Public art for each of the city's six wards to be unveiled next Tuesday at the Freeman Station

News 100 greenBy Pepper Parr

November 26, 2015

BURLINGTON, ON

Some time ago the city deiced to spend a chunk of money on public art and asked the citizens to tell them where they thought the art should be placed.

Using an interactive program people were given access to a map on which they could say where they thought public art should be placed.  There was to be one for each ward.

The city’s public art adviser ran a juried competition and the following six people were selected:

Judy Mayer-Grieve: King Road Underpass, Ward 1
• Claire Hall: Freeman Station, Ward 2
• Teresa Seaton: Amherst Park, Ward 3
• Hannah Sell and Liam Racine: Port Nelson Park, Ward 4
• Tamara Kwapich: Orchard Community Park, Ward 5
• Donna Grandin: Ireland Park, Ward 6

After that there wasn’t much heard – some people knew about the work being done but there was nothing coming our of city hall.

Seaton with ward 3 art work

The Seaton work that will be installed in ward 3 consists of three stained glass pieces coated with a protective surface that will preserve the glass

The Gazette did get to see the work Teresa Seaton was doing only because we had dropped by her studio.  There was little to see for the other artists. It was almost as if everyone wanted to keep the project a secret – perhaps city hall felt the public would swallow hard when the amount spent on the project was made public.

Artists are entitled to earn a living – and if Cobalt Connects, the Jeremy Freibrger operation that advises the city on a number o cultural matters put a price on something there is probably value in it for the city.

The art for ward two is in place at the |Freeman Station – views are varied on this piece, it seemed d a little on the “sophomoric” side.

Freeman - public art

The official announcement of the six pieces of public art be placed in each of the city wards will take place at the Freeman station net week – December 1st.

Next week, Tuesday, December 1, there will be an official unveiling of the art that is now in place on the side of the Freeman station which will be where the other five pieces of art will be shown in photographic form.
The local artist mural initiative is a new public art program designed to tell local stories using local artists. This year’s program commissioned six small to medium-scale murals throughout the city. These commissions were open exclusively to Burlington, Ont., artists. Free professional development opportunities were offered to assist artists with the application process and project development.

A community jury of residents and artists representing each ward reviewed the proposals and made the selections.

Freeman Station is located at 1255 Fairview St., next door to the Fire Station headquarters – that building is in the final stages of a significant rebuild.

Light refreshments will be provided.

Return to the Front page
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

3 comments to Public art for each of the city’s six wards to be unveiled next Tuesday at the Freeman Station

  • tenni

    Well, judging before seeing the original was bad on my part. Although, I still think that putting murals on historical architecture is not a procedure that should be done, I do think that:

    a/ the mural was better looking at it in person.
    b/ the mural is in an excellent position to be viewed from Fairview.

    Now, if the Gazette had a process for editing your posts errors for an hour, that would be grand.

    Editor’s note – we are working on the errors – accept our apologies – and don’t be shy about pointing them out to us.

  • tenni

    Placing a mural on an architectural historical building is highly questionable if not inappropriate. Why save a building for its architectural significance just to cover part of of of its walls?l It should be understood that an attempt to do a mural on such a historical building is bad aesthetics in the first place. A more contemporary style for the mural would difficult to execute.

  • tenni

    Indeed artists deserve to make a living wage but that falls short for most Canadian Artists. The actual murals are the works to be viewed. Painters and muralists are not performance artists that the public watches. The creative process has large sections of non verbal thoughts. Introducing a voyeur aspect may interfere with the creative process of creating these murals. I don’ think that the public nor reporters should expect the norm to be permitted o see the works in progress.

    It might have been interesting to have a bus or at least a map to guide those who attend on Tuesday. The time of the event is missing?

    Sophomoric Freeman Station mural is mentioned? I think that the grey tones are suggestive of memory of a gone by era and suitable but predictable. A flash colour here and there might have added more to the composition creativity. The people are stylized but perhaps not far enough to not be confused as an attempt at realism.

    I think that it is great that at least one jury supported non painting in the mural. I’ve seen the King Street mural and it has a professional and somewhat sophistication that the Freeman mural may not have quite obtained. The symbolism used in the Judy Mayer-Grieve has a professional, commercial art approach. Due to its location, the King Street underpass, it may have benefited with more larger forms but it is well executed as a mural. Most viewers are going to be driving past the image.