on loan from the Canadian War Museum to the Senate of Canada. So they’re being removed, taken care of, rolled up and prepared, so that they can go into storage at the Canadian War Museum.

(Text on screen: Pilar Bryson, Project Manager, Public Services and Procurement Canada)

[Shot of workers working around scaffolds.]

[Shot of two workers lifting and moving a painting.]

(Text on screen: The paintings are being moved as part of the Centre Block Rehabilitation Project.)

[Shot of Pilar Bryson speaking to the camera.]

The intent is to bring them back once Centre Block has been fully rehabilitated. The conservators will carefully lower one of the paintings face down onto the horizontal easel and examine the back. They’ll then work very carefully at removing the wood stretcher, the framework that painting canvas was attached to; we’ll let the paintings relax. Then they will very carefully start to roll them onto these big long tubes.

[Shot of several workers in a scaffold slowly lowering a painting.]

[Shot of a painting face down on a platform.]

[Shot of two workers gently detaching the canvas from a wood stretcher.]

[Shot of a worker gently using a special tool on the canvas.]

[Wide-angled shot of a worker working on a canvas.]

[Shot of workers carefully rolling the canvas onto a large tube.]

[Top-to-bottom pan shot of a large room with scaffolds and a painting face down on a platform.]

[Shot of Pilar Bryson speaking to the camera.]

This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get this close to the materials, the building itself and get behind the curtain of what goes on in Centre Block.

[Close-up shot of two workers gently moving a painting.]

(Text on screen: This project is part of Public Services and Procurement Canada’s effort to restore and modernize the buildings on and around Parliament Hill.)

[Music stops]

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(Public Services and Procurement Canada signature)

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