By Pepper Parr
January 30th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
Headline revised: The arena is under construction
The shovels are in the ground yet – the construction is underway.
No matter – despite the fact that taxpayers are looking at a 7.08% tax increase (just 5.80% of that is the result of the city spending) there is a Request for Expressions of Interest from anyone who wants to put art work on the new Skyway Arena – there is a budget of $120,000 CAD. Deadline: Friday March 10, 2023
A new arena was necessary; that part of the city is undeserved with ice rink capacity. But $120,000 at this point in time ?
In the announcement put out today the City of Burlington invites professional artists to submit Expressions of Interest to create an exterior public art installation for the plaza area of the new Skyway Community Centre (129 Kenwood Ave, Burlington, Ontario). This competition is open to all Canadian and International professional artists* and/or artist-led teams.
*A professional artist is an individual who has specialized skills and/or training in hi/her artistic discipline (not necessarily in academic institutions), has a history of public presentation and is critically recognized as an artist.
The building will have the best and the latest in technology. And of course it needs public art.
An artwork proposal is not requested at this time. This is a two-phase process: in Phase One, applicants will be reviewed on the basis of artistic merit of past work, professional qualifications and experience. In Phase Two, short-listed artists will be required to submit a preliminary artwork concept proposal that will be displayed for public comment and jury review.
Artists selected for the short-list will be provided with a full Request for Proposals outlining detailed artwork specifications prior to developing their proposals. Short-listed artists will be paid an artist fee of $1500 to develop their proposals.
Click HERE to learn more…
Related news story:
There was at least one councillor who thought fiscal prudence had been ignored.
Instead of spending $120K why not just provide local artisans with a venue to promote their work? Let them display their work on a rotating schedule, and provide different artists with a forum through which to showcase their talent and present their offerings for sale.
Seems like a drop in the bucket since the budget for arena increased 13 million from 2020 estimates (should be an investigation into this). If this is something being proposed now, which makes no sense to rush it…perhaps it’s Meed Ward pushing initiative to get the art she wants to see in there.
Shovels have been in the ground for months.Today they continue to pour cement.This is a wonderful project and much needed for years,Thus will be around for the next 50+ years and have facilities for both the young and baby boomers alike.
Hmmm good point. Before reading this we were talking today about the money that has been spent prettying up the transformer boxes all over the city (will stand corrected if it was a volunteer programme). And yet there are presently two of the most ugly looking trailers you could imagine that ruin the winter beauty of Spencer Smith Park that appear to be there for at least the winter!
Today we saw the beauty of Spencer Smith park being restored with the removal of the ugly trailers. The question we asked ourtselves was would we still have the ugly trailers in our lakeside park if we did not have the Gazette?