Public art enhances communities (Link not found/feature image/how to add publication)
This article is from a post on the BILD Blogs.
Across the GTA public art enhances buildings and communities and makes them more attractive and inviting to residents, visitors and passersby.
The art can take many forms such as large playful or modern sculptures, intricate lighting installations, coloured and etched glass embedded into the fabric of buildings or even patterns and words integrated into pavement. Much of the public art in the region was created through collaborations of land developers, municipalities and artists.
In the City of Toronto, public art is funded as part of a new development. Through its Percent for Public Art policy, the City requires developers to spend one percent of the overall construction value of their new developments to create public art.
There are more than 200 public art installations that have come as a result of the public art policy.
Famous Canadian novelist and artist Douglas Coupland has created a number of them. He has worked with the development industry to create pieces like Canoe Landing Park’s large red canoe and the colourful fishing bobbers that anchor Concord Adex Development’s CityPlace neighbourhood in downtown Toronto.
Coupland also created the soldier sculpture entitled Monument to the War of 1812 at Fleet and Bathurst Streets, which was commissioned by BILD member Malibu Investments.
Outside the city, municipalities like Mississauga have policies and programs that encourage developers to include public art in their development plans but they are not mandatory. BILD member Great Gulf has embraced the idea and voluntarily commissioned a work of art by Canadian sculptor David James called Heaven and Earth for its HOT Condominiums.
Funded by the developer, the landmark sculpture is located at the corner of Winston Churchill Boulevard and Eglinton Avenue West. It sits at the gateway to the new community, is topped with a mirrored sphere and can be enjoyed by residents, visitors and anyone who travels through that major intersection.