Published: November 1, 2012
The chART Marpole Public Art project – a partnership between the Marpole BIA and Emily Carr University (ECU), has steadily been transforming Marpole into public art.
As you may have noticed, graduate students from ECU have cleaned and completely renovated the abandoned former BLine shelter at Granville & 71st Avenue into a thought-provoking, cozy and dream-like environment for
everyone to enjoy. The public and transit users have taken notice.
“The pictures embedded into the siding of the bus shelter at Granville and 70th Ave are absolutely fantastic. If every bus stop could be modelled this way, how lovely it would be. Keep up the good work to make the city more inviting with your artwork.”
The ECU faculty and students have also been busy planning a sculptural design for merchants to adopt. Entitled Fourth Plinth West, this movable and adaptable public art piece will be hosted by different MBA members and showcase a rotating art sculpture piece every few months. The Fourth Plinth is based upon the city of London’s successful program in Trafalgar Square, where juried public art is put in place on a ‘plinth’ on an annual basis.
Another exciting project scheduled for mid-January will see the downtown and most southern portions of Granville
St. unite, in Limelight: Saturday night. In partnership with Emily Carr University, the City of Vancouver, the Downtown Vancouver BIA, and Sans Facon, this public art installation ‘creates a different approach to street lighting by replacing two existing street light heads with theatre spotlights, creating an invitation to passers-by to temporarily transform the street into a stage.’
This project will be an incredibly exciting experience to host in Marpole, and we know the community will embrace it with the same enthusiasm that it has for the on-street chalk murals, memory projects, and Marpole Arts Collective evenings.