By Staff
March 14, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
The City of Burlington invites artists to submit Expressions of Interest to create a permanent public artwork for a traffic island located at Plains Road (QEW Ramp, West of Plains Road QEW Overpass) in the Aldershot community of Burlington, Ontario.
The deadline for submissions is April 28th, budget for the project is $25,000
Plains Road – no longer just the highway to Hamilton but now a Main Street in a part of the city with an identity of its own
Plains Road has undergone significant revitalization and growth in recent years. The City of Burlington undertook a Functional Design and Implementation Strategy in 2011 for the Plains Road Corridor.
Ward 1 Councillor Rick Craven, at a stone marker identifying the participants of the Plans Road Village Vision.
This process resulted in a number of suggestions including widening bike lanes, beautifying the area, roadway improvements, and increasing the number of pedestrian crossings and islands.
A significant portion of this work has been completed and additional improvements will continue over the next 10 – 20 years, with the goal of transforming Plains Road from a thoroughfare into a main-street corridor.
Engineering drawing of the location of the public art.
Public art will play an important role in this transformation. The median project will add to the street’s public art collection and will be used as a pilot project to consider the integration of future public artworks into additional medians on Plains Road.
Civic officials and politicians gather around the $100,000 piece of public art on Upper Middle Road.
Locating public art is an art in itself. About five years ago the city commissioned a work of art that was interesting enough – but located the work on Upper Middle Road in a median just before a railway underpass. There isn’t much time for drivers to see the art and there is next to nothing in the way of pedestrian traffic.
This competition is open to all professional Canadian artists. An artwork proposal is not requested at this time. Artist applications will be reviewed on the basis of artistic merit, professional qualifications and experience. Short-listed artists will be paid an honorarium of $750 to develop a preliminary design concept.
Google view of the Plains Road location for public art.
Download the Request for Expressions of Interest (pdf)
Has the city totally lost their collective minds . Just take a look the that $100,000 monstrosity and its not even Canadian made . Those 3 UGLY sticks in the ground are NOT art
What is the fascination with some sort of art that is chosen by a few with tax dollars and the taste is usually tasteless .
For some reason over the last 15 or so years EACH council has to leave some sort of legacy ( NOTE:With tax dollars) like the Pier or mistake by the lake as we all call it , the biggest joke was and still is the Preforming art center (PAC) somewhere around $42 MILLION tax dollars . It is a bottomless money pit forever and will NEVER break even
Stop with the foolishness , put in tree’s ( real life ) maybe a fountain but who in their right mind want to put ANOTHER distraction for drivers in the middle of a road in the name of art.
Those of you who want to pretend you are so called high enders , buy your own crap , admire it at you place and leave my tax dollars to the betterment of the community for the rest of us classless peons who pay for the majority of projects in our city . Council just wait till election time , time for a few to go !