An art project envisioned more than a decade ago will come to fruition this summer, when town staff expect to be able to announce the artist who will be creating a work of public art for Tremont Plaza.
Later this month the town will be putting out a call to artists who are interested in doing a commissioned piece for the town to celebrate LGBTQ2S+ life in Collingwood. The work will be installed in the courtyard between the Tremont Studios building, the Collingwood Public Library and a town parking lot in the Simcoe Street area.
The town struck a working group made up of community members for the project to further develop the theme and scope for the art and wording for the call to artists.
“We’re hoping the artwork will engage all ages, and will garner a sense of love and pride in the community,” said Tanya Mazza, coordinator of arts and culture for Collingwood. “The working group is looking for something that is enduring, conceptually timeless, something that’s visually arresting, that evokes emotion … and ideally that it be conceptually and visually available to all ages and abilities.”
There’s bonus consideration for something that encourages exploration and touch.
According to Mazza, the site has been earmarked for public art since the Collingwood Public Library was in its design phase.
The library’s main gallery runs east and west through the building as a lobby and an art gallery. It’s also called an art walk, and the space behind the library – Tremont Plaza – was designed to be a continuation of the gallery.
“The piece in the plaza would be significant enough to have a presence and could be noticed from inside the library and also connect those places together,” said Mazza, adding the art in the plaza would help connect the art studios, theatre, and library on Creative Simcoe Street.
There were two triggers for the project moving forward this year. One, the town has been building a public art reserve for the last seven or so years, and it has reached the point where it can support the $50,000 budget for the Tremont Plaza project.
And two, it helps accomplish a request the Rainbow Club made to council last fall to have a public art project created around the theme of LGBTQ+ life.
Council told staff to proceed with this request, and the Tremont Plaza was already on the radar as an upcoming public art project.
The space is currently open and paved in interlocking bricks, lending itself to a three-dimensional installation such as a sculpture.
“The committee is leaving that open to the artist,” said Mazza.
A staff team dedicated to the project is tasked with the responsibility of making sure the installation is technically feasible.
Based on a timeline presented to a council committee last week, the town will be putting out a call to artists in mid-April. The working group will select up to three artists for a shortlist and ask them to submit preliminary design proposals.
"The working group is encouraging works that consider and engage experiences of resilience, strength, belonging, transformative joy, and other topics that acknowledge the journey of LGBTQ+ individuals in our community," said Mazza.
The group is scheduled to have its final artist selection made by September and the project will be complete in 2022.
“I’m really rewarded by seeing this project come to fruition,” said Mazza. “Public art has that ability to ignite, to inspire, to animate. It really has the ability to engage people in conversation.”
It’s a decades-old tradition in Collingwood, too. Some of the murals in town were painted more than 20 years ago.
The ‘Millennium Murals’ (installed between 1999 and 2001) include the series on the side of the Eddie Bush Memorial Arena, Sidelaunch (formerly on the Mountain View Hotel and now on Loblaws), the 3-D mural on the side of CIBC bank, and the Heading Dockside mural that used to hang on the Shipyards Medical building.
The Heading Dockside mural is the only one of the group that is no longer on public display.
The Compass Rose metal sculpture at Millennium Park was also installed around the same time.
“Public art reveals aspects about our community: socially, naturally, physically, and historically, as seen by the current murals we have,” said Mazza. “I think it’s largely seen as something that can connect residents and connect visitors with the fabric of our community.”
For more about the town’s public art installations and policy, visit the town website here.
