Saskatoon councillors uphold funding behind controversial $297K art installation

Saskatoon city councillors made a decision on Wednesday to maintain funding for an art installation that has sparked controversy. Known as the Civic Capital Project Public Art Funding Stream, the policy requires capital projects receiving over $5 million in city funding to include a public art or artistic design element in up to one percent of the total project costs, with a maximum of $500,000.

Despite Ward 5 Coun. Randy Donauer's motion to scrap the policy following the controversial unveiling of three glacier-like sculptures made of recycled plastics, the motion was voted down by a 8-3 margin. Councillors Bev Dubois, Troy Davies, and Donauer voted in favor of keeping the funding. The installations, titled Modern Erratics, were created by Calgary-based art duo Sans Facon and feature recycled materials from Saskatchewan.

The total cost of the project, including materials and labor, amounted to around $297,000, with a small profit of approximately $11,000 over three years. City administrators reported that the project's costs were below the maximum one percent public art allocation for the Material Recovery Centre (MRC) project budget. Councillors also decided to push for a report on ways to improve the public art funding stream, such as enhancing communication about project procurement and funding.