Colours come to life on Corydon Avenue
BIZ launches latest art installation in Little Italy
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This article was published 23/06/2015 (3847 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The strip of Winnipeg known as Little Italy is embracing its diversity through a new public art project.
The Corydon Avenue Business Improvement Zone (BIZ) has installed eight quarter-inch steel statues along the sidewalk with each one painted by a local artist to represent a different country.
“We want to enhance the experience on the Avenue for people to come,” BIZ director Katia von Stackelberg said. “Corydon Avenue in the summer months is very well-known as a place to go to, so we have large crowds on Corydon and we want to make sure we enhance that experience by introducing some art to the street.”
Titled Colours of Corydon, the installation is inspired by an art project in Pittsburgh, Pa. where trees were wrapped in coats of wire mesh. After a lengthy trial and error process where artists experimented with Plaster of Paris and other building materials, the BIZ decided to go with the steel statues because of Winnipeg’s harsh climate and the need to move the statues in the winter. Each statue was fabricated by John Henry Creations and the large concrete bases were provided by Barkman Concrete.
The countries represented in the art installation include Argentina, France, Greece, Japan, Italy, Scotland, Spain, and Ukraine.
Artists Bibiana Vidal Curell, Hubert J. Theroux, Mary Leskiw, Angela Lillico and Genevie Henderson, Debora Cardaci, Heather Robbins, and Michel St. Hilaire were encouraged to paint the eight-foot-tall statues to best represent their assigned countries. For example, the Scottish statue features a tartan print and the Italian statue, the Colosseum.
“We are multicultural. Corydon Avenue is called Little Italy; you know we have all sorts of nations on this street, so it was a gesture to invite everyone to the Avenue, more than anything else,” von Stackelberg said.
The Colours of Corydon project is the first phase of the BIZ’s “Art Avenue” initiative that will see new pieces of art introduced to the neighbourhood each year. The Art Avenue is part of a long-term streetscaping plan created by the late Ernie Walter, an architect at Walter International which had its offices on Corydon Avenue. Walter was also a member of the BIZ’s board of directors.
“He was a visionary and he loved Corydon and he took it upon himself to develop a long-term, 10- to 20-year plan for streetscaping,” von Stackelberg said of Walter.
“We’re going to follow this very well-designed street enhancement plan that he envisioned,” she said.
The BIZ is also running a contest from July 1 to Aug. 26, where you can vote for your favourite statue. The winning artist will receive $2,500. Each artist was paid for their contribution.
To vote for your favourite art piece please or for more information go to www.corydonbiz.com