Winnipeg Millennium Library Park set for new Sculpture

$575,000 Sculpture set for Library Park

The refurbished Millennium Library Park will be the site of the city's most expensive public art project to date.

A $575,000 sculpture will be commissioned with money from the Winnipeg public art program and the 2010 Cultural Capital of Canada fund, officials announced Friday.

The actual piece and the artist making it have yet to be chosen.

A call to artists will be sent out nationally and internationally, and the winner will be chosen by a five-person selection committee, Winnipeg Arts Council officials said in a news release.

"The piece will be a permanent, contemporary artwork using elements of water and light," the statement said. "Whichever artist or artists are chosen will have to take the unique climate of Winnipeg into account, and ensure the artwork will also have a winter presence."

The sculpture is one of several arts projects being funded by the $2-million federal grant for the 2010 cultural capital program.

The arts council's public art program has $500,000 a year in its kitty.

The city's most expensive public art project to date is Montrealer Catherine Widgery's $250,000 River Arch sculpture, installed on the new Norwood Bridge in 1998.

Recent commissions include David Perrett's $150,000 bus shelter at the Ellice Avenue entrance to the University of Winnipeg and Gordon Reeve's $75,000 stainless-steel glacier at the Portage Avenue entrance to Assiniboine Park.