ART IN PUBLIC PLACES: Calgary is reviewing how public art is managed and funded.
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“The Trees”
“The Trees,” towering 62 metres over the Stephen Avenue Mall outside Bankers Hall, consist of 10 white steel trunks supporting slotted overhead canopies.
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“Buffalo Trail”
“Buffalo Trail” by Joanne Schachtel, at 6 Avenue and 5 Street SW, was commissioned by the Calgary Downtown Association as part of a Sculptures As Benches project.
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“Counting Crow”
“Counting Crows” by Evelyn Grant, at 4 Street and 13 Avenue SW, is based on a traditional Dutch rhyme. It features a functional metal windmill, 72 PVC crows and an inlaid ceramic/concrete base.
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%u201CThe Trees%u201D
“The Trees,” towering 62 metres over the Stephen Avenue Mall outside Bankers Hall, consist of 10 white steel trunks supporting slotted overhead canopies.
ART IN PUBLIC PLACES
Calgary is reviewing how public art is managed and funded.
By Rod Chapman
Provoking a thought here, adding a touch of whimsy there, art in public places enhances the urban experience. Cities that celebrate public art create a pleasant ambience for residents, generally making neighbourhoods friendlier, increasing tourism and improving the quality of life.
Calgary’s civic art collection, comprised of more than 750 works valued at over $3 million, is managed by the Calgary Allied Arts Foundation (CAAF), an advisory body on matters related to the visual arts. CAAF also manages the city’s $250,000 endowment fund, the interest from which is used to acquire new works.
Much of the civic collection is located in a “gallery without walls”—pieces are exhibited in a variety of venues throughout the city. In downtown Calgary alone, more than 100 public art pieces are on display.
But not all public art is owned by governments. Local business groups are also banding together to visually enhance the streetscape. The Fourth Street Public Art Society, for example, has added to the people-friendly ambience of Fourth Street SW with a collection of unique, entertaining sculptures. Many of the pieces were commissioned or acquired through competitions for Alberta artists funded by the Fourth Street Business Revitalization Zone with matching grants from the Calgary Region Arts Foundation (CRAF) and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts (AFA).
Companies are also big patrons of public art, often spending lavishly on massive installations that serve to showcase their head office. Brookfield Properties, owners of the tony Banker’s Hall property, announced a $1.1 million national competition for a work of contemporary public art during the Artcity festival in 2001.
The winning entry, between the earth and the sky, by Vancouver’s Muse Atelier Architecture, was selected in April 2002. Both cerebral and sensuous, the work will be comprised of several related yet distinct pieces that evoke the natural world through iconic images.
Brookfield also commissioned The Trees, a towering 26-metre-tall installation on Stephen Avenue Mall outside Banker’s Hall that has incited a great deal of controversy. The massive slotted overhead canopies are supported by 10 slanting steel uprights that some people feel dominate the mall’s streetscape and block precious sunlight. To others, the trees appear as magical apparitions silhouetted against the sky, especially at night when the huge fronds perform a light show.
Arguments over aesthetics aside, The Trees fanned debate on another front. Because there was little public input into the process, arts advocates feel that the city needs a better method for determining how public art is acquired, managed and financed. This came to a head last fall when the three major autonomous arts groups funded by the city—the Calgary Centre for the Performing Arts, The Calgary Region Arts Foundation, and The Calgary Allied Arts Foundation—all requested increases to their operating budgets. As a result, the city decided to re-examine its civic arts policy.
Terms of Reference for the Civic Arts Policy Review were approved by council in January and subsequently revised to broaden the scope. Alderman Bob Hawkesworth, whose motion at council kickstarted the review process, says that the outcome was originally intended to address issues related to the city’s relationship to funded organizations, but was quickly amended to take a broader perspective on the role and value of the arts in Calgary.
“With this expanded mandate I certainly anticipate that public art will be part of the process, and that funding for public art will be included within the scope of the review,” he says.
The review has many arts groups excited about the possibilities. “This will be the first arts policy review in Canada in the new millennium,” says Greg Elgstrand, executive director of the Art Gallery of Calgary. “I think it’s created an opportunity for the city to develop a new cultural policy that builds on our existing strengths but is visionary in scale and scope.”
CAAF has already developed a proposed public art policy that outlines the conditions for art acquisition and placement on public property. The policy calls for "a percentage for art," a common practice in many cities across North America. But where many cities compel developers in the private sector to devote one per cent of their capital budgets for art, the proposed CAAF public art policy requires civic departments—but not developers—to devote one per cent of capital improvement budgets over $1 million to public art.
What the policy will do, if approved by council, is impose a requirement for art on the public purse. “For the first time in Calgary’s history taxpayers would be asked to fund public art,” says Don Stewart, a Calgary architect who chairs the public arts committee at CAAF. “We’ll certainly be encouraging businesses to follow suit.”
Stewart says that last year some 30 civic improvement projects would have qualified under the proposed policy, generating thousands of dollars for new art. But still to be decided by council is the definition of what civic projects should be included—bridges, LRT stations, buildings, road overpasses and major infrastructure upgrades are all candidates.
Two city pilot projects now under way are already picking up on the policy’s recommendations, even though it has yet to be implemented at council. The city’s WaterWorks division is planning to commission and install custom-designed manhole covers on some city streets. As well, city officials planning to upgrade Killarney Pool this summer voluntarily decided to allocate one per cent of that budget to public art.
Public art is an expression of our community identity, a shared sense of what is beautiful and significant. As a visual representation of Calgary’s unique spirit, it ensures the vibrancy of public spaces and provides citizens with the opportunity to be active participants in the cultural life of Calgary. The proposed new policy will strengthen that commitment, but raises questions about whether it goes far enough.
OPINION
Galleries West invited three art watchers—gallery owner Paul Kuhn; interior designer James McIntyre and sculptor Reinhard Skoracki—to give us their opinion of the public art pieces pictured here.
The Trees
“I am really trying to like these works… they look best from the towers looking down upon them. Their worst viewing vantage is from the street where the bases feel clumsy and awkward…. US Steel spent $250,000 to scale up a Picasso maquette for the city of Chicago and it has become an icon… Our sights should have been higher.” PK
“Isn't art supposed to be about beauty and if not, at least some sort of lasting asthethic? Strange how on a pedestrian mall, the challenge isn't about understanding the art but about getting around large painted metal obstacles. Is it just me or is the scale all wrong?” JMc
“…in an artistic composition there is a point at which… quantitative factors may achieve a qualitative effect. The Great Pyramids are forms of absolute structural simplicity but derive impressivness from their great mass. How many tons of steel did they install at 8 Avenue? My opinion: The wrecking ball is already swinging. What about big oak trees instead? We are bored in the city. There is no longer any temple of the sun.” RS
Buffalo Trail
“This is a case where the base is more important than the artwork that sits on top. There is something wrong here. The buffalo herd is fine, I don't even mind the small scale. It’s the relationship between the base and bronze buffalo which seems all wrong to me. No base or place the herd on a series of low planes.” PK
“The historical significance of the installation to Calgary appeals to me. They seem a bit more statuary then sculptural, but the park space around the pieces helps to enhance the impact.” JMc
“The bisons at the court house, like the horses in front of the city hall, remind me of a friend who took a picture of his backyard, framed it and placed it on the wall in his living room.” RS
Counting Crows
“The humour and colour of the pieces on Fourth Street, I suppose, were part of the original intent.” JMc
“Some of the public artworks lined up Fourth Street seem to me not the work of trained artists but of craftsmen who achieve satisfaction from their power over certain materials. (This piece) seems to me an exception. To me it is an artwork which seeks to describe and illustrate environmental concerns…. The artist has a keen sense of the physical and psychological links between audience and nature. RS
What do you think?
Write and tell us your thoughts about these or any other public art pieces at opinion@gallerieswest.ca. (We may publish your comments, edited for length if necessary.)
