By Aaron Mahoney (@Mahones93 on Twitter)

Lethbridge Sports Hall of Fame project gets green light at the ATB Centre

Mar 4, 2019 | 3:29 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – After years of planning, the great sporting legends from Lethbridge will finally have a home thanks to a new public art project being built at the ATB Centre.

Lethbridge City Council unanimously passed a resolution on Monday, Mar. 4, to approve the commissioning of an integrated public art project which will see the Lethbridge Sports Hall of Fame permanently installed at ATB Centre.

Back in April of 2014, council was first made aware that the Lethbridge Sports Hall of Fame wanted to be a part of the ATB Centre.

The project was designed by Collin Zipp, originally from Winnipeg but a grad of the University of Lethbridge’s Fine Arts program and will showcase the inductees on a grand scale.

The two-stage selection process was open to all Canadian artists and involved a selection committee with representatives from several community groups.

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Chair of the Public Art Project Commissioning Committee, Suzanne Lint, says the design process will be led by an artist who has met several requirements.

“The artwork had to embrace the project intent and theme while being innovative, safe, durable and completed on time and within budget with minimal ongoing maintenance requirements. I think that Colin’s package and proposal was very complete. All of the requirements were met in an extremely professional manner,” Lint said, adding that he also had a very good handle on what the vision was and how best to execute it in a way that would be maintainable.

Mayor Chris Spearman says while the project intent was to create a permanent home for the Lethbridge Sports Hall of Fame, it was also about engaging the community and attracting a diverse audience.

“We want this public art project to not only tell the story of sport in Lethbridge but also to be something that creates pride in our community,” Spearman continued. “We encourage visitors and residents alike to visit ATB Centre and learn more about our sporting history.”

This project will be a little different than other art projects in town, in the sense that it’s an integrated project. Lint says what they have is an artist-led design process to develop a space for the Sports Hall of Fame to share information.

“The artist will be responsible for designing, building and installing the displays, as well as working to develop a format and template for the digital information that the Hall of Fame want to share. It’s a very robust platform because the organization is going to be able to update and include all of their information in one place that the community can find. It isn’t a sculpture, it’s a design-led process to build a great space.”

Rob Kossuth, Chair of the Permanent Site committee, explains that the current set up for the Hall of Fame has outgrown the original idea.

“The Lethbridge Sports Hall of Fame was inaugurated in 1985 as a centennial project, and the idea was to have a display that could move around the city. That was good for a while, but we now have a display that is coming up on seven canisters which would have to be moved by a small truck or a number of different people. It was just becoming too difficult to continue that mandate, and so we realized we had to find a permanent site,” Kossuth said.

Every year, the Lethbridge Sports Hall of Fame inducts teams, athletes and builders, so Kossuth says the decision to build the permanent HOF at the ATB Centre is based on the idea that they’re doing the work anyway.

“We create material around those individuals, so here we can do the same thing, and then add to it a bit more to highlight the rich sporting heritage of the city.”

Once the construction on Phase 2 of the ATB Centre is complete, it’s expected to be a highly used facility in Lethbridge.

Kossuth believes that it’s going to be a night and day difference when it comes to visibility for the history of sport in this city.

“The visibility is going to be incredible, if you’re walking from the curling rink towards the field house or the aquatic centre, you’re going to pass by us,” he continued. “I think that puts a bit of pressure on us to do a good job, but I think we’ve got the right model here working with the artist to get the right setup because we want people to see us and know the history of sports in the city.”

The $110,000 public art project will be located in the transitional hallways between Phases 1 and 2 of ATB Centre, on both levels of the facility.

Information about inductees and sporting history in Lethbridge will be shared through displays of memorabilia and artifacts as well as video displays. 

The City of Lethbridge expects the project to be completed in the spring of 2020.