Nothing gained by bashing public art

Dear Editor: Re: “Valley’s most perplexing pieces of public art,” (Okanagan Weekend, May 4).

As the president of the Penticton and District Community Arts Council, I felt that I needed to respond to this recent disparaging article about public art in the Okanagan.

While public art will never be to everyone’s taste or understanding, I believe that it does promote and create a better sense of harmony and well-being in our valley. These artistic forms, juxtaposed against the natural beauty of our region can be quite striking and remarkable to behold — if one takes the time to reflect and appreciate them, rather than dismissing them out of hand. Public art may also take more than one viewing to fully appreciate.

The anonymous writer was clearly perplexed by most of the art pieces — but they did not seem to even attempt to gain any perspective or counterpoint for the article by reaching out to the local art galleries, or the artists themselves for comment or insight.

Including this biased critique of public art under the pretense of a “Top 10 List” was extremely poor journalism, in my opinion. If the article was meant to be a true art critique, then please just label it as such – and have a qualified art critic write a more meaningful, insightful and balanced piece.

Timothy Tweed

Penticton