The Bronson Avenue reconstruction project means a new addition to the collection of several well-known scultpures around Centretown.
Public art – there’s a lot of it in Centretown: the giant teapot at Minto Place, a bear eating a fish on Sparks Street, and abstract figures outside the condo at Metcalfe and McLeod streets.
The city recently held a public art competition for artists to design works for Somerset Street, as a part of a restoration project.
The imminent Bronson reconstruction will also feature public art.
Because of the city’s Percent for Art Policy, one per cent of the funding allotted to the Bronson Avenue project will go toward public art.
The proposal still must go to council and be approved before work can begin, but organizers hope to start sometime next year, says Adrian Göllner, who is in charge of running the competition to select artists.
This raises the question as to how Ottawa should handle public art.
Göllner says they are looking for ways for the fast-paced Bronson Street to be more friendly and distinct.
“Bronson is a huge challenge,” he says. “Is it designed for drivers? Is it designed for pedestrians? Or can art help make it a more friendly place? Because right now it’s loud and it’s fast and it’s kind of isolating for pedestrians in the neighbourhood.
“(Ottawa) has a great public art program, and it certainly helps the art community,” Göllner says. “Sometimes you have large budgets, which helps artists to stay as artists and to learn the aspects of being . . . a business.”
Compared with other cities, Göllner says Ottawa is doing well in terms of public art, but could be doing more. For example, he says Toronto recommends developers to spend one per cent of their budget on public art.
“I think that’s quite a progressive thing, and it’s certainly helped the people in Toronto become sensitized to art,” Göllner says.
“And developers realize that . . . how to make their condo more hip, more contemporary than the next (is through art).”
“Certainly in the future there’s going to be a great deal of public art going in, especially with (light rail) in Ottawa,” Göllner says. “So we’re looking forward to a whole lot more opportunities.”
Ian Birse and Laura Kavanaugh were finalists in the recent Somerset Street West public art competition.
They work together and are interested in new art technologies. They say Ottawa is falling behind in this area.
“We’re in a time where there are multiple new dimensions coming into artistic practices,” Kavanaugh says. “Quite often when we’ve done a public art piece, one of the most common things I’ve (heard) is, ‘Why don’t I know about this?’ So to give the public some insight into some of the new practices going on . . . is pretty important.”
She gives the example of light projections onto buildings, LED lampposts and art that doesn’t necessarily have to be permanent.
Birse says Ottawa must take more risks when it comes to public art.
The bureaucratic process of selecting art is one problem, he says, which tends to “dampen down innovation, creativity and risk-taking.”
“It just has this sort of averaging effect . . . of just trying to please everybody,” Birse says.
“And you can’t do that. You can’t make art trying to please everybody.”
Toronto-based artist Christopher Keene created the deer and hunter sculpture that sits outside the Manulife building on Metcalfe Street.
“It’s outside, they can walk around it, and they can touch it. I just like the idea that, you know, kids can climb on it, they can touch it, and you’re not worried about anything being damaged,” Keene says.
But this type of bronze-cast sculpture is something Birse and Kavanaugh want the city to move away from in the future.
The idea of time-based art is something they say the city should consider when selecting public art projects.
“That opens up a lot of scope. Like, we can do public art as projection on a building and it lasts for a day or a week. People don’t have to say, ‘Oh I have to live with this for the rest of my life.’ It just happens for that time,” Birse says.
“That opens up a lot of space for innovation, creativity, risk-taking and working with of-the-moment technological tools.”