ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

TO:

City Council

FROM:

Director, Office of Cultural Affairs

SUBJECT:

Public Art Allocations From Capital Funds

 

RECOMMENDATION

THAT City Council approve $250,000 in allocations from the Public Art Unallocated accounts as follows:

Sources of funds are the $250,000, 2003 Basic Capital provision for Public Art.

GENERAL MANAGER'S COMMENTS

The General Manager of Community Services RECOMMENDS approval of A(i) through A(v).

COUNCIL POLICY

City Council adopted the Public Art Program for Civic and Private Development in 1990. A Community Public Art Program was adopted in 1994.

City Council provided $750,000 for public art in the 2003-2005 Capital Plan. On May 7, 2003, Council allocated $250,000 to 2003 civic public art projects, including this year's Community Public Art Program.

PURPOSE

This report recommends allocations to the 2003 Community Public Art Program and to public art processes undertaken in association with projects and initiatives by the Social Planning, Planning, and Facilities Development departments.

BACKGROUND

The Public Art Program has three components: Civic, Community, and Private Sector. Civic Public Art processes develop artworks for new and existing City and Parks capital projects. The Community Public Art Program develops public art in neighbourhoods by means of artist and community collaborations. Both the Civic and Community Programs are funded through the Capital Plan. The Private Sector Program sets out options and guidelines for developer-sponsored public art, when artwork is required as a condition of development.

RECOMMENDED PROJECT ALLOCATIONS

Community Public Art: $75,000
The Community Public Art Program offers grants to nonprofit groups which sponsor artist-and-community collaborations. Projects typically address neighbourhood issues and aspirations, while fostering neighbourhood pride and identity. This year, as in previous years, project applications will be reviewed and recommended by a panel consisting of staff and community members. Projects recommended by this group will be presented for Council's consideration following the October deadline.

Site of Significance to Aboriginal People: $60,000
The Social Planning Department has initiated various strategies to involve aboriginal people, including Storyscapes, a story-telling project which seeks to identify stories and sites of cultural significance to aboriginal people. Some significant sites are well documented, but

others are almost unknown or known only through oral traditions, which the Storyscapes project seeks, in part, to uncover and record.

Vancouver has several significant artworks by aboriginal artists in public places, but relatively few by local aboriginal artists. At the same time, sites of long-standing significance to local aboriginal people have also come to have meanings and significance for aboriginal people from across Canada. This project will provide funds for a public art process which would follow the general thrust of the Storyscapes project in recognizing local sites of cultural significance through the creation of artworks. The form of the artworks would be determined by aboriginal art practices, by the nature of the sites, and by the stories they tell. Funds permitting, a map of such sites could be created as an artist project.

Kingsway and Knight Neighbourhood Centre: $40,000
The Kensington - Cedar Cottage Neighbourhood Visioning process concluded in 1998. Currently, Planning staff are working with the community to develop a Kingsway and Knight Neighbourhood Centre, a community priority.

The Neighbourhood Centres Program is key to delivering some components of the community vision, including improved shopping and housing choices, and an enhanced public realm. Public realm plans include considerations for public art, and Planning staff have asked Public Art staff to join their community consultation process to commission artworks that will add distinction and identity to the neighbourhood. We anticipate this to be a community driven public art process which may provide "hands on"opportunities for residents to participate in the art-making process. The public art process may also function as a community development process, and contribute to the overall goal of creating more socially cohesive communities.

Number One Kingsway: $25,000
A project architect has just been selected for the new integrated library, community centre, child-care and social housing development at #1 Kingsway, and the design phase is expected to complete late this year. Public art staff have already begun discussions with the design team, and appreciate this rare opportunity to join a major facility design process at the beginning. Early participation offers the potential for artist collaborations with project designers and sustainability consultants, as well as for artists to access to base building budgets. These factors serve the overall project through a more integrated consideration of art and design components.

Accordingly, for this year, we seek sufficient funds to engage the design process, identify and describe the artist opportunities in a public art plan, and select artists and/or artworks for installation in 2004/2005, at which time we will seek Council support for fabrication budgets.
We expect the artworks commissioned through this process to be appropriate to the highly public nature of the facility, and to address matters of sustainability, First nation and colonial history, and community connections to adjacent bikeways and Greenways.

Project Management Funds: $50,000
Civic projects are generally implemented by contract consultants and project managers at the direction of staff. Consistent with the private sector provision, the implementation budget for Civic public art projects cannot exceed 20% of art project budgets, despite the fact the City typically does smaller projects with high community consultation costs. The present request represents 20% of the total budget of $250,000.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDED PROJECTS AND BUDGETS

Funds Available

    

2003 Capital Plan

 

250,000

     
     

Projects Recommended

    

Community Public Art

75,000

  

First Nations Cultural Sites

60,000

  

Kensington/Cedar Cottage

40,000

  

Number One Kingsway

25,000

  

Project Management

50,000

  

Total

  

250,000

CONCLUSION

The Director of Cultural Affairs recommends allocations totalling $250,000 to public artworks as follows: $75,000 to the Community Public Art program; $60,000 to First Nations cultural Sites; $40,000 to artworks at Kensington/Cedar Cottage; and $50,000 to manage the projects above. Source of funds is the 2003 Basic Capital Provision of $250,000 for Public Art.

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ag20030708.htm

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© 2002 City of Vancouver