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Making room for arts and culture

Lot 1/9 plans incorporate potential space for artists

It’s hard to imagine when you walk past the pit that is Lot 1/9 right now, but in a few years that same barren area may be home to Whistler’s vibrant arts and cultural community.

According to an information report issued back in March updating council on the Whistler Village Celebration Plaza — what Lot 1/9 will be called after the Games — the site will be “the epicenter for Whistler’s arts, culture and heritage precinct.”

Martin Pardoe is the manager of parks planning for the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW).

He explained that they heard a demand for incorporating the arts into the space through the community’s masterplan consultation process.

Plans include an Institutional Building Program, which could provide an area to house the Whistler Arts Council (WAC), the museum and other local arts, culture and heritage groups after the Olympics. Council will need to approve the initiative.

“That’s a decision for Council, and I think it depends upon opportunities that perhaps present themselves as part of the Games or the Neighbourhood of Nations program,” Pardoe explained.

There is space available for a larger building, which could be used as artist workspace and display area, similar to the setup on Granville Island, with office and retail space above.

“At this point in time, there is no timeline for delivery of that building, but that would be up to future Council,” Pardoe explained.

While the Celebration Plaza has a lot of potential for the local arts and culture sector, Pardoe said it remains to be seen how it will end up being fully utilized after the 2010 Games.

The site was designed by Vancouver-based landscape architects Phillips Farevaag and Smallenberg, but updated sketches and plans were nor available as they first had to be presented to Council at a meeting in July for approval.

But Celebration Plaza will definitely feature a large outdoor performance venue to accommodate groups and productions of various sizes. While it won’t be a permanent stage, the necessary infrastructure like electrical and data wiring, and possibly lighting and partial staging system, will be put into place.

“Malkin Bowl in Stanley Park has a clear stage and dance shelter above that. That’s not what we’re doing,” Pardoe explained, “What we’ve heard from people in the performance business is that if you build a permanent stage, it typically is the wrong size and in the wrong location for just about everyone, so rather than doing that, we’re providing a number of different places within the venue that people could set up a stage, and providing some basic building blocks for the stage.”

The lower lawn area of the site, with amphitheatre-style seating, will have four or five stage possible stage configurations that would cater to different types of performances and uses, ranging from crowds of 200 to those of 3,000 to 5,000 people.

“We’re providing, really, the basis for people to organize something and be inspired to put on a performance,” Pardoe explained.

While the iconic pavilion roof that was initially planned for the site would have made this area an all-weather venue, the Municipality couldn’t come up with the almost $20 million it needed to complete the structure. But Pardoe said the missing roof shouldn’t take away from the staging area.

“Whistler has had temporary stages and events set up in the winter months, as well,” Pardoe pointed out. “We would like to provide a pavilion structure I think at some point in time in the future, but it needs to be fully integrated with the site.”

He added the roof isn’t totally off the table, yet, but it wouldn’t be pursued again until after the Games if Council and the community decided it was something the site needed.

The staging area will be made available to the public after the Games at the very earliest, during the latter portion of 2010, and controlled by the RMOW and their partner organizations like WAC and MY Millennium Place.

The green common space on the site is also being touted as an area that could also be beneficial to local visual arts as a space to display their work.

And while there are currently municipal bylaws that would prevent artists from being able to sell their work in a public space like this, Pardoe suggested they might consider a contract program similar to the existing summertime performance program.

The site will also eventually incorporate public art, using elements and memories from the 2010 Games as sources of inspiration, but Kevin McFarland, a parks planner for the RMOW, explained that they won’t start developing detailed plans until later.

“During the Games the whole site is pretty much given over to the programming of the Games, and then obviously, post-Games, that will be a key site for the community, so that’s when we’ll turn our attention to what the public art component should be,” said McFarland.

A cauldron designed and manufactured by Bombardier is just one of the symbolic features to be installed at Celebration Plaza and will be unveiled during the opening ceremonies on February 12, 2010.

“What we’re really wanting to do is to really incorporate the memory and legacy of the Olympics and Paralympic Games into the site as public art,” Pardoe said. “…I think we can produce something that will be really quite wonderful.”