By Christina Montgomery, Vancouver Province
Lighting will play a big role in the public art displays that will transform Vancouver’s main streets during the 2010 Olympics.
And artists will have to move fast to take advantage of the $5.9 million available for what is likely to be the biggest art show in the city’s history.
Following city council’s vote Tuesday afternoon, the race was on to get proposals submitted and approved for works that are expected to be installed by late next year.
All of the works and installations will be paid for the the city.
Taking a cue from the lightworks put up by the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy, a unique installation of “art light” is planned for under the Cambie Street bridge.
And huge light projection-art will play across the walls of public buildings, including City Hall at 12th and Cambie.
Smaller light installations are possible in Yaletown.
The permanent bridge artwork will be “visible from, or located along,” a walkway linking the new SkyTrain station to the re-developed Cambie corridor, the seawall, existing False Creek neighbourhoods and the new False Creek flat developments.
Major artwork will be installed at the new Olympic Village plaza on south False Creek, on West Georgia at the entrance to Stanley Park and in Library Square downtown.
The library and Stanley Park and library pieces will be the largest purchases, at $800,000 and $900,000. Both are open to international competition, as are the light pieces.
Smaller pieces will be shown elsewhere in the city, including works mounted on poles surrounding the intersection of the Kingsway and Knight Street.
Artists have also been invited to propose site-specific works for locations of their own choosing.
Altogether, about 20 pieces will be chosen.
Much of the artwork is expected to remain in the city and on permanent display as a legacy of the Games.
Richard Newirth, the city’s director of public art, will run the program. He has said he wants the works to capture “what Vancouver means, how it’s changing.”
Vancouver Olympic organizers have already had their say on that front.
Earlier this month, they unveiled the “look” that will grace banners, signs, postcards and other identifying pieces of Olympic goods.
It incorporated cool green and blue waves that tied the area’s natural beauty to a clean, modern look.
A staff report presented to council Tuesday said that “a number of artworks commissioned through the plan are expected to address the environmental sustainability, one of three pillars to the Olympic movement.
