Fish swim in the fountain, but birds, bees, flowers and more will decorate the wall of the Ross Street Plaza stage.
Salmon Arm Secondary art teacher Chris Schielke’s Grade 11 and 12 art students will be creating a colourful tile mosaic that will depict the four seasons of the Shuswap.
This is a continuation of a public art program that began in 2006, when children ages six to 16 made mosaic fish that were installed in the Ross Street Fountain.
Vancouver artist Glen Anderson is coming back to lead this latest project and has told art gallery curator ,Tracy Kutschker that he will be donating some tiles as well.
“He ran training workshops several years ago to help us with the pebble tile mosaic in the Ross Street Fountain,” she says. “This one is a landscape that uses the City of Salmon Arm logo as a jumping off point and shows seasonal indicators like birds, flowers and fish in the Shuswap.”
Funding for this project came from Shuswap Rotary, the Salmar Association and private donations, says Kutschker.
The original design idea was provided by Cathy Stubington, whose Calendario project promotes using agricultural indicators rather than the regular calendar to define the seasons in the Shuswap.
As part of the fee-for-service agreement with the City of Salmon Arm, the Arts Council must spend between $2,000 to $5,000 every year on public art projects – either temporary or permanent. Kutschker will outline the basic design in chalk and each student will be given an easily identifiable section so they can show them off to family and friends.
The original fountain project was successful, as was the broken tile installation that took place about a year later in Fletcher Park. Kutschker expects the results of the latest project to be spectacular. The length of time between the installations is not a concern to Kutschker.
“It has to be the right place, right people, right time,” she says, noting there are many factors involved in the long-term project that will feature the beautiful Shuswap in colourful mosaic tiles.
