Council backs funding for virtual museum, art for Nuit Blanche

City council voted to fund Edmonton’s fledgling virtual or living museum project Tuesday — at least until the end of 2017.

It also committed $150,000 toward planning a second Nuit Blanche contemporary art festival for 2018.

“With over 50,000 people attending that event, there was a public benefit,” said Coun. Andrew Knack, who voted against funding the one-night festival during last fall’s budget debate, but said the city’s $64-million surplus gave him confidence to commit now.

Council passed the spring supplemental budget adjustment Tuesday, which also set the property tax increase at 2.7 per cent. That includes the provincial education property tax.

Nuit Blanche originally asked for $335,000 to run a second edition of the art festival this year, but had to cancel its plans when council didn’t commit.

The living museum, called Edmonton City as a Museum Project, was a pilot by the Edmonton Heritage Council. It ran a blog, podcast, history tours and supported other events and museum-type instalments across the city.

The council asked for $250,000 each for two years, but was turned down during the fall budget discussions. The $100,000 allows it to continue this year, seeking additional support from corporate partners and Canada 150 grants. It would come back for debate on future funding this fall.

They played a role planning and finding grants to fund the Vimy Ridge remembrance in downtown Edmonton last Sunday, and are working on a project called Edmonton Living Rooms for this fall. An installation travelling to various recreation centres and libraries will recreate the living rooms of new immigrants. It speaks to how they put back together the pieces of community and culture in a new society.

Council also passed a $100,000 plan to evaluate the state of the city’s public art, a technical study on the impact of the city’s minimum parking requirements, and planning dollars for an open streets festival in 2018.

Most of the new projects were funded out of a council contingency fund. None of them affects this year’s tax levy, which is now set at a 2.7-per-cent increase for residential properties. Non-residential properties are facing a 2.9-per-cent increase, when the province’s education tax is added.

Council also gave conditional approval Tuesday to sell a piece of river valley parkland for an 80-storey tower in The Quarters.

The motion passed 9-3. The project still needs rezoning approval April 24 to go ahead.

Alldritt Group pitched an 80-storey mixed use residential tower for the side south of Jasper Avenue, west of 96 Street.

Some neighbours are opposed, saying it’s too tall for the top of the bank, shouldn’t require river valley land and doesn’t follow the area redevelopment plan.