By Aaron Mahoney (@Mahones93 on Twitter)

Round Street Gateway Project artwork unanimously approved by City Council

Sep 4, 2018 | 5:14 PM

LETHBRIDGE – The northwest corner of 5th Street and 6th Avenue in downtown Lethbridge will look a little different come the summer of 2019 after City Council unanimously approved the request for the commissioning of the Round Street Gateway Public Art Project.

The artwork chosen, known as “Together” designed by Coryn Kempster and Julia Jamrozik of Brantford, Ontario, is intended to acknowledge the activities of the adjacent Multicultural Centre, which is also the home of the Southern Alberta Ethnic Association.

Together was selected from 29 submissions from local, regional and national artists. $75,000 in funding for the project will come from the Public Art Fund.

Suzanne Lint, the Chair City of Lethbridge Public Art Project Commissioning Committee, says the location was identified in multiple downtown studies as a significant gateway into the heart of the city.

“The artist really intended, and hope, that people will gather there and use the chairs as a place to sit, visit and get to know each other. There’s a social interaction component to the piece that we hope will be successful.”

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Councillor Ryan Parker said that while not everyone around the table always agrees on art, this time most of them liked what they saw.

“What I like about our policy is first and foremost it’s a maximum of one percent of all capital projects that are built in our community we designate to art. Most often that art is in close proximity to the facility being built, but this one has been somewhat delayed,” Parker said.

Even Councillor Joe Mauro, who has in the past been apprehensive to doling out public dollars for art projects, voted in favour of the request.

“I really like that piece, but I really don’t like the location. If it had been a block further in, or somewhere where there’s a little bit more pedestrian traffic, it would make me happy. Because I do like the piece so much I will support it, but I’m reluctantly doing it because I feel like the piece should be somewhere else,” Mauro stated.

The piece is made up of 26 abstractly placed simple seats that reference diversity through the application of the multiple colours deliberately chosen to blur the boundaries between the seats, according to Lint.

“I think the committee is thrilled with this artwork. The intent from the artist is to create a spot for social interaction as the location close to the Multicultural Centre is an area where people gather as a community,” Lint said, adding the colours were deliberately chosen in order to indicate diversity.

The chairs will be made of stainless steel and will be painted with a high-resolution paint.

Public art can sometimes be a contentious issue in the community, but with unanimous approval from council, Lint hopes it’s something locals will enjoy seeing when driving through downtown.

“Everybody has a personal taste and aesthetic around artwork. I think it’s a piece that will engage the community and allow them to have a conversation and its interactive nature will eventually become like ‘A Departure’ and have a warm spot in people’s hearts,” Lint said, referring to the well-known piece just down from the Galt Museum.

The scale of the project will be very human because it’s built for people. It will occupy a 10×10 foot square adjacent to the Multicultural Centre, and the highest chair is about the size of a tall adult.

“We’re always delighted to bring works forward to council, and we’re also always delighted at the support we receive from them in terms of the projects,” Lint continued. “The Gateway Project has been on the books for a long time, and we’re very happy with the support from the entirety of council around this piece.”

Lint says it will probably be sometime next summer before the piece is installed, however.

“The artists will be notified now that council has accepted the committee’s recommendation and we’ll start the process of getting the engineer drawings together working with the artists. It’ll probably be a yearlong endeavour on their part to have the work ready to install.”