Thursday #3
Arts funding is always contentious, mostly because afficionados are seen as non-productive artsy-fartsy lefties who don't work on real jobs and use taxpayers money, supplied by "ordinary canadians" on making junk. Can anyone identify a piece of public art that can be interpreted by everybody, even the fat man on King St has a peculiar attachment in it's title. But how can average Joe relate to the piece described as a "dog turd" designed to commemorate victims of abuse. All in all money devoted to an art fund is a hard sell but who will begrudge a 1% levy on all projects? Obviously the Council of this day. Led by "do I or don't I wanna be Mayor" Brocanier they have been successful in capping contributions to the fund at 1% or $50,000 whichever is smaller. With the comment "I don't think the taxpayer who fundraised for the Community Centre would be happy knowing that $247,000 of it went to public art" Well Gil get your math right Joe Public will only be contributing, in his fundraising, $26,000 the rest will be coming from the other contributors. And as a commenter asked "Is the money from a project only going to that project or does it go into the fund?"Anyway one doesn't get much bang for the buck when buying public art. The stone with a plaque on it that sits in the Duke of York Square (anybody knowing where this is move to the front of the class) cost in 1989 dollars over 50K. The seven stones in front of the County Building cost over $26K and more examples of pricey items can be cited. I don't know what the answer is but to establish a lofty ideal and then underfund it is shortsighted.
16 comments:
I think that a bit of art or decoration in the proposed community centre would be a good idea. At the moment it is billed as a utilitarian multi-use centre. Why should it all be concrete block walls and moveable partitions.
In Toronto the subway stations have art which enlivens an otherwise dreary experience.
The is art and there is real art. Cobourg suffers from an absence of real art. What until you see what will be chosen for the tree trunk in Victoria Park.
When we pare to the barest of essentials, we get square buildings with the cheapest of building materials. We've been conned for some time into thinking we can't afford anything else. How could we even contemplate a frill like art ? Come to think of it, minimalist art might be fitting providing the price is minimal, of course.
While the issue of art in public spaces is an important one, we should also remember that the Community Centre is likely to be the major public building of at least the first half of this century. Let us please have some attention paid to the architecture and not end up with some dreary windowless 'functional' building.
Can't wait to see it - aesthetically pleasing windows in a double ice surface arena; should be rather novel.
Let's remember that this CCC could easily turn out to be a fancy, well-appointed sports facility that has some capability to deal with non-sports events from time to time, in between the priority-scheduled use of the ice surfaces of course.
BTW Greg, it's far beyond "proposed" now that the funding plan is in place and the project co-ordinator is all but, if not already chosen. Now it's just a matter of picking the drapes (puck catcher nets)and pictures to hang on the walls, starting with hockey hall of famers of course.
During a pause in the war with Sparta, Pericles of Athens delivered a funeral oration for the Athenian dead on the Acropolis at the Parthenon, which had been built during the war. The high point of his address to the people of Athens was this ringing statement: We are the school of Hellas.
Now the people of Cobourg have decided to build a Community Centre that Gail R. suggests will be "the major public building of at least the first half of this century." How Cobourg addresses the issues of art and architecture in their new building will answer the question of whether the people of Cobourg have something to teach the rest of us in Northumberland County.
Utilitarian, extravagance-free, and mediocrity-lite. That's what they have to teach.
Lets put the bulk of the money into a functional building. When dad is watching Billy flying down the ice on a breakaway he not going to be thinking "God! what a crappy looking building"
I suggest the Liquidation Centre at King and Division as a model for a "functional" building. It even has windows.
AAH YES! The Liquidation Centre. Another fine example of our heritage police keeping our fine town looking good (old?)
What lame suggestions you guys display. Is there no trace of imagination in this mediocre town with its mediocre citizens and mediocre commentators that show up here displaying their bloated bland glands. Wm Hayes excepted
Hmmm, mediocre town, mediocre citizens, Wally do you live in this mediocre town, does that make you.......oh no........mediocre.
Hmmm, mediocre town, mediocre citizens, Wally do you live in this mediocre town, does that make you.......oh no........mediocre.
Check voting registration -- I'm not here. I'm exempt from the mediocrity mafia that runs this bland gland of a community.
We can't really blame any current politician or planner for the building that houses Liquidation World, that monstrosity was built about 1960 for Woolworth's.
As a small child I remember standing on the glorious front steps of the old Post Office that used to stand there for most of a century. There were several steps to climb, and inside you were greeted with a gleaming wall of brass letter boxes that positively shined. Very impressive.
However I was equally enthralled with Woolworth's, with its long display tables of cheap lipsticks and nail polish, pure gold to an eleven year old teenager wannabe.
Had to hide it all from Mom though, she didn't approve.
Bought my first transistor radio there for a massive ten dollars. God I loved that thing.
Excuse me, us older folks tend to ramble. In any case I like the idea of large murals for the community centre, done by art students, that would be truly community focused.
Just imagine the building that would have replaced Victoria Hall had the cognoscenti of the day had their druthers.
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