Saskatoon’s public art policy is here to stay, regardless of what some upset citizens have to say. Following weeks of public discourse over how - and on what - the city funds public art displays, a city committee ultimately voted to maintain the current portion of public art funding tied to capital projects, instead opting to review and alter other aspects of the policy. “We kind of heard about the six different ways we can fund art,” Councillor Jasmin Parker said during Wednesday’s governance and priorities committee. “If we remove this, that would be five different ways we can fund art.” The city’s public art policy devotes up to one per cent of the budget of certain capital projects to public art, contingent on the city spending at least $5 million on the project. Art projects are capped at $500,000. The policy has been under scrutiny since it was revealed last month. $297,400 of the $37.5 million budget to build Material Recovery Centre at the landfill was spent on a public art installation consisting of three large boulders built out of recycled plastic, meant so spotlight the theme of the new recycling centre. Whether positive or negative, the three boulders - found at the landfill, the Foresty Farm Park and Zoo, and Diefenbaker Park - have been receiving plenty of attention. “We had a wedding out at the Forestry Farm, and I saw all these people getting these wedding pictures taken around the Modern Erratics rock, because they thought it was really cool,” Ward 8 Councillor Scott Ford said Wednesday following hours of debate. City councillors also heard from Tristan Surtees, an artist with Calgary-based duo Sans Facon, who were chosen to install the landfill art. Surtees said 95 per cent of the material used to make the 4,500 kilograms of sculptures were delivered from Saskatchewan. He said it took roughly 5,500 hours of work over 14 months to create the art. Five other artists pitched in, including some based in Saskatoon, and a number of other companies or trades were tasked with taking the recycled plastic and turning it into large sheets to be cut and configured into the rocks. Surtees says he and his team did extensive work collaborating and learning from local First Nations, staff at the University of Saskatchewan’s geology department and recycling companies. Surtees also visited the Ancient Echoes Interperative Centre in Herschel to study erratics - rocks moved by glacial ice, and seen in various places across the prairies. “As a city, when you purchase a public art project and you care for it, it’s absolutely an asset,” Surtees said. Much of Surtees’ efforts weren’t shared publicly, councillors say, as the rollout of the art was lost while the price tag dominated discussions. “I think if we’d had appropriate communication, we would not be here today,” Ward 9 Councillor Bev Dubois added. Administration was criticized for its handling of how the project was communicated to the public throughout much of the meeting. “There’s a lot of feedback about how that was communicated and what we did around that,” the city’s director of planning and development, Leslie Anderson, said. “That’s something we will definitely reflect on and consider going forward.” All 11 speakers at City Hall on Wednesday spoke in favour of maintaining the policy’s funding. “Don’t let one controversial project define a policy that has helped shape Saskatoon’s public spaces for more than a decade,” Em Ironstar, the executive director of the Saskatchewan Arts Alliance said. “The space we build today will become how our future generations understand the city,” Saskatoon-based artist Kelsey Ford added. Anderson says since the policy was introduced in 2015, Modern Erratics is the only art project to use the one per cent dedicated to capital project funding. Randy Donauer, the councillor who raised the motion of eliminating the fund, said there are five other funds the city has for public art. Dozens of public art pieces around the city were paid for by one of those funds, and he says that would continue if the policy were altered. “It’s a shame that most speakers today thought we were canceling the whole program and all funding,” Donauer said. Ultimately councillors tasked administration with reviewing a number of components of the policy, and to improve communication for future art installations.
