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Jasper Avenue & the Public Art Curator’s Eye

Jasper Avenue looking east from 112 street - photo courtesy City of Edmonton

When the bulldozers bite into the pavements along Jasper Avenue, Ciara McKeown will have already created a public art plan, and a roadmap for its implementation.

McKeown, a Calgary-based public art curator, is part of a growing trend by municipalities toward artist-centred, responsive, public art planning. Her resume is a gallery of public art projects in Seattle, New York, Toronto, Hamilton, and Calgary. Her work ties in with a movement toward innovative, experiential public art.

“It’s frustrating that public art’s been happening the same way since the 1970s. We need to answer, ‘How do we make more meaningful projects and experiences?’ [A curatorial] perspective is useful because this field is so open to multiple disciplines and mediums that it’s important to acknowledge there is a critical questioning about the public realm and our relationship to art rather than just putting things out there based on policy”.

Ciara McKeown - photo supplied

Within that context, she says, the curator becomes critic and mediator. “You have to constantly think about the relationship between the work, people, and public space to create a holistic plan. It’s an approach I think is useful in developing a critical context around projects, rather than ‘here’s a site, let’s put some public art on it!’”

McKeown’s task is complex, and spans two City projects – Jasper Avenue New Vision (92-109 street) and Imagine Jasper Avenue (109-124 street). Together, the projects will restore the 32-block stretch to its historic role as a “main street centrepiece”. She will work closely with the 12-person project team to determine ways in which artists can be involved throughout the project’s life; what space is needed; and what opportunities can be leveraged. All these considerations must be made through the lens of public art’s evolution.

Map showing scope of Jasper Avenue redevelopment - City of Edmonton

The approach is new for Edmonton, and potentially transformational. For the past decade, Percent for Art projects have primarily been commissioned following finalization of the design phase for municipal projects, or as they begin construction. Generally, the City of Edmonton project teams and the EAC Public Art department meet, determine a public art location on or at the project site, then issue a call. Artists are asked to respond to the site description in their proposals, and, as in the case of the recent Valley Line LRT Calls, propose community engagement strategies. Implementation of a curator in the very early stages of a project allows all aspects of public art to be considered as it unfolds.

Jasper Avenue looking west from 110 street - photo courtesy City of Edmonton

McKeown’s work will provide a critical framework that invites everyone to take a “leap of imagination” with ideas that go beyond benches and lights; support artists, and actively includes the community in ongoing conversations. “The public is a necessary part of the conversation… that sense of ‘you know this place, you know the stories, and you can be part of helping us build that narrative.’  That open dialogue ensures artists coming in know a place from the perspective of that neighbourhood or that site. The methodology ensures that value is placed on the artist, not just the object [the project is] going to get.”

[yegthenandnow]

Jasper Avenue - Then & Now

Thanks to Vintage Edmonton for the photo 

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