An exterior nighttime rendering shows the Arts Commons Transformation expansion’s curved form, exterior cladding, and interior finishes inspired by Alberta’s dramatic landscapes and the regional lodge typologies.Supplied
Downtown Calgary urgently needs new energy, and the city’s performing-arts centre is ready to give the city a jolt.
This week’s announcement of a historic $75-million donation from local oil executive Dave Werklund and family lets Arts Commons advance its transformation into a “campus” of two buildings linked by lively public space, a zone in which the arts are part of a larger stew of activity.
In this, Arts Commons creates an important lesson for other cities: Great urbanism can’t happen with just one building, and an urban institution must always look at what’s happening outside its walls.
Since the project was announced in 2022, it’s become larger: The arts institution took control of the adjacent Olympic Plaza, a square built for the 1988 Winter Games, and it will integrate it fully into the design and operation of the institution. The square redesign, which is in progress, is by the first-rate team of Montreal landscape architects CCXA and Toronto architects GH3 with consultants Belleville Placemaking.
Arts Commons president and chief executive officer Alex Sarian, in an interview this week, sounded most excited about the landscape portion of the project. “To have a massive outdoor space as our front door changes everything,” he said. “The plaza becomes a hub for cultural activity, free family programming and just hanging out.”
This is not normal behaviour for an arts CEO, especially one who’s about to break ground on a new showpiece building. That building, the centre of the Commons redevelopment, is a three-storey structure with a highly flexible 1,000-seat theatre and 200-seat studio theatre plus a wealth of public gathering space, all of them with doors at street level to maximize accessibility and permeability.
A rendering of Arts Commons’ new 1,000-seat theatre, set up for a rock concert. The new performance space will help meet the Calgary’s burgeoning demand for arts and culture venues.Supplied
The building’s design, created collaboratively by Toronto’s KPMB Architects, Calgary’s Hindle Architects and Tawaw Architecture Collective, is instantly memorable. Its southeast corner addresses the adjacent Olympic Plaza with a large publicly accessible space with a café – not a lobby, but a “lodge,” as the designers frame it. Here, a curved facade of slatted wood leans back as it rises. Framed with chunky columns of mass timber, the structure resembles something shaped by human hands, a lantern or a basket or perhaps a wigwam.
According to the architects, this came out of an effort to overcome Calgarians’ feelings that theatre is an elite activity. “We had a long discussion of how a theatre building could feel entirely welcoming and warm,” said KPMB partner Kevin Bridgman.
It also drew on Indigenous traditions, particularly the cross-cultural idea of a lodge, a collective gathering place. “The lodge is a very Indigenous concept, and it exists from east to west,” Wanda Dalla Costa of Tawaw added. “From the shed house on the West Coast to the wigwam on the East Coast and the tipi in the middle, these forms are all quite complex, but they share a ruggedness in their shapes that we wanted to evoke here.”
(The lodge also strongly recalls the unbuilt 2020 design for the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, which KPMB designed with a team including architect Omar Gandhi and Mi’kmaq artist Jordan Bennett. Ideas have a way of coming back around.)
The lodge space is punctuated by a green spiral stair and a wall of ceramic decoration patterned after decorative artwork made by local Indigenous people. Colour; ornament; texture. These are qualities that most people like, but architects often don’t. Here, they look fantastic.
The design promises to deliver on its social goals. Sarian identifies these as engaging locals with all sorts of cultural activity including robust education programs and “just to bring them in.” The emphasis on the square, and on varied informal activity, is crucial here. Most 20th-century performing-arts complexes are opaque and aloof – including the Arts Commons’ original six-theatre building, from 1985, which will be renovated later by the same design team. Such complexes “seem dead 80 per cent of the time when a performance isn’t going on,” Sarian said. “That’s not a good way to build a city. We will do things very differently.”
On their success will hinge a larger economic goal: bringing people into the downtown, which has historically been very heavy on office space and which was walloped by oil price shocks and then the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, office vacancies neared 30 per cent.
“Calgary’s downtown has historically not been a place where people linger, especially after 5 p.m.,” said Kate Thompson, president and CEO of the city’s Calgary Municipal Land Corp. “This campus is a place people come after five, so we’re trying to amplify that. You can’t revitalize a downtown without giving people a reason to come downtown. I think this is going to be a strong reason for people to come downtown.”
That is a lot to ask of an arts centre, and Thompson emphasized that the city has many other initiatives under way to make downtown a 24-hour place.
But even one building can make a difference in changing the atmosphere. Calgary has already seen this with its 2018 Central Library, a block away from Arts Commons. “That building was the first step toward a downtown architecture that’s welcome, and provides spaces for people to connect,” said Calgary-based Jordan Hindle of Hindle Architect. “It changed the conversation.”
The Arts Commons revitalization, he added, will advance the library’s project of civic space, “spaces that are inviting to everyone, where people will connect.”
There is strong reason to believe this will work. While the downtown has huge challenges – lots of big roads and, still, many empty buildings – Calgary is young and fast-growing. Things can change. More than a dozen office-to-apartment conversions, two of them within a block of Arts Commons, will bring new residents. And, crucially, Calgary’s city government cares about design. The city’s leadership, including Thompson, understands that beautiful places for collective experiences have value. They are some of the most valuable assets a big city has to offer, and they may even be enough to turn a city around.
LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”
It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.
“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.
In a case that has sent shockwaves through the Vancouver Island art community, a local art dealer has been charged with one count of fraud over $5,000. Calvin Lucyshyn, the former operator of the now-closed Winchester Galleries in Oak Bay, faces the charge after police seized hundreds of artworks, valued in the tens of millions of dollars, from various storage sites in the Greater Victoria area.
Alleged Fraud Scheme
Police allege that Lucyshyn had been taking valuable art from members of the public under the guise of appraising or consigning the pieces for sale, only to cut off all communication with the owners. This investigation began in April 2022, when police received a complaint from an individual who had provided four paintings to Lucyshyn, including three works by renowned British Columbia artist Emily Carr, and had not received any updates on their sale.
Further investigation by the Saanich Police Department revealed that this was not an isolated incident. Detectives found other alleged victims who had similar experiences with Winchester Galleries, leading police to execute search warrants at three separate storage locations across Greater Victoria.
Massive Seizure of Artworks
In what has become one of the largest art fraud investigations in recent Canadian history, authorities seized approximately 1,100 pieces of art, including more than 600 pieces from a storage site in Saanich, over 300 in Langford, and more than 100 in Oak Bay. Some of the more valuable pieces, according to police, were estimated to be worth $85,000 each.
Lucyshyn was arrested on April 21, 2022, but was later released from custody. In May 2024, a fraud charge was formally laid against him.
Artwork Returned, but Some Remain Unclaimed
In a statement released on Monday, the Saanich Police Department confirmed that 1,050 of the seized artworks have been returned to their rightful owners. However, several pieces remain unclaimed, and police continue their efforts to track down the owners of these works.
Court Proceedings Ongoing
The criminal charge against Lucyshyn has not yet been tested in court, and he has publicly stated his intention to defend himself against any pending allegations. His next court appearance is scheduled for September 10, 2024.
Impact on the Local Art Community
The news of Lucyshyn’s alleged fraud has deeply affected Vancouver Island’s art community, particularly collectors, galleries, and artists who may have been impacted by the gallery’s operations. With high-value pieces from artists like Emily Carr involved, the case underscores the vulnerabilities that can exist in art transactions.
For many art collectors, the investigation has raised concerns about the potential for fraud in the art world, particularly when it comes to dealing with private galleries and dealers. The seizure of such a vast collection of artworks has also led to questions about the management and oversight of valuable art pieces, as well as the importance of transparency and trust in the industry.
As the case continues to unfold in court, it will likely serve as a cautionary tale for collectors and galleries alike, highlighting the need for due diligence in the sale and appraisal of high-value artworks.
While much of the seized artwork has been returned, the full scale of the alleged fraud is still being unraveled. Lucyshyn’s upcoming court appearances will be closely watched, not only by the legal community but also by the wider art world, as it navigates the fallout from one of Canada’s most significant art fraud cases in recent memory.
Art collectors and individuals who believe they may have been affected by this case are encouraged to contact the Saanich Police Department to inquire about any unclaimed pieces. Additionally, the case serves as a reminder for anyone involved in high-value art transactions to work with reputable dealers and to keep thorough documentation of all transactions.
As with any investment, whether in art or other ventures, it is crucial to be cautious and informed. Art fraud can devastate personal collections and finances, but by taking steps to verify authenticity, provenance, and the reputation of dealers, collectors can help safeguard their valuable pieces.
