Visionaries carving city’s story
In the 2½ decades that I have been writing about Saskatoon’s south downtown, I’ve heard a lot about game changers.
However, I can’t think of one that comes close to the announcement this week that the Remai Art Gallery of Saskatchewan will be home to the world’s largest collection of Picasso linocuts. The thought of what having such a collection means to Saskatoon at this particular point in its development had the same impact on me as it did on Ellen Remai, the philanthropist who donated them. It made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.
That’s not only because of the significance of the donation — Ontario-born, Saskatchewan-raised and London-based art collector Frederick Mulder described it as “a real game changer for the Remai to have a collection of this importance and this uniqueness” — but also because what it says about Saskatoon.
Remai has long expressed an interest in making the south downtown develop- ment special. She stepped forward last decade to create on the space a hotel-spa development, but backed out when things didn’t fall into place. Hers seemed like just another one of the myriad proposals that refused to take root on what seemed like an ideal location but poisoned soil for development.
However, despite having to set aside the original idea, Remai clearly never gave up on the dream of bringing something special to this location. She was an instrumental figure in getting the Persephone Theatre to relocate there, and put $30 million on the table to lever civic, provincial and federal funds for a modern art gallery.
The project almost immediately came under fire. To her credit and Saskatoon’s good fortune, Remai held her head high and demonstrated that, in character and vision, she was bigger than her critics.
But that isn’t the whole story. The manner in which Mulder assembled the collection could also serve as the plot of a Hollywood movie.
He left Saskatchewan for Europe to enter the classbased world of art collecting in London. Almost half a century later, he has returned with a treasure that one would normally expect to see in one of the world’s few established cultural capitals. “If I could have named one city in the world I would prefer the collection to go it was right here in Saskatoon,” he said Tuesday.
Even that’s not the whole story. The land across Second Avenue from the art gallery where Remai first dreamed of placing a landmark development is now under the control of Victory Majors Investments Corp., owned by another renowned Saskatoon philanthropist, Karim Nasser.
As his son John put it, Nasser’s goal is to bring to the property, “Saskatchewan’s most respected and recognized urban development to date.”
And if this were the whole story — how Saskatoon so profoundly transformed a number of its citizens that they, in turn, are committed to transforming the city — it would be compelling enough. But it must be taken in context of the other changes that are happening in Saskatoon.
The scope of those changes was presented by urban guru Ken Greenberg and Saskatoon planning manager Alan Wallace last week as they addressed a mostly under-35 audience at the Broadway Theatre.
Saskatoon is growing rapidly, and has little time to define what kind of city it will be for the next generation. Greenberg and Wallace painted a picture of a denser city that is concerned more about culture, sustainability, recreation and livability than it is in unbridled economic development, urban sprawl and building more roads.
Greenberg’s suggestion that a paradigm shift is taking place in urban development, driven by a new generation committed to doing things differently, was substantiated by the nature of that packed Broadway audience and its concern over such issues as alternative transportation models.
But the challenge for Saskatoon is significant. In spite of what is happening along River Landing and with the apparent re-engagement of young people in local politics, the city continues its urban sprawl in all directions.
And the growth is just as frightening outside Saskatoon’s boundaries, where local governments see any movement to increase density within Saskatoon as an opportunity for them to increase their growth.
But if Saskatoon has the strength and vision of its Remais, Nassers and Wallaces, and the will of the generation that turned up at Broadway Theatre, its story will be one worth noting.