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Who will create our Olympic artistic legacy?

Candidates for $200,000 project cut from 39 submissions to just four, including well-known Coast Salish artist Susan Point
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Artists from as far away as the Philippines and the UK responded to Whistler's call for submissions for a Games Legacy Art Project, which was issued in mid-June. In total, 39 submissions were received, featuring a wide range of concepts and mediums.

"We defined potential sites around the Great Lawn and beyond that, we didn't tell them what the theme needed to be and we didn't tell them what the medium needed to be," said Kevin McFarland, Parks Planner for the Resort Municipality of Whistler. "So we basically gave artists a lot of free rein, because we want the best art that we can get."

Those 39 submissions have been narrowed down to four artists and artistic teams that have been short-listed and asked to complete a second stage of competition.  The final four are: Aoife Cleary + Kevin Cleary and Associates; Paul Harder and Nathan Scott; Susan Point; and Bruce Voyce.

Aoife Cleary is a Whistler-based architect/artist who has developed Come Together As One, a project centred around an interactive, lighting-oriented concept. Originally from Ireland, Cleary would use her family's lighting engineering design firm in Ireland to make her artistic vision a reality.

Paul Harder and Nathan Scott's proposal features figurative sculptures and interpretive information in a bronze composition called Keeping The Inspiration Alive.

Coast Salish contemporary artist Susan Point has proposed another bronze piece, called Circles In Time, featuring a composition of carved faces cast in bronze.

Finally, Bruce Voyce has developed plans for Powder Pavilion, a pergola structure that includes light and sound features.

McFarland wasn't able to provide sketches or plans of the proposed projects, as the unsuccessful candidates may want to submit their concepts to another competition, and as such, would want to keep their plans confidential.

These artists have invested a significant amount of time and energy into getting their proposals to this point. A total of $10,000 from the overall $200,000 budget was set aside to help artists develop more detailed proposals, which include a "maquette" or scale model of their design. All four teams were brought to the plaza to get a sense of how their projects would fit with the overall site and to give them a chance to adjust the placement of their piece on one of four potential locations.

"In that site, we're going to have various artifacts of the Games; the Agitos and the rings are there, our cauldron comes back, and this thing is going to be basically a very different take on the Games experience," McFarland explained.

"It is more about the expression: what is the feeling that the artist had based on that experience? Some are more literal. For example, Paul and Nathan's actually has interpretive information about the Games experience, while Susan's is more her enthusiasm and her own experience of the Games, and its more about the world coming together... so its very expressionistic."

But sifting through the 39 applications and selecting four wasn't an easy task.

"We had some really terrific full, complete, professionally-prepared proposals," McFarland said.

The selection was done by a jury of 10 that included eight members of the Public Art Committee, Jan Jansen, the GM of Resort Experience for the municipality, and a professional artist and instructor from Emily Carr University, Jill Anholt.

"As a staff person, I want the jury to have a lot to bite into, but just in terms of trying to get through it all and have time for a meaningful debate at the end, the first cut is fairly brutal," McFarland said.

"We want the best art, and we want the jury to feel that there's a lot to choose from, and that's the end result we had."

"There's a two-envelope method, so the first envelope is all on the concept, and if that concept actually captures someone's imagination, they can open the second envelope," McFarland said.

That second envelope reveals the artist's identity. McFarland explained that the two-envelope concept aims to level the playing field and ensure that projects are awarded based on merit alone, not the artist's profile.

While the four short-listed candidates all have a strong connection to the 2010 Olympic Games, McFarland suspects that the $200,000 price tag attached to the project may have been added incentive.

"All of our artwork is a legacy for the town, this is just in a much higher value and it's probably generated a lot more interest in artists around the world."

The overall budget of $200,000 is almost 10 times the budget of Whistler's typical public art projects, which range from $20,000 to $30,000.

"This as a standalone piece is far greater than anything we've been able to do so far," McFarland said, adding that a bigger budget may translate into more expensive materials or the construction of substantial structures.

The money for the project came from the RMOW's Games budget, not the Village Enhancement fund.

"They found from past Games, say like Salt Lake City, Park City, a regret that was expressed by that organizing committee was that they had no legacy piece," McFarland explained.

The jury will reconvene and make their final decision by the end of November, and the piece will be installed at the plaza in June.

While this public art project has been the focal point for the committee and McFarland, there are still a few other projects that are in the works. The Public Art Committee stepped in and took over the Whistler Arts Council's collaborative art project, Connections, after a grant through the Arts Partners for Creative Development fell through.

"(The committee) has a lot of enthusiasm for that project," he added.

"...I'd say that's their priority item. The challenge is, the value of the project is much greater than we normally have, so they have to advise that that is the one that they definitely want to do. If that's the case, then we're looking to fund it out of the art component of Village Enhancement, which means we have to do it over two years."

They're also contemplating a redesign and renovation of Mountain Square for next year.