OLDS — Town council has voted to buy the remaining so-called Bergen Rocks sculptures located along the Highway 27 median that the municipality doesn't already own for an estimated cost of $94,500.
Three of the 10 sculptures had previously been purchased by the Town of Olds.
However that decision, made during council’s May 9 meeting, didn’t come easily.
In fact, discussion and debate over the matter lasted about 40 minutes, and when it came down to a vote, the motion to buy the remaining sculptures passed by a 4-3 vote with councillors Dan Daley, James Cummings and Darren Wilson voting against it.
Daley, Cummings and Wilson said although they appreciate the importance of art, residents have said they’d like to see local art displayed, not art created by out-of-town artists, as these sculptures are.
Councillors Wanda Blatz, Harvey Walsh and Heather Ryan said while they understood that point of view, they believe there’s room for both local and non-local art in the community and that they like the diversity that that variety provides.
Doug Wagstaff, the town’s community services director, introduced the idea.
Wagstaff noted the sculptures were placed in their current location a few years ago, as the Town of Olds looked for a way to draw people to the community.
He said during a public engagement, residents indicated they’d like to draw people here, but did not want to do so by creating the world’s biggest – whatever – like many other small communities have done.
The sculptures, created by several international artists during symposiums years ago in Mountain View County, were seen as a unique solution.
Wagstaff said late last year, Town of Olds officials began discussing a renewal of the sculpture placement agreement with Bergen Rocks curator Morton Burke. However, when it came time to finalize the deal, it fell through.
So the Town of Olds was faced with the choice of buying the seven sculptures it didn't own or paying the $5,000 total cost to move the sculptures back to Burke.
Town staff also suggested undertaking discussion with the municipality's Public Art Advisory Committee and the community in general to determine the next steps.
Acting chief administrative officer and director of finance Sheena Linderman confirmed there is plenty of money in a couple of reserves to cover the cost of buying the sculptures.
Blatz and Ryan argued in favour of the sculptures, saying they heard many positive comments from people attending the KIOTI Tractor Champions Cup curling event, held in Olds May 3-8, including from representatives of the Danish and Swedish teams.
In fact, Ryan said members of the Swedish team had their photo taken in front of one of them.
“I would support the purchase of them with the intent that we could eventually move them throughout the community and engage our local artists perhaps to construct or build sculptures we could put on our sculpture path,” Blatz said.
Blatz added that she’d like to see schools teach students about the sculptures and would also encourage people to visit the Bergen Sculpture Park near Sundre to see other works of art.
She noted council earlier passed a motion saying Olds is a welcoming and inclusive community.
On the other side of the argument, Daley said “$94,500 is a lot of money.”
He said local residents had told him that the sculptures are “not the greatest thing on earth. And they also wonder why we don’t highlight or showcase local artists.”
Daley also expressed concern that he didn’t see any long-term plan for the rocks. Wagstaff said the long-term plan is for a mixture of art created by local and non-local artists. It was noted that the Arts Commons, set up in the Cornerstone area, contains some art by local residents.
Daley suggested the Town of Olds could sell the seven sculptures and replace them with works by local artists or move them somewhere else in town.
Wilson echoed those thoughts.
“I certainly support art and culture as part of a vibrant community, but to me, given that this is a discretionary item for as we said, just under $95,000, at this point, I can't support the procurement of the remaining seven sculptures,” he said.
Wilson said if the sculptures were moved out, the pads they sat on could be filled with local planters “until we can figure out what we’re doing going forward.”
Wilson wondered whether a concrete pad needs to be poured for each sculpture if they were moved elsewhere.
Wagstaff said that’s not really necessary. He said the pads on the Highway 27 median were poured to showcase various types of art, so lighting was set up as well.
He said “there are other options” for installing artwork without concrete pads but that would still require some engineering.
“I’m the first person who likes to make sure we don’t spend money frivolously but in this case, I do believe that the art is of value when you take a look at how little amount of money per sculpture that would be,” Ryan said.
She said she’s seen sculptures as small as six inches high that have been on the market for $35,000 each.
Ryan said she too would like to see local art showcased and said the Bergen Rocks sculptures could be kept, but perhaps relocated in local parks or places like Uptowne.
“There was talk about moving the cross to the cemetery at one point," she noted.
Walsh agreed with Ryan’s assessment that the cost to purchase the seven pieces is “not a huge cost per item as far as art goes.”
“I get that local artists want to see local art and individuals want to see local art. I support local art,” he said.
“I think art should expose people to all types of ideas and to say that nobody wants to look at anything except local is probably wrong. And I really like the diversity of those pieces of art and would like to see them retained.”
Mayor Judy Dahl echoed those thoughts.
"I truly believe that the current art that we have is art. And I have personally not heard any negative comments since they’d ever been installed,” she said, adding she has “faith and trust in our local artists.”
Dahl asked Cummings, a member of the Public Art Advisory Committee, for his comments.
Cummings agreed to give an opinion, but said it was his own, as the topic hasn’t come up at the advisory committee's meetings.
In addition, he stressed that although he’s a member of the Public Art Advisory Committee, he has no artistic ability or knowledge himself.
“I have no problems spending this kind of money on art. I know that the purchase of local art is going to be as expensive, if not more expensive, than this. So the money issue’s not a problem with me at all,” Cummings said.
“But what I have heard most often from our citizenry is the lack of localness – is that a word – in the artwork that is being presented here.
"There’s no denying that the art is intriguing and interesting and people want to talk about it. However, purchasing it and relocating it to some other place still has that issue, that it’s not local art,” he added.
“It's not local art and it’s never going to be local art, whether it’s there on Highway 27 or if it’s in Centennial Park or if it’s in any other park or playground.”
Wagstaff noted the municipality's website has good descriptions of the sculptures and their history.
