The Town of Bracebridge is looking for a local artist to join its new Public Art Advisory Committee
“It’s always been on the town staff’s agenda to look at a public art policy for the community,” ‘Manager of Economic Development for the Town of Bracebridge Randy Mattice tells the MyMuskokaNow.com newsroom.
One local artist will sit on the committee along with a citizen that’s a professional architect or engineer, a member of council, someone from Muskoka Arts and Crafts, and a member of the downtown BIA Board of Directors. “We would like a local artist with history and roots in Bracebridge so they understand the significance of our community and want to give back to our community,” Mattice says.
If you’re interested, you can submit your application to [email protected]. The deadline to get your application in is May 10th.
Mattice explains they will be responsible for working with artists to create or bring pieces of art to the town, talk with the community about what art they want to see represented in town and provide recommendations to council and town staff on what kind of art represents the town. While it’s not known when the committee will meet for the first time, Mattice says the first order of business will be to create a “pretty aggressive” interim strategy to help build the future growth of public art, which will later be discussed by council.
Mattice believes that creating this advisory committee opens up opportunities in the arts and culture sector and will hopefully bring people to the community as well. “It’s a combination of everything,” he says.
“It’s always nice to have a separate set of eyes looking at our policies,” he adds, pointing out that there are many great artists in the community who he hopes get involved with this new committee. “We don’t have all the answers,” he says of town staff. “We want to make sure we’re on the best path possible for providing public art in Bracebridge.”
While it will be left up to the artist how they want to create their masterpiece, Mattice says the committee will critique their work to ensure it fits with the vision they are going for. “(Art) is very subjective so we want to make sure it’s appropriate for the community and it ties into the identity of the community,” he goes on to say.
“There will be regular meetings of the advisory committee,” Mattice explains. “We’ll look at the existing art that we have. We’ll look at its physical state whether it needs repair or cleaning. They will provide direction on the acquisition of new art and a possible location for new art in the community.”