ART ON THE RAILS
Fourteen public art projects that will decorate the Valley Line LRT from downtown to Mill Woods were unveiled Monday at City Hall. The cost of the commissioned pieces ranges from $56,000 to $295,000 each.
Images of sunrises and sunsets, where water meets the sky and the sky meets the undulating Edmonton landscape, are being captured in a 47-metre tapestry of artwork that will adorn the Davies Ramp on the Valley Line LRT.
“I was inspired by the Edmonton river valley and the sky and the land,” Erin Pankratz, a city artist and creator of the mosaic motif, said Monday. “I love colour gradations, and so I’m inspired to layer the colours and intersect different aspects.”
Pankratz was at City Hall where the Edmonton Arts Council and the City of Edmonton announced 14 public artworks selected for the Valley Line LRT from downtown to Mill Woods. The art was commissioned through Edmonton’s Percent for Art policy.
The budget for the project is one per cent of eligible construction costs, which comes to $1.7 million, said Sanjay Shahani, executive director of the arts council.
The cost of the pieces range from $56,000 to $295,000 each.
Four Edmonton artists, three Alberta artists, two Indigenous artist teams, and one international artist will have their work displayed along the LRT line, chosen from 260 proposals.
Paul Freeman’s whimsical installation involves three life-size deer sliding down the roof of the transit centre. “I wanted it to be fun,” Freeman said. “I think of Mill Creek and the Valley as a place where I did a lot of sledding and tobogganing as a kid, and had one or two encounters with deer.”
From an encounter frozen into art, or a likeness of rolling clouds that paint a picture of the city’s landscape, or Oksana Movchan’s peonies that show beauty can be found everywhere, art is important because it helps define a city’s personality, said Coun. Aaron Paquette, who created a mural on display in Grandin LRT station from before his political career.
When there’s just infrastructure and no humanity as part of it, as a city it’s harder to be in.
“Art is humanity,” Pankratz said. “When there’s just infrastructure and no humanity as part of it, as a city it’s harder to be in. I think it’s important to have humanity through the arts built into the city.”
Paquette said he also supports having national and international artists because he sees it as a way to exchange ideas and keep the conversation going. Pankratz summed it up. “It’s cultural exchange,” she said. “I want to be one of those artists who goes out and does work in other cities. It helps broaden our world view.”