City seeks Calgarians to pick operator of public art program

The City of Calgary is looking for four people to select an outside organization to operate its contentious public art program. 

Council decided last year to farm out operation of the program after years of controversy around projects and arguments over the best use of tax dollars. 

At that time, the city said the move could save money, reduce the number of city workers involved and possibly see more local artists win public art contracts. 

The new organization will operate at arm's length from the city, in a system similar to Edmonton's program. 

"We've never done this before in the City of Calgary, having our public art service operated by an arm's length model, and we really want to make sure that we have Calgarians involved in that," said Jennifer Thompson, the city's acting manager of arts and culture. 

"So we're looking for both subject matter experts in the arts and culture field as well as citizens at large. We've heard from Calgarians that they want more access to the public art program and they want our opportunities to participate."

Thompson said there's a backlog of projects stemming from council's decision to suspend the public art program in 2017 and that's something that will have to be addressed by council as the process moves forward. 

The panel will be made up of seven individuals, including city staff and official from another city with a similar program and an art consultant. 

Four of the panel members — two citizens at large and two arts professionals from Calgary — will be paid for their time and experience, between $2,000 and $4,000 for 50 hours of work selecting the organization through an request for proposal process.

The panel is expected to make a recommendation in December.