CANMORE - The streets of Canmore are about to become a little more interesting. Last week, the Canmore Public Art Committee selected Tony Bloom's sculpture Orogens: The Canmore Formation as the town's 10th public art piece.
CANMORE - The streets of Canmore are about to become a little more interesting.
Last week, the Canmore Public Art Committee selected Tony Bloom's sculpture Orogens: The Canmore Formation as the town's 10th public art piece.
Standing 12 feet tall, the metallic sculpture will be installed on the east side of Fairholme Drive at the Spur Line Trail next summer.
"I'm excited and gratified to have this opportunity," said Bloom, who has lived in Canmore for the past 48 years.
"I know it will be a positive contribution. I like what other people have done and I'm sure any of the other finalists would have done a fabulous job, so I'll rise to that occasion and make sure the piece that I'm doing is equally engaging, appropriate and fits Canmore."
The piece is about Canmore and the geology that cradles it. It includes five parallel undulating steel vertical slabs, with various sizes of stainless steel spheres trapped among them. A cast bronze fossil wall will also be part of the piece, which will be 24 feet in diametre.
"Orogeny is the word for mountain building," said Bloom, explaining he drew inspiration for his sculpture from the vertical strata, or layers of rock, that can be seen in the mountains from Canmore Creek.
The stainless steel spheres found in his piece are designed to represent other fragments of rock and material that are often trapped between those layers of strata.
While that's one way to look at the sculpture, he said that's not the only thing he had in mind when he designed it.
In 2013, Cougar Creek turned into a torrent of raging water, destroying homes and moving enormous boulders with ease. After watching Mother Nature run its course, Bloom said he wanted his sculpture to try and capture that incredible display of force, which is part of the reason he included the steel spheres in his sculpture.
To win the two-stage competition, his sculpture bested 42 other submissions from across the country.
During the first stage, a jury made up of two members of the community, two artists and an engineer reviewed submissions and created a shortlist of five artists or artist teams.
While reviewing the proposals, the jury had to consider an artist's qualifications and body of work, the quality of the piece, how it would fit in with the town's public art collection and how much community inclusion was involved in creating the piece.
In the leadup to the jury's decision, each artist was asked to spend four days in Canmore to get a sense of the community, meet people and visit the town's galleries, museums and other civic facilities. Each shortlisted artist was also asked to host a public presentation so the community could learn more about the artist and ask questions.
Once the list was whittled down to four (one group dropped out), the jury reviewed maquettes, a small scale model of the sculpture, and judged them based on artistic vision, community relevance, community engagement, structural safety and the integrity and financial feasibility of creating the sculpture.
In the end, the jury recommended Bloom's piece, which was ultimately approved by the town's public art committee. It will cost the town $150,000 to design, build and install the piece.
To pay for the sculpture, the town will draw on its art trust fund, which was established in 2010 and sets aside $3 per permanent and non-permanent resident every year during tax season.
"We had four really strong finalists and there was something that caught my eye about all of them, but I think Tony's piece is beautiful. It speaks to the geological history of Canmore, it will resonate with the community and I'm excited and thrilled for him," said Chris Bartolomie, supervisor of arts and events for the town.
