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Public art's safety record unsure Rome wasn't built in a day, but the vandals pillaged it in 24 hours.

Public art's safety record unsure Rome wasn't built in a day, but the vandals pillaged it in 24 hours. Whistler's public art hasn't fared much better, with unanswered concerns raised about the safety of the latest venture in public art: the "Sightlines" interactive project in Village Park. The park is nearing completion; 18 of 20 sculptures were installed Sunday, June 7. How long will they last before some drunken thug tries to break them is the $30,000 question — the cost of the art series. "We hope people will respect the work," says Jennifer Macklem who, along with Kip Jones, created the fanciful and moveable bronze sculptures. A previous public art sculpture outside the Tyndalstone Lodge — two stone-carved salmon perched on a slim limestone column — was broken by a lout or louts unknown within months of its installation last year. "It's something we may want to look at closely," says Jan Jansen, manager of parks planning, of wiring some kind of security system to protect the Sightlines project from wayward violence. But nothing along those lines is planned at this time, Jansen says. The open area of the Village Park project and the street illumination at the site is hoped to be enough to dissuade any hanky-panky, something that wasn't in the salmon statue's favour at the Tyndalstone Lodge. But even a bank of security cameras may not prevent mindless behaviour. "At the end of the day, if someone wants to damage the sculptures, security cameras won't protect against that," Jansen says.