Bend in the Bow Public Art Plan

PUBLI C ART PLAN Bend in the Bow

Bend in the Bow

PUBLI C ART PLAN

DECEMBER 2017

Prepared for: The City of Calgary Public Art Program

In Association with City of Calgary Staff from :

 Arts and Culture

 Parks

 Recreation

 Water Resources/Water Services

 Environmental and Safety Management

 Environmental and Education Initiatives

 Urban Conservation

 Heritage Planning

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 Community and Neighborhood Services

 Customer Service and Communications

 Transportation Planning

Other Consultants:

 O2 Planning & Design

 Trina Listanco, Public Art Program Mentee

Executive Summary

WHAT IS BEND IN THE BOW? ART AT BEND IN THE BOW Linked Open Space System

Bend in the Bow provides a long-term vision for The City of Calgary to develop 90 hectares of parks and public open space on the west bank of the Bow River in the community of Inglewood. These spaces include the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, Inglewood Wildlands, Pearce Estate Park, and connecting green spaces between them known as The Corridor. The project will add environmental enhancements to incorporate this land into one continuous open space system with a primary purpose of balancing nature and culture and educating future stewards to inspire them to conserve the heritage of these parks for tomorrow’s generations.

Bend in the Bow Vision

A series of parks that tell stories of the neighbourhood and the city — from Indigenous use and European settlement to the movement of the river and wildlife. These stories are revealed through nature, culture and education.

Vision for Art

Engaging and transformative art at Bend in the Bow operates on the land and its visitors to cultivate meaningful connections with the environment, support habitat-forming processes, and inspire and educate the public about the natural resilience and cultural significance of the place.

Pu blic Art Plan Overview

documents referenced in the Bibliography, and the full Bend in the Bow Redevelopment Plan.

The site’s conditions have informed a framework for art to tell compelling stories about the site in various methods, media, scales and timelines. Art opportunities include integrated, functional, stand alone, and ephemeral works. Critical to the success of the art and Bend in the Bow as a whole is a philosophical position to support habitat-forming processes and be sensitive to the unique environment. Observing this, artworks will have a light touch structurally and use materials appropriate to their location.

Each art opportunity is described with details about its location, program, experience, stories, educational potential, conditions and constraints; as well as the collaborative process and artist qualifications envisioned for its development.

Art Concepts and Values

As a whole, the artworks will create a layered experience that will gain even deeper nuance with the individual perceptive fields brought to them by viewers and participants as well as ongoing natural, cultural, and educational actions.

Mission of the Public Art Plan

 Guide the programming, conceptualization and execution of artworks that enrich and diversify the public’s understanding and experience of Bend in the Bow’s core values of nature, culture, and education.

 Create a legacy of art that is inspired by the site’s past heritage while acting to shape the future evolution of Bend in the Bow’s dynamic landscape.

 Balancing art operating over long time frames to slowly restore ecological systems with art occurring over shorter time frames to raise awareness of the site’s transformational cycles.

Implementing the Art Plan

In a process led by The City of Calgary Parks and including stakeholder and public engagement, Bend in the Bow has produced a Redevelopment Plan of which this Public Art Plan is an integral accompanying component. The Redevelopment Plan was crafted by a multidisciplinary team comprising consultants as well as staff from various City departments. Artists and Public Art staff have been an important part of the team who envisioned the plan and will continue to have roles in the development and programming of Bend in the Bow.

The purpose of the Bend in the Bow P ub lic Art Plan is to develop a framework which fosters the creation of innovative public art within the Bend in the Bow project and site. The plan will guide the development of new public artworks and experiences that speak to the vision, mission, and guiding principles of Bend in the Bow.

Bend in the Bow’s open spaces are abounding with fascinating systems and stories that can be translated into a meaningful visitor experience through the lens of public art. The Public Art Plan describes Art Opportunities as well as the values, goals, themes, systems, and stories that inspired them. More information about existing site conditions and plans for future development is available in the Context and Analysis section,

Different art projects will emphasize different aspects of Bend in the Bow’s core values of nature, culture and education, with most projects touching on all three. Together, the artworks will form a multi-faceted expression illuminating and illustrating how these values interact at Bend in the Bow. Other conceptual themes of the Public Art Plan include storytelling, exploration, experimentation, migration, wildness, wonder, augmented reality, and the sublime.

The values, stories, and systems identified in the plan should be considered as tools and inspiration, or philosophical touchstones, for the development of art, but not as limiting factors or prescriptive mandates. It is hoped that a range of artist approaches will expand the manifestation of each value, story, or system.

Artists will be commissioned to implement artworks either concurrently with other Bend in the Bow design and construction activities or on a different schedule, depending on the type of process necessary for creating the work. When appropriate, artists will be embedded on project teams and have collaborative and lead roles on the design of functional elements as outlined in this plan. To achieve the integrated, cross-disciplinary approach identified for many of the opportunities, it is recommended that the Public Art Program seek creative partnerships with other Bend in the Bow stakeholders to ensure the type of cross-pollination of ideas and opportunities that has characterized the planning process to date. Art opportunities for the Wildlands have been prioritized.

Mawson Plan for Calgary, 1914, with Bend in the Bow on the right

Introduction

BEND IN THE BOW OVERVIEW

Role of Art

Art is the expression and experience of human perception, imagination, and ideas. It stimulates thinking and reveals meaning about our place in the world. In its broadest and most profound terms, art can speak to the human condition in relation to the wild. Site-specific public art responds to conditions of a particular place. It has the potential to capture the viewer’s imagination and incite emotional connections that can uniquely resonate with one’s consciousness of a place.

The Bend in the Bow Public Art Plan looks at opportunities for incorporating sitespecific public art involving collaboration and community into the development, fabric, and experience of Bend in the Bow. The projects will be implemented through The City of Calgary’s Public Art Program in conjunction with Parks, other City Departments, Partners, and Stakeholders.

Bend in the Bow Territory

The Bend in the Bow Project is looking holistically at Calgary’s existing but fragmented open spaces along the Bow River, incorporating them into one continuous open space system that protects wildlife habitat and provides environmental enhancements. The existing parklands include Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, Inglewood Wildlands, Pearce Estate Park, and the Corridor, which is comprised of Inglewood Ball Diamonds and green spaces along the Bow River Pathway.

The various parcels of Bend in the Bow are each aligned with an important part of Calgary’s historic development and contain stories written in the land:

 Inglewood Bird Sanctuary is Canada’s first federally protected urban bird sanctuary and includes the historic homestead of Colonel James Walker, a founding industrialist, businessman, and civic leader whose conservationist son Selby Walker founded the Bird Sanctuary

 Inglewood Wildlands had a long early period as part of the traditional territory of First Nations people, following which it was part of Walker’s homestead and then occupied by the BritishAmerican Oil Refinery and later cleaned up through efforts by a consortium of volunteer groups and its current owner, Suncor

 Pearce Estate Park is named for William E. Pearce, a land planner who experimented with irrigation, surveying, urban forestry, and agriculture on his Inglewood homestead; it houses the Sam Livingston Fish Hatchery and Bow Habitat Station, which educates the public about aquatic habitat

 The Corridor has a long history of being traveled and traversed by wildlife, First Nations people, and later the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway; it is currently undergoing a bioengineered restoration of its riverbank, which was heavily damaged during Calgary’s 2013 flood

In envisioning the Redevelopment Plan, The City split Bend in the Bow into two phases:

 Phase I —including Inglewood Bird Sanctuary and Inglewood Wildlands; with a focus on conservation and stewardship of nature and culture, educational programs, and passive recreation

 Phase II —including Pearce Estate Park and the Corridor; with opportunities for active recreation, flood control, enhanced wildlife mobility, conservation and stewardship of nature and culture, and educational programs

Bend in the Bow Process

The formation of Bend in the Bow was prompted in part by restoration efforts at various parcels comprising the site, following Calgary’s 2013 flood. The importance of the site’s natural and cultural assets pointed to the need for a longterm plan. In a process led by Calgary Parks and including engagement with stakeholders and the public, the Bend in the Bow Redevelopment Plan, of which this Public Art Plan is an integral accompanying component, will serve as a guiding document for future redevelopment at all four project parcels. Bend in the Bow will be implemented through phased detail design and construction, including artist calls, over many years as different opportunities and funds become available.

The Redevelopment Plan was crafted by a multidisciplinary team comprising consultants as well as staff from various City departments. Artists and Public Art staff have been an important part of the team who envisioned the plan and will continue to have roles in the development and programming of Bend in the Bow. Other Bend in the Bow team members include landscape architects, biologists, conservationists, reclamation specialists, water resource engineers, environmental scientists, environmental educators, and historians. Many of the public art projects identified in the Public Art Plan will be conceived and developed by artists working collaboratively with Bend in the Bow’s project partners.

Bend in the Bow Redevelopment Plan (drawing courtesy O2)

Inglewood Bird Sanctuary

Inglewood Wildlands

The Corridor

Pearce Estate Park

BEND IN THE BOW OBJECTIVES

Vision

Bend in the Bow is a series of parks that tell stories of the neighbourhood and the city — from Indigenous use and European settlement to the movement of the river and wildlife. These stories are revealed through nature, culture and education.

The land that maps out Bend in the Bow has a rich, diverse past. This area has been in flux for centuries, carving out a story of Calgary’s past, present, and future. Storytelling is used as a way to unite people and place, building meaningful connections between us and the world around us.

The Bend in the Bow Public Art Plan is inspired by thinking about how Calgary’s culture was shaped by its environment, how industry modified its natural landscape, and the role of conservation in managing natural and cultural history for the benefit of future generations.

Core Values

Three core values have been identified for Bend in the Bow: nature, culture, and education. The project strives to maintain the balance of nature and culture; and to educate and inspire future stewards to conserve the habitat and heritage of these parks for tomorrow’s citizens and wildlife inhabitants. Like the Bend in the Bow landscape and its users, the three core values are fluid systems. The art envisioned for Bend in the Bow will support, enrich, and reveal these dynamic values.

Nature

Bend in the Bow will conserve, protect, restore and enhance the environmental value of Bend in the Bow’s terrestrial, aquatic and riparian habitats for future generations. The site’s systems are in constant motion and flux. Bend in the Bow will improve the environment’s resilience to change by working harmoniously with its systems. The central guiding principle of Bend in the Bow, including its future artworks, is to highlight the habitat-forming processes operating in the area and work with these processes as they function in the landscape, allowing them to act more freely to create a dynamic, heterogeneous ecosystem.

Art can tap into this flow, working to catalyze, develop and reveal processes that generate healthy and dynamic ecological systems, allow flora and fauna to thrive, and tell stories about conservation efforts at work on the land.

Culture

Bend in the Bow will recognize, conserve, restore, reveal and celebrate the site’s enormous cultural significance and the role it has played in The City and Province by incorporating themes that reference its uses over time. Art can bring meaning to the place by expressing the landscape’s shifting exchange of culture and nature.

Education

“Habitat is a dynamic, not static, concept.”

– Urban ecologist Tim Walls

Today, educational centres represent the primary cultural use at Bend in the Bow. The site has evidence of early use by First Nations, which should be further investigated as the project develops. It also includes the preserved family homestead of Colonel James Walker, an early leader in the establishment of Calgary. William Pearce, his contemporary and another civic visionary, occupied and developed a parcel of land north of Walker’s. Starting in the 1880s and over many decades, Walker and Pearce worked the site with their experiments and innovations in industry and agriculture. Colonel Walker started Calgary’s first sawmill and conducted horticultural experiments. Pearce built an early irrigated farm, where he conducted tree trials. In more recent times an oil refinery and the subsequent remediation work that followed it left traces on the site.

Art at Bend in the Bow should incorporate cultural stories of the place. Stories narrated through art can thread together different times, jumping between historic, contemporary, and future moments.

“Cultural landscapes are not resources frozen in time; they are landscapes that are vital in the present and retain a link to the past.”

– Cultural Landscape Strategic Plan: Managing The City of Calgary’s Cultural Landscapes

Bend in the Bow will be a place to learn about and foster appreciation for the intrinsic value of the site’s natural systems and cultural legacy. The open space system will engage a diverse, multi-generational audience by implementing a variety of experiential and interpretive projects and methods combining science, engineering, heritage, art, design, interpretation and innovation. The interdisciplinary approach of this way of teaching is critical to reaching and empowering a wide range of citizen stewards from both current and future generations who can manage the land in appropriate and relevant ways.

Environmental literacy is an educational strategy practiced by The City of Calgary. It is a cyclical model, where participants are both teachers and learners. Active engagement with place engenders the knowledge, skills, and perspectives necessary for the development of a balanced environmental ethic that can guide collective sustainable development of the land.

Traditional Knowledge Keepers also have much to share on traditional science and ecology and should be engaged in the process of developing art and engagement opportunities for Bend in the Bow.

Art can initiate active engagements with place at Bend in the Bow through the production of immersive environments and events that reveal the poetics of place by offering tactile, phenomenological, and embodied experiences that arouse curiosity and prompt discovery, bringing people closer to the dynamic natural processes and cultural heritage shaping the land. Through this occurrence, deep and lasting learning will occur.

Adaptation to shifting conditions at Bend in the Bow is a natural part of its evolution and

includes the incorporation of programs to educate people about conservation. Bend in the Bow must balance programming that preserves habitat and culture on this particular piece of land (conservation on a local scale) with programming designed to move future generations to preserve not only this property but also large swaths of land elsewhere (conservation on a regional, national and global scale). Both types of programming are critical components of Bend in the Bow. In many cases these two scales of conservation will overlap in their methods, but in some cases one may have to concede to support goals of the other. Finding a balance is an essential part of the Redevelopment Plan.

“Ecological literacy emphasizes direct, participatory dialectic and a lifelong learning process, stressing that environmental education should change the way people live, not just how they talk.”

– Shepard Wetland Park Environmental Education Ethics Centre

Nature, Culture, Education and Art at Bend in the Bow

Nature and culture are human conceptions. They are a way of classifying and understanding our world and together form a network of dichotomous and parallel relationships with each other. The educational component at Bend in the Bow bridges its natural and cultural conditions.

Art is a critical component for disseminating all three values. Art provides a lens through which visitors can perceive the world around them with wonderment, inquisitiveness, and reverence. Through art, ecology and history will transcend their scientific and informational characteristics and assume social, psychological, poetic, and imaginative dimensions that facilitate transformative experiences and meaningful connections with the natural and cultural landscape.

Public Art Plan as part of the Redevelopment Plan

The purpose of the Bend in the Bow Public Art Plan is to develop a framework that fosters the creation of innovative public art within the boundaries of the Bend in the Bow site. This plan will guide the development and implementation of new public art opportunities and experiences that speak to the vision, mission, and guiding principles of Bend in the Bow.

This document summarizes the vision, guiding principles, opportunities, and conditions for creating public art at Bend in the Bow and also includes an analysis of the site and its context which inspired the vision and should continue to inform the development of individual artworks resulting from the plan.

The art planners conducted research, reviewed relevant planning documents, visited the site multiple times, and attended a series of meetings with stakeholders and the public to better understand Bend in the Bow’s natural, cultural and educational conditions, its community, and its various places and the stories they tell. Working as part of the design team, they developed goals for art’s role at Bend in the Bow and outlined a framework of projects that can honor and cultivate the core values of nature, culture, and education, especially as they relate to habitat forming processes.

Art opportunities identified in the Public Art Plan include integrated, embedded, stand alone, and ephemeral works. Sensitivity to the unique environment through artworks that have a light touch structurally and formally and use materials appropriate to their location will be critical to the success of the resulting art. Like the landscape, the art must be dynamic and ephemeral enough to respond and adapt to changes in environmental systems. The

more the art can contribute to fluid processes the more value it will add to Bend in the Bow, both functionally and poetically.

Not all of the projects need to be implemented to convey the philosophical vision, as every project should inherently touch on all of the core values to some degree. As site-specific work that emerges from artists’ deep studies of the site, the art collection is envisioned as a series of overlapping stories about a similar group of events, all recounted by different storytellers. The varied perspectives of the diverse artworks will, as a whole, convey a multi-faceted interpretation and experience of Bend in the Bow, gaining even deeper nuance with the unique perceptive fields brought by each person experiencing the work. Together the artworks will form a full spectrum of stories that form a cohesive narrative supporting the goals of the Bend in the Bow Redevelopment Plan by illuminating the core values of nature, culture, and education.

Research & Context

Overview of Contents

INTRODUCTION CONTEXTUAL PLACES Calgary

Bend in the Bow projects will emphasize different aspects of the core values of nature, culture, and education, with a goal of creating an overall balance at the park. Site and project conditions must be understood and considered for Bend in the Bow artworks to effectively address multiple values.

Site Analysis. This section includes an analysis of the contextual places, stories, and systems of the site that were considered during envisioning of the art plan. These conditions should continue to be examined during the conception of site-specific art at Bend in the Bow, with the expectation that individual artists will delve deeply into research about particular aspects summarized herein.

Opportunities & Constraints. A summary of regulatory and other general project conditions is included, along with relevant criteria from other planning documents and comments about how Bend in the Bow art can respond. Specific requirements will be identified on a case-bycase basis as the artworks are developed.

Calgary is situated on the front range of the Rocky Mountains at the confluence of the Bow and the Elbow Rivers, the Bow River being the larger of the two. Calgary’s stories follow the discovery and usage of its vast and varied natural resources.

After centuries of sustainable inhabitation by First Nations of the Blackfoot Confederacy, The City was developed along the banks of the Bow River by settlers of European descent during the the late 19th century. Central to its early economy were sawmills built on river banks and the Canadian Pacific Railway, a continental transportation system that physically connected Canada from coast to coast and was paramount development of the relatively unpopulated west. The oil industry dominated Calgary’s twentiethcentury economy and remains the most significant industry today; however, The City has invested into other areas such as tourism and high-tech manufacturing.

The Bow River

The Bow River is a 645 km-long dynamic migratory corridor channeling both natural and cultural systems. Originating at the Bow Glacier and fed by snow and glacial ice of the Continental Divide, the Bow River descends through the Rocky Mountains and their foothills before winding through Calgary and on to eastern prairie lands.

For more than 10,000 years the river has been used by humans. For First Nations people, the Bow River and surrounding area provided essential sustenance. It is also an important means of sustenance for plants and wildlife. The Bow is the most inhabited flood plain in Alberta and its flows are among the most managed. Multiple dams and reservoirs regulate 40% of the river’s flow, with volumes strategically released to control flooding and supply hydroelectric power as well as irrigation and drinking water to the Province as well as municipal, commercial, and industrial users. Water from the Bow is diverted to irrigation canals directed east toward agricultural lands. The Bow had a long history as a transportation corridor for seasonal movement of First Nations people, and later the logging industry. Today the Bow River is a magnet for outdoor recreation.

A great diversity and abundance of birds, fish, mammals, and plants can be found within the Bow River basin. In contrast with the dry open prairielands typical to Alberta, the river beds are the most densely vegetated parts of the landscape. The name “Bow” refers to the reeds that grew along its banks and were used by First

Nations people to make bows. River valleys such as the Bow are key migratory routes for animals, especially in developed areas such as the Calgary environs that have only fragmented areas of suitable habitat.

The Bow River, the lifeblood of Calgary, is a highly dynamic force. The river’s shorelines and flood plains continuously move and reform with varying levels of flow and periodic flood events. Snowmelt in the mountains can combine with intense rainfall to result in high water levels during flood season, in Calgary occurring from May 15 to July 15. Calgary’s 2013 flood added significant sediment, soil and rocks to the Bow and Elbow Rivers and caused existing sediment to relocate, creating new gravel bars, islands and river banks. The flood also caused extensive property damage pointing to an opportunity to balance nature, industry, and recreation in the restoration of the shoreline.

Downtown Calgary with Bow River in the foreground, c. 2007

Bow River in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains

Inglewood

The Bend in the Bow park sites are at the east edge of Calgary’s Inglewood neighborhood, which is geographically bounded on its north and east sides by the Bow River, on its west side by the Elbow River, and on its south side by the Canadian Pacific Railway yard. Inglewood defines itself as a river-based community with a strong environmental ethic. It is Calgary’s oldest neighborhood, having been established in 1875. Originally known as Brewery Flats, after the Calgary Brewery and Malting Company, in 1911 the neighborhood was renamed Inglewood, after Colonel Walker’s homestead in what is now the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary.

Today, Inglewood is a centrally located urban village. It contains a mix of industrial, commercial, retail, and recreational buildings, schools, a seasonal farmers’ market, and residences. The commercial district of Inglewood is centred in mostly historic buildings on 9th Avenue and is known as an arts and shopping district, hosting several annual festivals such as Sunfest, Beakerhead, and the Calgary Fringe Festival and home to several galleries including the Esker Foundation. Many Inglewood businesses are staffed by Inglewood residents, creating a tightly woven community.

BEND IN THE BOW PLACES

Inglewood Wildlands

The 34-hectare parcel known as the Inglewood Wildlands is located on a former site of the British-American Oil Company’s refinery operations.

Previously, the Wildlands are thought to have been hunting grounds for First Nations peoples. In 1882, Colonel James Walker established his homestead on the property, using the Wildlands area for an entry drive and livestock corral. After his death, ownership of the land was transferred to The City of Calgary, who sold it to the British-American Oil Company. Beginning in 1939, B-A refined crude oil delivered to the site by pipeline, generating oil products that were distributed via rail. A series of mergers and acquisitions transferred ownership of the property to Gulf Canada in 1960 and PetroCanada in 1985, around which time refinery operations on the site ceased and a period of remediation commenced. Today, the Inglewood Wildlands is a green space owned by Suncor Energy and leased to The City of Calgary, who maintains the grounds as parkland.

Inglewood Bird Sanctuary

The 67-hectare parcel known as the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary (IBS) is Canada’s only federallyrecognized bird sanctuary to be located within an urban setting. Before IBS was a sanctuary, the land was owned by Colonel James Walker, one of Calgary’s founding citizens who took up homesteading on the property in the early 1880s.

Colonel Walker became one of Calgary’s first industrialists when he opened a sawmill on his homestead property in 1882. Colonel Walker’s conservationist son, Selby, and naturalist George Pickering applied for and were granted Federal Bird Migratory Sanctuary status for the Walker Homestead land in 1929. After his father died, Selby sold a portion of the land to Consolidated Concrete for a sand and gravel operation. When Selby died in 1953, Ed Jefferies acquired the remaining property and operated a gravel pit while leasing part of it to the Alberta Fish & Game Association.

Agriculture has long been associated with the property, starting with Walker’s orchards and gardens and developing into farms run by Chinese families who leased land from the Walkers. Selby sold a portion of the property to Cornelius Brinks, whose company Brink Florist operated greenhouses until the year 2000.

In 1970, The City of Calgary purchased the property and has been managing it as a natural reserve ever since. The magnificent lagoon at the centre of the Sanctuary is a magnet for both wildlife and people. The sanctuary’s Nature Centre was built in 1996. With its exhibits, classrooms, meeting rooms, offices, and exhibits, it serves as a centre for planning and delivering environmental education programs to the general public, school groups, and summer camps. Children’s “nature exploration” programs include classroom work and field studies. Adult programs include bird adventuring, illustrated and interpretive walks, field journalling, photography, wetland study, urban wildlife rehabilitation, and volunteer stewardship. The Colonel Walker House and its lawn is also used for classroom and office space and can be rented for events limited to 30 people with a 3-hour maximum stay.

IBS pathways are open to the public from sunrise to sunset. Visitation peaks between May and June, with 75% of visits occurring on weekends. To address the popularity of its education programs, IBS is currently adding an outdoor classroom to create an immersive learning experience in the north field, a section of the Sanctuary previously used for storage. Longterm plans for the Sanctuary are focused around maintenance of the wildlife refuge, habitat reclamation and restoration, regeneration of the Balsam Poplar forest and grassland, development of river islands, wildlife rehabilitation, volunteer stewardship, education, and research expansion.

Bend in the Bow’s goal in the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary is to explore and address ways to preserve, enhance, and celebrate the only urban centred, federally recognized bird sanctuary in Canada, while retaining the historic significance of the Colonel Walker Historic Site.

Bridge into the Inglewood community

Looking across the lagoon to Colonel Walker’s 1910 Italianate red brick residence, called Inglewood, at Inglewood Bird Sanctuary

Inglewood Wildlands

“The Island”

The riverine peninsula of the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, between the lagoon and Bow River, is a cherished, precious, and important habitat. It is a rare gem that needs to be preserved as a wildlife refuge and sanctuary. A sense of wonder and feeling of significance accompanies crossing over the bridges in the lagoon to enter into this exceptional and verdant landscape. The immediacy of the light, color, sounds, smells, and life in this watery threshold permeates the senses. Crossing physical, sensory boundaries like this are often linked to crossing mental boundaries that can open up new ways of seeing the world.

This feeling is not unlike the experience of landing on an island. Indeed, in earlier times the present-day peninsular landform of IBS was an island, with what is now the lagoon then a side channel connected on both ends to the Bow River. In his homestead affidavit of 1882, Colonel Walker describes his plan for “storing logs in the western channel of the Bow River, which I feel I can accomplish by throwing a boom and dam across to the small island in the middle of the stream as shown in the plan filed herewith.”

The Bend in the Bow project is exploring the possibility of reconnecting the lagoon to the river by creating a small cut at its north end, with a weir installed to control flows of water. The south end of the lagoon already connects to the river with a weir. In addition to re-creating the island, the ecological benefits of this move would be to flush the lagoon periodically as well as minimize shoreline damage to the lagoon during floods because the high water would be allowed flow through freely.

The Bow River as it passes through Calgary includes several other islands, one of which sits adjacent to Pearce Estate Park, forming the

western edge of Harvie Passage. Historically, and to some degree today, the islands, with their riparian habitat of towering poplar trees and saskatoon, willow, and berry bushes, acted like small green oases in contrast with the otherwise treeless prairie.

Islands possess a sense of isolation and individuality, something “other.” They can be vividly out of sync with their surroundings; even distinctly strange and unconventional. Arriving at an island can sometimes feel like stepping back or forward in time and affords us perspective through which to view our surroundings through a new lens. An island that is small in size, like that at the Sanctuary, can be large in the impact of the message it transmits. It can be a compact platform for enacting transformative difference on a societal scale.

map of Colonel Walker’s Island Sanctuary, printed in the Calgary Daily Herald, March 16, 1929

Calgary Tourist map c. 1950, with the Inglewood neighborhood in the right foreground and a rectangle around current site of the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, shown as an island

Walker’s homestead affidavit, 1882, describing his plans to build a dam to a “small island,” allowing him to float log booms supplying the sawmill he proposes to build

Pearce Estate Park

The 21-hectare parcel known as Pearce Estate Park is located on the former property of early Calgarian William E. Pearce, who donated the land to The City. The park lies alongside a bend in the Bow River that features gravel bars, islands, and the Bow River Weir, which diverts water to inland areas for irrigation. Pearce Estate Park combines natural habitat with active recreation, including a swath of riverine forest, floating fens, and natural shoreline areas as well as picnic tables, a playground, and river access for non-motorized boats.

The park is also home to the provincially operated Bow Habitat Station, built in 1973 and including a Discovery Centre with interactive exhibits and aquariums tied to different ecosystems, the indoor Sam Livingston Fish Hatchery which raises millions of rainbow, brown, brook, cutthroat and bull trout and arctic grayling every year, a canal and fenland used to release and filter effluent from the Hatchery, and the catch-and-release “Kids Can Catch” Trout Pond. An interpretive wetland and winding Coldwater Stream include aquatic habitats that supplement displays in the Discovery Centre. Similar to programs run by The City at Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, the Province runs

educational programs at Bow Habitat Station, with an intention of fostering awareness, appreciation, and responsible use of Alberta’s natural resources.

Bow Passage Overlook

Bow Passage Overlook is an experiential environment overlooking the Bow River Weir in Pearce Estate Park. It is composed of natural stone, including large basalt columns that evoke the power and force of the Bow River. Artist Lorna Jordan, design team lead, was inspired by the geology of the Bow River watershed, including its Rocky Mountains and stepped terraces. Bow Passage Overlook was completed in 2014. It was commissioned by The City of Calgary Public Art Program and Utilities and Environmental Protection Department through a partnership with the Inglewood Community. No changes to Bow Passage Overlook will occur with Bend in the Bow.

The Corridor

The portion of Bend in the Bow known as the Corridor comprises two existing adjacent open space elements, the Inglewood Ball Diamonds and a narrow sliver of landscape along a segment of the Bow River Regional Pathway.

Bow River Regional Pathway

The Bow River Regional Pathway is a paved multi-use regional pathway connecting a network of riverside parks between Bearspaw Dam on its northwest end to Fish Creek Provincial Park on its southeast end. The Pathway is used by pedestrians, cyclists, joggers, rollerbladers, and dogwalkers and includes several river crossings integrated with train and automobile bridges.

The Pathway enters the south end of Bend in the Bow near a stormwater outfall, then runs alongside a railroad spur threading between the Sanctuary and Wildlands. From there it continues west, beside a row of houses, until it hi ts the river and turns north into the Corridor. After the pathway passes under the Cushing Bridge, it travels through Pearce Estate Park and exits Bend in the Bow by passing under an iconic railroad trestle, heading west toward downtown Calgary.

The regional pathway has a high use by cyclist commuters. Other users include Inglewood residents and people from other places visiting the parks, especially Pearce Estate Park where it forms a primary circulation route. The pathway will remain mostly intact and in its current alignment as it moves through Bend in the Bow, except for a few small segments where minor adjustments may be made to accommodate both wildlife passage and human activites. The landscape flanking the Pathway in the Corridor will be enhanced for wildlife mobility.

Inglewood Ball Diamonds

There are two well-used baseball diamonds in a field enclosed by a chainlink fence south of Blackfoot Trail and west of the regional pathway, with an adjacent informal parking area in the previous alignment of the Grand Trunk Railway. Because of their active recreational use and large footprints, as well as the future transitway along the Blackfoot Trail, the diamonds are incompatible with the wildlife mobility corridor planned as part of Bend in the Bow. Thus the City plans to relocate the fields. However, this section of Bend in the Bow will continue to have active recreational uses.

Pearce Estate Park

Bow River as seen from the Bow River Pathway in the Corridor, with Cushing Bridge in the background

Inglewood Ball Diamonds

Bow Passage Overlook, by Lorna Jordan

WATER & FLOODING

The Bow River is relatively wide and shallow, causing its flood plains to be fairly far-reaching. The Bow River’s banks, islands, and flood plains continuously move with changing seasonal water levels and flood events. While this action can bring damage to the landscape, floods are part of the natural system and their effects are essential for a healthy ecosystem.

Inland water bodies, most of which are manmade, also characterize the site and are important to the Bend in the Bow habitat.

Almost every story told at Bend in the Bow features water as a theme. The river, lagoon, ponds, streams, wetlands, canals and ditches all

tell their own tale about the interface of nature, culture, and education—each unique in its cast of characters, plot, themes, scene, and period.

WILDLIFE

Promoting and protecting interconnectivity of habitats is a primary goal of Bend in the Bow. Existing stands of riverine forest provide significant habitat at the Inglewood Sanctuary and Pearce Estate Park. Bend in the Bow will implement a Wildlife Mobility Corridor to connect the two existing patches. This is meant to encourage wildlife migration along the river, most of which occurs at night. Plant types, wildlife, habitat, path configurations and materials, light levels, and activity types and times of occurrence will be further studied as the Corridor is designed in detail.

A particularly challenging area of the Wildlife Mobility Corridor occurs at its intersection with Blackfoot Trail. Abutments of the Cushing Bridge create a pinch point in the passage under the bridge. Exacerbating this problem, much of the already narrow space is occupied by a concrete pathway, a surface not favored by wildlife. Further impact to this area will occur when a new Bus Rapid Transit bridge is built adjacent to Cushing Bridge. To mitigate these various impacts, Bend in the Bow is proposing to build the river bank out here and use the extra width to create the type of natural ground that animals like to traverse.

A second proposal for this area is to add screens, dense plantings, and coarse paving to the embankments flanking the Blackfoot Trail, to prevent deer and other wildlife from trying to cross over the road rather than under it.

Existing plantings in the Wildlife Mobility Corridor, and other parts of Bend in the Bow, will be enhanced to create stronger habitat

conditions. A combination of trees, shrubs, and grasses will be planted along the river to reduce bank erosion, enhance wildlife and promote biodiversity.

NOTE: The icons on this map denote general and approximate locations of wildlife species at Bend in the Bow, as derived from books, wildlife sighting maps at Inglewood Bird Sanctuary maintained by volunteers, tours with wildlife biologists, and observation by the art planners. This is not a comprehensive list and is always evolving.

PAST PLACES

Overlay of Time

The “parks that tell stories” concept unifies how people use the land—in the past, present, and future. Varied and sometimes opposing uses have coexisted at this site for years. Human uses are linked to the site’s natural systems, like water and wildlife, contributing to Bend in the Bow’s rich legacy combining nature and culture.

Key Historic Uses:

 First Nations people of the Blackfoot Confederacy (hunting, camping)

 Railroad (transporation)

 Walker Homestead (residence, agriculture, conservation)

 Walker Sawmill (industry)

 Chinese Market Gardeners (agriculture)

 Jeffries & Sons Ltd. and Consolidated Concrete (industry)

 Alberta Game & Wildlife (conservation)

 Inglewood Bird Sanctuary (conservation, restoration, education, documentation)

 British-American Oil Company, followed by other oil refineries (industry)

 Inglewood Wildlands (remediation, conservation, recreation)

 William Pearce Estate (residence, conservation)

 Pearce tree trials (conservation)

 Bow River Weir (industry, agriculture)

 Harvie Passage (recreation)

First Nations People

First Nations people of the Blackfoot Confederacy have inhabited the Bow River Basin on the land now mapped as Calgary for more than 10,000 years. Major traditional divisions include the Siksika, Piikani, and Kainai. The Blackfoot people traversed their traditional territory that once stretched between Alberta’s North Saskatchewan River, Saskatchewan’s Great Sand Hills, Montana’s Yellowstone River and the Continental Divide. They lived within extended familial social groups under non-hierarchical, consensus-based leadership structures. In the Inglewood area, it is surmised the Blackfoot seasonally hunted bison and other game. While they did not extensively fish for food, the Blackfoot did use the tree-lined river banks for encampments because they were a source of game, water and firewood. Evidence of a pre-historic fire has been found in the north end of the bird sanctuary, along the Bow River’s meandering shoreline. These remains could indicate a winter encampment inhabited while they hunted the surrounding wildlands and prairies, or it could be there was only one fire made while they ate a meal along the river.

bend in the

Colonel Walker

Colonel James Walker was one of the founders of The City of Calgary. As a businessman and civic leader, Walker was an active proponent of City improvement, education, and outdoor recreation. He was involved in many endeavors, serving as a mounted police officer, rancher, lumberman and school board chairman; and founding the Calgary Agricultural Society. From 1882 to 1903, Walker operated a sawmill on the open river plain of his homestead property at the site he named Inglewood. He dammed an inner channel of the Bow River to form a lagoon that sits above the river’s high water level, where he stored logs in floating booms. The mill was one of Calgary’s first manufacturing industries, supplying the nascent city with building materials to grow its economy. Walker’s Italianate red brick residence, built in 1910, is one of the few remaining agricultural homesteads in the inner city. On these grounds, Walker experimented with agricultural crops and techniques. In 1975, Walker was named Calgary’s Citizen of the Century. In 1977, the Colonel Walker Residence and Homestead Lands were declared a Provincial Historic Resource.

Chinese Market Gardens

From the 1930s to 1950s, Chinese families operated active market gardens on the Walker homestead grounds. Colonel Walker informally agreed to lease the land for gardening and his daughter-in-law administered the rentals. Three Chinese families lived on the property in small buildings without electricity or plumbing. They hand-dug a 20’ well and also pumped water from the lagoon to irrigate their crops. In the 1940s, the British-American Oil Company (that operated a refinery on the adjacent tract of land) dug the families a new 60’ well. Greenhouses scattered on the property supported a seasonal agricultural lifestyle. According to family descendents, in January, children wielding pick axes broke frozen sod and carried it into the warm greenhouses to be mulched. The mulch was then used to fill wood veneer boxes that were planted and grown in the greenhouses. Fields were sowed in the spring and bedding plants were sold in May. Their major harvest was in September and the children went to school in October. In the winter, root cellars held vegetables that were sold at Calgary-area markets.

Conservation

In 1929 the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary became one of the first federally designated migratory bird sanctuaries in Canada, following ratification of the Migratory Bird Convention Act by the U.S. and Canada in 1917. The Sanctuary was founded by Colonel Walker’s son, Selby, on 59 acres of the Bow River channel and islands east of the Walker homestead. Selby’s friend, naturalist George Pickering, lived in a cabin on the south end of the property and managed the sanctuary. Pickering developed paths and gardens, started a fish hatchery in the lagoon, bred and tended birds (in the area at the south end of the site still designated for wildlife research), brought in exotic birds for show, and ran a bird feeding program (with bread crumbs) for the public. Pickering estimated in 1950 some 6,000 birds stopped at the sanctuary during spring and fall migrations. Volunteers and staff have recorded observations of some 270 bird species, 21 mammal species, and 347 plant species at Inglewood Bird Sanctuary.

bow stories

Ecological Superheroes?

Refinery

Floods

Peak flows of the Bow River typically occur in June, when snow pack and glacial melt in the mountains is highest. In June 2013, unusually heavy rainfall triggered catastrophic floods along the Bow, prompting states of emergency and evacuations. At the peak of the flooding, the Bow River was flowing through Calgary at an estimated rate of 1,458 cubic metres per second, five times its normal rate for this time of the year. At the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary water inundated the lagoon, while at Pearce Estate Park the river rose to such a level that it merged with the trout pond before starting to recede. A large volume of silt, rocks, branches, and man-made debris was deposited over habitats, infrastructure and riverbanks were washed out, and trees were uprooted. Post-flood restoration is being undertaken with aims to minimize stress to sensitive environments, limit damage to manmade structures, and better understand new river flow patterns and the benefits flooding can bring to habitats.

The North American Beaver is considered nature’s great ecosystem engineer. In search of food, shelter, and protection from predators, beavers fell trees on riverbanks for their dam complexes built in mud, wood, and stone. They typically build up to five feet of dam per day and have been known to rebuild a dam overnight. Dams create upstream ponds, which beavers use to float materials and food. Their dams slow water run-off during floods, sustain flows during drought, reduce water turbidity downstream, and increase water retention capacities of the surrounding landscape. The wetland plants that grow up around dams ameliorate water pollution by absorbing and processing contaminants. With their experiential responsiveness and power to transform their environment, the beaver exemplifies “the new superhero,” a receiver and generator of power in a dynamic environment and using that power to change the world. However, in urban areas where beavers lack predators, they are simultaneously poised as supervillains, literally eating themselves out of house and home and contributing to the decline of riverine forests.

In 1939, the British American Oil Company (BA) acquired 90 acres of land adjacent to the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary from The City of Calgary, who had received the land from Selby Walker as payment for tax debts. B-A used the land to operate a major refinery. Crude oil from Turner Valley oil field was carried to the site in a pipeline and processed into fuels, asphalt, and distillates. B-A distributed these products via rail. B-A’s Inglewood operations contributed to Calgary becoming an administrative centre of the regional petroleum industry. As a result of a merger with Gulf Canada (and later with Petro Canada), the Inglewood refinery was closed in 1973. Gulf Canada continued to operate the facilities as an asphalt plant until 1984, after which most of the refinery was dismantled. The only remaining building is a small, red brick and steel transformer building that once transmitted electricity to the refinery and now transmits symbolic value as a visual reminder of the past. At certain times of year traces of the previous large storage tanks can be seen on the ground.

Remediation

Cleanup of the former refinery land, renamed the Wildlands, began in 1992 as a joint effort between Petro Canada, The City of Calgary, Rotary Clubs of Calgary, Ducks Unlimited, and the Inglewood Wildlands Development Society. Forty years of oil refining on site had left the soil and water contaminated five metres below ground. Work began with pumping liquid petroleum out of the water table to prevent seepage into the Bow River. A hydrocarbon recovery ditch was excavated and later transformed into a wetland pond, with its spoils used to form an adjacent lookout hill. 58,000 cubic meters of clean soil was brought in to cover certain portions of the site while others were left barren for further monitoring, experimentation, and observation. 35,000 native shrubs and trees have been planted that both remediate the soil through root extraction and metabolic transformation and provide food and habitat for wildlife. Native grasses now cover 60% of the Wildlands. Suncor Energy, which merged with Petro-Canada in 2010, continues mitigation and monitoring efforts in the Wildlands, with phytoremediation and other techniques. More than 1.5 million litres of oil have been removed, and still, asphalt, with a sticky, black shine, occasionally rises to the surface of some areas in the Wildlands.

William Pearce

William Pearce was a visionary “city builder” who advocated for both development of the region’s natural resources and conservation of its public lands. In 1889, Pearce built a grand, sandstone home—affectionately named “Bow Bend Shack”—within the floodplain on his riverine property. The home was named for the distinctive bend in the river at this location. Pearce had moved from Ontario to Calgary in 1884 to become the Superintendent of Mines, charged with regulating all resources in the Northwest Territories. He qualified for the role based on ten years of experience as a professional surveyor, during which time he inspected and regulated Western lands, gaining recognition as a protector of land and water resources for the greater public good. A decade of severe drought in the prairies led Pearce to advocate to protect Calgary’s water resources for public use. His work led to the passage of the Northwest Irrigation Act in 1894, resulting construction of agricultural irrigation canals and the Bow River Weir. After he left civil service, he spent his last days at Bow Bend Shack and was laid to rest at Union Cemetery. His land was donated to The City of Calgary to become Pearce Estate Park. The house was demolished in 1967. Its former site is currently occupied by the SoBow condominium development.

Experimental Trees

William Pearce imagined Calgary as a “city of trees.” On his property at what is now Pearce Estate Park, he created Western Canada’s first irrigated demonstration farm with a canal and windmill-powered pump drawing water from the Bow River. Here he conducted trials to test the hardiness of extensive species of trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants and pioneered bioengineering with the use of bank-stabilizing trees and shrubs along the Bow River. Pearce developed a nursery on his property and worked with his neighbor, Colonel Walker, to try various plantings to improve their properties. Walker also experimented at his estate with plants at his orchards and gardens. To help realize his City Beautiful vision (a turn-of-the-century planning philosophy to introduce beautification and grandeur to urban areas to improve social harmony and quality of life), Pearce advised fellow Calgarians to plant trees on their own properties. In 1899, his influence led The City to take up a pro-tree stance, establishing treeprotection laws and street tree planting programs that led to Calgary’s urban forest. Today, the use of trees for phytoremediation in the Wildlands continues this tradition of experimenting with trees in the urban landscape.

Bow River Weir

A history of waterway engineering projects, beginning with William Pearce’s irrigation works, characterizes the portion of the Bow River adjacent to Pearce Estate Park. In 1904, a major weir was constructed to divert part of the river flow into canals for inland agricultural irrigation. Because of its concave profile, which was like a ski-jump, the weir created a circulating, downstream undertow. Pelicans feasted on fish trapped in the undertow; but fish weren’t the only ones trapped. By the mid-1970, the Bend in the Bow stretch of river gained the nickname “the drowning machine” due to numerous drownings. To prevent more incidents, a divergence was completed in 2012, named “Harvie Passage” after a major donor, which enabled passage for non-motorized boats and fish while maintaining water diversions from the Bow River. The Passage was a manufactured set of rapids with two channels: one Class 2 and the other Class 3 rapids. It was only enjoyed for one year before major floods in 2013 destroyed the Passage. A rebuilding effort by the Province of Alberta is currently underway.

Fisheries

Bow Habitat Station, in Pearce Estate Park, has attractions that link education with stewardship of wildlife resources. The Station collectively consists of the Discovery Centre, a Trout Pond, an Interpretive Wetland, and the Sam Livingston Fish Hatchery. The Hatchery opened in 1973, named after one of Calgary’s founding fathers. Development of the cutting-edge hatchery was overseen by Alex Sinclair, then superintendent of the Calgary Brewing and Malting Company that operated across the railroad tracks from the Hatchery. Both the Hatchery and Brewery drew its water from the same source: the Inglewood Aquifer, first drilled by A.E. Cross for the Brewery. Today, trout eggs arrive at Sam Livingston, having been harvested from adult fish at Raven and Allison Brood trout stations. The fish are raised to fry. Then, in spring, some are transported by tanker trucks to area lakes. Once there, the fish are released through hoses from the tanks to stock the lakes.

GLOSSARY

moh-kíns-tsis 1 : elbow 2 : early name for the the place currently known as Calgary, named for the large bend in what is now called the Bow River; etymology: Blackfoot (Siksika) word

calgary 1 : the largest city in the Canadian province of Alberta; etymology: kald and gart, Old Norse words for “cold” and “garden”; alternatively, caladh and garaidh, Gaelic words meaning “the haven by the dyke,” or “bay farm,” or “clear running water.”

inglewood 1 : Calgary’s oldest neighborhood 2 a : a wood in a corner b : a woodland in a bend 3 : a light in a woodland; etymology: aingeal, Gaelic word meaning “fireplace or angle” and wode, and Old Irish word meaning “tree.”

ecology 1 : science that studies the interaction of living organisms 2 : universal manner of being in the world; etymology: logos, Greek word for “natural” + oikos, Greek word for “relations of home”

habitat 1 : the environment in which a plant or animal lives and grows; includes not only the place where a species is found, but also the particular characteristics of the place that make it especially well suited to meet the life cycle needs of that species; etymology: habitare, Latin word for “dwell; inhabit.”

sanctuary 1 : a place of refuge or protection for wildlife where predators are controlled and hunting is illegal 2 : the protection that is provided by a safe place 3 : a sacred or consecrated place; etymology: sanctus, Latin word for “holy.”

wildland 1 : a sparsely inhabited or uncultivated region or tract that may be unfit for cultivation 2 : land that is not subject to human restraint or regulation; uncontrolled or unruly; not tame 3 : a place with a free, natural, sensational, or fantastic state of existence; etymology: wilde + land, Middle English words for “in the natural state, uncultivated” and “earth, ground, territory.”

estate 1 : a piece of landed property, especially one of large extent with an elaborate house on it 2 : a period or condition of life; etymology: stare, Latin word for “to stand” and status, Latin word for “state or condition, position, place.”

Vision for Art

PHILOSOPHICAL FRAMEWORK

A Values Approach

Artists can convey the values of Bend in the Bow through aesthetic lenses that capture the public’s imagination and arouse emotional connections with the place. A greater variety of projects and approaches brought to Bend in the Bow will expand and diversify the perspective of thinking about the values and place.

While each individual artwork may emphasize different aspects of Bend in the Bow’s core values of nature, culture and education, each project should to some degree embody all three. By relating, juxtaposing and hybridizing these values and weaving between site systems inherent to all three, like water and landscape, the artworks will convey a multifaceted expression of Bend in the Bow’s values and stories and synthesize a display of methods supporting the conservation, production and demonstration of habitat and heritage. This expression will gain nuance with each perceptive field brought to the art by creators, viewers, and participants.

Vision for Public Art

Engaging and transformative art at Bend in the Bow operates on the land and its visitors to cultivate meaningful connections with th e environment, support habitat-forming processes, and inspire and educate the public about the natural resilience and cultural significance of the place.

Mission of the Public Art Plan

 Guide the programming, conceptualization and execution of artworks that enrich and diversify the public’s understanding and experience of Bend in the Bow’s core values of nature, culture, and education.

 Create a legacy of art that is inspired by the site’s past heritage while acting to shape the future evolution of Bend in the Bow’s dynamic landscape.

 Balancing art operating over long time frames to slowly restore ecological systems with art occurring over shorter time frames to raise awareness of the site’s transformational cycles.

Guiding Principles for Public Art

 Synthesize natural and cultural systems.

 Operate as a laboratory.

 Convey scientific information.

 Act as both a catalyst and barometer of ecological function.

 Take cues from flora and fauna to develop resilience.

 Work in concert with wildlife rather than in contrast.

 Consider the use of natural materials appropriate to the environment.

 Encourage direct sensory engagement.

 Arouse emotional connection with place.

 Position people as part of nature.

 Position people as visitors amongst wildlife residents.

 Reveal the site’s dynamic and diverse cycles.

 Capture the imagination.

 Put magic into the message.

CONCEPTUAL THEMES

Storytelling

Art can express the exchange of nature and culture through stories. Site-specific artists are often storytellers who relay poetics of place. Storytellers weave narratives designed to interest, amuse, remind, warn, or educate. While the most enthralling stories are often rooted in real events, a merging of illusion with memory can produce a captivating narrative through which to communicate the human condition.

Just as narrated stories can jump between historic, contemporary, and futuristic periods, stories told through art can thread together different time frames. Art can trace tales honoring Bend in the Bow’s past while envisioning and stimulating its future development. Art can offer a path that links the present moment of lived experience to both past recollections and future predictions through immersive experiences that physically connect people to the stories being told.

Exploration

Calgarians are forward thinkers who like to take risks and try new things to push The City forward. This is evidenced at Bend in the Bow through the stories of William Pearce and Colonel Walker, community volunteers, public agencies, and industrial companies who collaborated to manifest a vision of reclaiming the Wildlands, and the teams of scientists and engineers exploring new ways to rebuild and protect habitat along the Bow River.

Like science, art is an exploration. Sitespecific artists investigate place-based systems, stories, materials, and phenomena that support and broaden the concepts of their investigation. With the right collaborations and procedures in place, art at Bend in the Bow can exhibit an exploratory theme, mixing boldness with caution, innovation with flexibility, to inspire generations of Calgarians on one level to explore the parks of Bend in the Bow and on another level to move The City in new directions.

Experimentation

Use of the scientific method combined with inventive practices of manipulating aesthetic, natural, and cultural systems to broadly elicit habitat-forming processes is an area for ample exploration by artists at Bend in the Bow. This could include environmental and sculptural treatments that are based in scientific data but are yet untried, conceptual framing devices that highlight processes at work in the landscape, a combination of both, or something else entirely.

Nature will survive into the future in some fantastic format, but we do not know what it will look like or act like. We do not know what people of the future will value—whether it will be wild, undisturbed nature or nature that has been managed to survive the changes that our world is undergoing. It is important that we continue to experiment and learn and develop tools for many possible future scenarios.

The art opportunities identified in this plan offer artists possibilities for collaborating with scientists to develop and test experimental methods of ecological stewardship that could be of value to present as well as future generations. Particularly at the Wildlands, with its already highly altered soil chemistry, art might experiment with new methods for regenerating ecological function in an urban condition.

The “controls” for these experiments are the large sections of Bend in the Bow that will be left unchanged or will be enhanced with only a very light touch, leaning toward conservation rather than experimentation.

Migration

Many natural systems move across the site. Perhaps most important to Bend in the Bow is the migration of wildlife. Many animals travel through seasonally. Also critical are the migration of the river’s gravel bars, islands, and channels; and the migration, or succession, of the riverine forest. All of these types of migration occur over time and space.

Cultural migrations at Bend in the Bow are evident in its layers of accumulated history, the transportation network of trains, trails, pathways and bridges that pass through it, and the goods that have moved across the land.

Art can assist to reveal and bring fluidity to beneficial natural migrations like wildlife, as well as cultural migrations of history, industry and knowledge. Conversely, art can also be used to impede harmful migrations like soil pollutants into ground water and flood water, invasive species, and people into fragile ecologies.

“If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.”

–Rudyard Kipling

Wildness

Wildness is a construct of human consciousness, a recognition of being both a part of and separate from the natural world. Experiences of wildness occur in the liminal state of recognizing this otherness, or presence of something that exceeds cultural definition. Wildness is a subjectively defined state that varies with each moment of human history and to some degree within each person at any given moment in time.

Art objects are themselves not constructions of wildness, but art can be conceived and placed with an aspiration to arouse perceptive experiences or impressions of wildness.

Wonder

Some artists seek to reveal phenomena of the world around us through objects of wonder. Wonders, historically, were rare objects that intertwined nature and artifice in usual ways. Collections of wonders were the precursors to natural history museums.

Wonder is also a dynamic passion; a “sudden surprise of the soul” (as described by Rene Descartes) in the presence of something mysterious and extraordinary, but real. Wonder happens at the line between the known and unknown. It elicits curiosity and inspires inquiry. Often accompanying an experience of wonder is an investigation, long or short, that brings a sudden realization of knowledge to the viewer, an “a-ha” moment.

Seeing a rainbow remains a delight even after you understand the circumstances and science behind its occurrence. The experience of radiant color gripping the visual senses is arguably even enhanced by that understanding. The knowledge of how sun meets rain at perfect angles to the horizon and eye, and how that orients and places you in the momentary environment, is only surpassed by the emotional experience of being in the presence of the light.

“Wonders tend to cluster at the margins rather than at the center of the known world…, suspended between the mundane and the miraculous.”

–

Lorraine Daston and Katharine Park

The Sublime

The sublime, also a passion, unlike wonder, does not reveal itself. The sublime occurs when we encounter a phenomenon that we intuit is infinite but which we are unable to understand through reason. It is the recognition and awe of our incapacity to attain a full understanding of the vastness simultaneous with the fleeting realization that an “all” of the universe exists. The sublime can not be represented or predicted. It is in many ways a chance occurrence affecting different people in different circumstances, similar to wildness. The sublime is transformational. It can change vocabularies and break conventions to evoke hidden potential.

The sublime arises most often in the presence of nature and, coupled with the “beautiful,” has been an aesthetic that has inspired landscape painters and designers for centuries.

Related, and applying to the Wildlands, is an idea of the “industrial sublime,” wherein industrial works are transfigured into aesthetic objects. These objects are made heroic by their isolation and lack of functional context. These often monumental forms can evoke the sublime as expressions of our often precarious attempts to control nature through technology.

“Poetic transfiguration enables an unfolding of things previously unforeseen, raising people to a perception of the wonderful and the infinite.”

– James Corner

Augmented Reality

An augmented reality is a mediated reality in which information about the environment is overlaid onto the real world. Merging fiction with fact, illusion with memory, an augmented reality can provide an enchanting, often interactive artistic lens through which to experience stories about a place.

In digital media, augmented reality refers to supplementing real-world environments with computer-generated content. Analogously, site-based artworks like those proposed for Bend in the Bow can place technologically simple physical interventions into the real landscape in such a way that they augment how people perceive environmental conditions—framing them, magnifying them, erasing them, altering them—actually or conceptually, depending on the artist’s exploration.

An augmented reality can add information, cast a future vision, reflect a past scene, overlap storylines, or enhance people’s understanding of the present.

Art Opportunities

SUMMARY OF PUBLIC ART OPPORTUNITIES

Legend of Projects

Flood Protection Landform

Thresholds

Tank Trace Area

Beaver Screen

Blackfoot Underpass

Separator Trench Tree Lab

Pearce Monument

Transformer Beacon

Wildlife Hide Area

Lagoon Inlet

Floating Island Area

Picnic and Play Areas

Human Screen

Deer Screen

Ephemeral

Programming Area

Artist-in-Residence

Screen

Please note that areas indicated on this and other Art Opportunity maps include potential art locations known to date. Final art locations are to be determined by artists and The City based on opportunities and constraints of the site and project.

Opportunity Place Summary Notes

Opportunity Place Summary Notes

Tank Traces Wildlands

Reconceptualize the footprints of the site’s former oil tanks, drawing on habitat-forming processes and site systems to enact a landscape as laboratory.

Process led by The City of Calgary Public Art.

Separator Trench Wildlands

Develop views into a long, narrow, vegetated, waterfilled trench that was formerly used to clean groundwater as part of site remediation.

Process led by The City of Calgary Public Art.

Transformer Beacon Wildlands

The only extant structure from the oil refinery conceived as a beacon.

Process led by The City of Calgary Public Art.

Wildlife Hides Wildlands Sanctuary Corridor

Lagoon Inlet Sanctuary

Create a set of enclosures that reveal, mediate and frame unique aspects of the environment in which they are set.

Process led by The City of Calgary Public Art.

Conceive a weir that controls the flow of water from the Bow River into the lagoon and passage of people onto the island. Capital project driven (CPD); collaborate with design team.

Artists or artist teams shall be selected simultaneously to develop projects for the Wildlands based on the identified opportunities. Artists shall convene to research the site and conceive of art strategies, alignments, overlaps, and juxtapositions; considering a holistic approach as well as individual approaches. It is recommended that The City provide appropriate Project Partners to support the artists’ work.

Tree Labs

Floating Island

Corridor Wildlands

Sanctuary

D isseminate knowledge about the use of trees in urban forests, phytoremediation, and habitat formation.

Capital project driven (CPD); collaborate with design team.

Sanctuary

Pearce Estate Park

Picnic

Corridor

Sanctuary

Play

Pearce Estate Park

Corridor

Create a floating island in the lagoon that supports aquatic and wildlife habitat.

Process led by The City of Calgary Public Art.

Create sculptural picnic furniture, drawing on site qualities and heritage and creating a playful atmosphere for gathering and learning.

Capital project driven (CPD); collaborate with design team.

Create an immersive, sculptural play environment that conveys stories of the site.

Capital project driven (CPD); collaborate with design team.

Projects could include artwork sited at Bend in the Bow and/or social action artwork that disperses itself around The City.

Island could be a pilot project for additional islands or habitat enhancements at Bend in the Bow.

Because of t heir proximity and shared recreational program, if possible these projects should be developed concurrently so that the selected artist(s) have an opportunity to coordinate their work. One artist may be commissioned for both projects.

Flood Protection Landform Pearce Estate Park

Blackfoot Underpass Corridor

Create integrated environmental art that reveals structural qualities of a landform engineered to control floodwater. Capital project driven (CPD); collaborate with design team.

Create art that manifests and supports past, present, and future river flows, mobility corridors, and habitat.

Capital project driven (CPD); collaborate with design team & First Nations knowledge keeper.

Two individual art projects linked through a common purpose of increasing awareness of the engineered environment.

Thresholds

Sanctuary

Pearce Estate Park

Sanctuary

Wildlands

Screens

Corridor

Pearce Estate Park

Create a series of pause points at existing bridges over interior water bodies, directing attention to contextual features and increasing awareness of transitions.

Process led by The City of Calgary Public Art.

Guide human and wildlife access and mobility while protecting wildlife habitat.

Process led by The City of Calgary Public Art.

Two sets of artworks that each guide, mark, or inhibit passage from one part of the site to another.

Pearce Monument

Pearce Estate Park

Incorporate art into existing monument to William Pearce, possibly extending to design of a play shack or other markers revealing site and Pearce’s life & work. Process led by Calgary Public Art.

Two individual art projects linked through a common purpose of revealing cultural heritage and natural dynamics using means and methods inspired by surveying practices. Surveying may be interpreted as an engineering method or an observation method or both.

Ephemeral Programs

Wildlands

Establish a program of ephemeral art events, installations, performances, and actions in a variety of approaches, locations, media, and seasons.

Process led by The City of Calgary Public Art.

Artist-inResidence Sanctuary

Establish a program through which artists live and work at the site, sharing their work with the public, with a home base located at the Walker Estate.

Process led by The City of Calgary Public Art.

Biennial artist selections based on conceptual proposals. Consider alternating years for the two rotating programs.

TANK TRACES TANK TRACES

Location

 Wildlands: Footprint of previous oil tanks

Program

 Environmental art approach considering and/ or reconceptualizing the tank area landscape, exploring habitat-forming site processes to regenerate nature

 Permanent and temporary art opportunities

Possibilities

 Recollection of refinery oil tanks previously present on the site

 Experimental methods that support habitatforming landscape ecological processes

 Systems aesthetic approach where a working landscape performs over time

 Overlay of past, present, and future

 Explorations with science and technology

 Inside the experiment, landscape as laboratory

 Alchemical transformation

 Invisible made visible

 Change through time: day to night, season to season, long term ecological changes

hidden/exposed ephemeral/permanent historic/futuristic wild/controlled absent/present

TANK TRACES

Site Stories

 Natural Processes: filtration, plant and animal communities, riparian succession, soil rehabilitation, flooding, regeneration, succession, ecological health

 Cultural Heritage: Oil Refinery Heritage and site remediation efforts by Suncor, Inglewood Wildlands Society, community stakeholders, and others

 Site Phenomena: plants, soil, air quality, water, sun, wind, seasonal change, topography, geometry, walking, working, wildlife

Educational Opportunities

 Oil Refinery heritage

 Site remediation (methods and history on site)

 Land management tools for the future

 Long-term remediation

 Scientific method

Conditions & Constraints

 The British American Oil Company Refinery site is a Calgary Heritage Authority evaluated historic resource.

 Work in the Wildlands must protect ongoing remediation work by Suncor. Existing site remediation monitoring wells and contaminant recovery systems in place may not be disturbed. Collaboration with Suncor is required.

 Plans for construction of any enclosed structures must first be reviewed and approved by Suncor.

 Groundwater may not be used for irrigation.

 Animals live in the ground in this area.

 Proposed work requiring surface penetration, soil displacement or minor regrading will require a soil handling plan and approval by Suncor.

 Plants are an especially effective tool for phytoremediation and have been used at the Wildlands. Trees with deep roots have been planted to extract pollutants from soil, and previously, groundwater.

 Work shall encourage and support and not inhibit movement through the site by wildlife.

 Ensure protection of birds with bird-friendly work.

Artist Qualifications

 Conceptual practitioner

 Interest in and experience working with environmental and ecological systems

 Experience with design team collaborations

Collaborative Process

 Artist-led project

 Artist develops ideas in collaboration with Project Partners and other experts

 Collaboration level: high

Potential Partners

 Suncor

 Landscape Architects, Ecologists and Scientists

 Heritage Authority

 Environmental & Safety Management

 Inglewood Wildlands Development Society

 Inglewood Community

Inglewood Wildlands existing grasslands

Aerial view of British American Oil refinery, c. 1950

SEPARATOR TRENCH SEPARATOR TRENCH

Location

 Wildlands: long, narrow trench with standing water on south edge of Wildlands, bounded by dense vegetation and a fence

Program

 Views into trench, possibly including treatments occurring inside of the fence that are perceptible as views from accessible areas

 Permanent and temporary art opportunities

Possibilities

 Glimpse into an experimental strip of unmediated wildlife habitat with no human access

 Frame or focal point

 Landscape as oasis

 Overlay of past, present, and future

 Outside the experiment, landscape as laboratory

 Site evolution from managed to wild

wilderness/sanctuary man-made/organic hidden/exposed inside/outside control/freedom

SEPARATOR TRENCH

Site Stories

 Natural Processes: filtration, riparian succession, wildlife habitat

 Cultural Heritage: Oil Refinery Heritage and site remediation efforts by Suncor, including process of oil separation and collection

 Site Phenomena: water, oil, wildlife, plants, seasonal change, soil, topography

 Manner in which a site that was originally created and managed by humans is now evolving on its own into a “wild” vegetated riparian habitat with little or no human intervention

 Exclusion of human access

Educational Opportunities

 Oil Refinery heritage

 Site remediation

 Wildlife (birds and other animals)

 Exclusion of human access

Conditions & Constraints

 The British American Oil Company Refinery site is a Calgary Heritage Authority evaluated historic resource.

 Historically, hydrocarbons have moved through the groundwater into the trench, where they have floated to the surface, been skimmed off with booms, and collected for safe disposal. The groundwater currently flowing into the trench is believed to be mostly uncontaminated.

 Vegetation currently growing around the Separator Trench is a habitat for birds and other species.

 The trench will remain fenced with no public access. If the fence were to be removed, the trench slopes would be too steep to be in compliance with City of Calgary safety requirements around open water. Regrading is unlikely as it would result in the loss of many beneficial trees and a significant change in the size or depth of the trench.

 Platform or structure with cantilever may be possible.

 Work in the Wildlands must protect ongoing remediation work by Suncor. Existing site remediation monitoring wells and contaminant recovery systems in place may not be disturbed. Collaboration with Suncor is required.

 Plans for construction of any enclosed structures must first be reviewed and approved by Suncor.

 Groundwater may not be used for irrigation.

 Work shall encourage and support and not inhibit movement through the site by wildlife.

 Ensure protection of birds with bird-friendly work.

Artist Qualifications

 Conceptual thinker

 Interest in environmental phenomena and ecologicalocesses

 Emerging or experienced artist

Collaborative Process

 Artist-led project

 Artist develops ideas to be reviewed by Project Partners

 Collaboration level: medium to high

Potential Project Partners

 Suncor

 Ecologists and Biologists

 Engineers

 Landscape Architects

 Environmental & Safety Management

Separator trench in summer

Separator trench in winter Oil boom at site

TRANSFORMER BEACON TRANSFORMER BEACON

Location

 Wildlands: brick transformer structure; only extant structure from the oil refinery

Program

 Existing structure conceived as a beacon

 A beacon is an intentionally conspicuous device designed to attract attention to a specific location

 Permanent and temporary art opportunities

Possibilities

 Bend in the Bow beacon

 Symbol of site transformation

 Distant views from various vantages, including 9th Avenue

 Close-up as views from Wildlands trails

 Energy experiments (sun and wind)

past/present production/consumption industry/nature dark/light close/far high/low

TRANSFORMER BEACON

Site Stories

 Natural Processes: tapping site’s natural energy (sun, wind, water)

 Cultural Heritage: Oil Refinery Heritage and site remediation efforts by Suncor (Transformer building is the only extant structure leftover from the Oil Refinery)

 Site’s transformation from an Oil Refinery into a wildlife habitat

Educational Opportunities

 Cultural heritage

 Power and energy

Conditions & Constraints

 The British American Oil Company Refinery site is a Calgary Heritage Authority evaluated historic resource.

 The structural integrity of the transformer structure is unknown and will need analysis. Art may include proposal for light touch structural reinforcements if necessary to accommodate attachment of artwork.

 The transformer structure is currently fenced and will most likely remain fenced due to problems with the building being used as an encampment in the past.

 A dark skies rule is in effect at this site. Artificial illumination can be disturbing to wildlife and needs further study to be incorporated as part of the artwork. Suncor will review future uses of the building, including the addition of art.

 Work in the Wildlands must protect and potentially contribute to ongoing remediation work by Suncor.

 Plans for construction of any enclosed structures must first be reviewed and approved by Suncor.

 Groundwater may not be used for irrigation.

 Proposed work requiring surface penetration or soil displacement will require a soil handling plan and approval by Suncor. Installing electrical conduit usually requires digging.

 Self-contained renewable forms of energy production may be explored.

 Work shall encourage and support and not inhibit movement through the site by wildlife.

 Ensure protection of birds with bird-friendly work.

 Birds of prey currently perch on the transformer structure. Retain this potential.

Artist Qualifications

 Emerging or experienced artist

Collaborative Process

 Artist-led project

 Artist develops ideas to be reviewed by Project Partners

 Collaboration level: medium-high

Potential Partners

 Suncor

 Engineers

 Biologists

 Environmental & Safety Management

Transformer structure

Wildlands in winter

WILDLIFE HIDES WILDLIFE HIDES

Locations

 Wildlands: location to be determined with artists and Project Partners; priority location

 Sanctuary: location to be determined with artists and Project Partners

 Corridor: location to be determined with artists and Project Partners

Program

 Set of enclosures that reveal, mediate and frame unique aspects of the environment in which they are set

 Permanent art opportunities

Possibilities

 Immersive, embodied experience in a sculptural space

 Mediated experiences of contextual environment and phenomena (e.g. elements such as wind, rain, snow, sun, wildlife and views)

 View of sculptural form as seen from afar (experience outside the hide)

 View of contextual landscape as framed by the sculpture (experience inside the hide)

 Palette of similar forms, materials and techniques linking different hides but revealing varied phenomena and contextual conditions at each site

 Bird Sanctuary hide can frame close views of natural landscape (wildlife)

 Wildlands hide can frame distant views of urban landscape (downtown Calgary, grain elevators, railroad)

 Camouflage of humans and wildlife

seen/unseen prospect/refuge urban views/nature views high/low human/animal wild/controlled

WILDLIFE HIDES

Site Stories

 Natural Processes: wetland ecosystem and habitat, grassland ecosystem and habitat, filtration of light, wind, water, and air; wildlife camouflage methods and motifs

 Cultural Heritage: Colonel Walker’s sawmill, greenhouses, Oil Refinery, bird watching and wildlife/landscape photography

Educational Opportunities

 Ecological literacy through immersion in natural environment

 Enhanced bird watching and wildlife observation

 Protection of wildlife by not disturbing

 Cultural heritage

Conditions & Constraints

 The British American Oil Company Refinery site is a Calgary Heritage Authority evaluated historic resource.

 Calgary Land Use Bylaw may restrict the design of structures that are permitted within the floodway. Design art so that it is permeable to or can withstand inundation by flood water or has other features acceptable to floodplain requirements and constraints.

 Plans for construction of any enclosed structures must first be reviewed and approved by Suncor.

 Observe Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) Guidelines.

 Work in the Wildlands must protect and potentially contribute to ongoing remediation work by Suncor. Existing site remediation monitoring wells and contaminant recovery systems in place may not be disturbed.

 Proposed work requiring surface penetration or soil displacement will require a Soil Handling plan and approval by Suncor.

 Permitting requirements and regulatory by-laws must be understood prior to design.

 Retain existing memorial stones at Wildlands knoll and Jeffries Pond sites.

 Consider people of all abilities and heights.

 Consider potential uses, such as by wildlife observers and photographers.

 Work shall encourage and support and not inhibit movement through the site by wildlife.

 Ensure protection of birds with bird-friendly work.

Artist Qualifications

 Ability to conceive of inhabitable sculptural space on a large scale

 Interest in environmental phenomena, wildlife, and human perception

 Experienced artist

Collaborative Process

 Artist-led project

 Artist develops ideas in collaboration with project partners

 Collaboration level: medium-high

Potential Project Partners

 Landscape Architects

 Engineers

 Ecologists

 Water Resources

 Suncor

View to bank swallow colony at south end of the Corridor View through bird blind at Pearce Estate Park Jeffries Pond site

Former structure on knoll at Wildlands

LAGOON INLET LAGOON INLET

Location

 Sanctuary: head of future cut attaching lagoon to the Bow River, also serving as pedestrian entry onto north end of the island

Program

 Functional weir to control flow of water into the lagoon, or art integrated into a weir by others, or sculpture that frames the weir; extending to act as a gate to guide pedestrian flows at this location

 Permanent art opportunities

Possibilities

 Gateway to control and mark flows of water and people

 Sculptural icon potentially visible from Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, boats on Bow River, and places on east side of river

 Register and respond to different water levels and dynamic environment

 Kinetic art

 Increased awareness of engineered environment

 Exploration of bioengineering solutions

 Embankment enhancements

 Habitat enhancements and biomimicry

open/closed inlet/outlet high/low wet/dry natural/engineered

LAGOON GATE

Site Stories

 Natural Processes: floods and water management, beaver dams, ground mammal habitats, hydrologic relationships to habitat, lagoon ecosystem and aquatic habitat, riparian landscape, bioengineered river bank

 Cultural Heritage: First Nations encampments along the Bow River, Colonel Walker sawmill and log booms, Pickering fish hatchery and previous lagoon weirs, legacy of William Pearce’s experience as a professional surveyor for Western lands, William Pearce’s water conservation and irrigation experiments and explorations

Educational Opportunities

 Water management strategies

 River hydrology and flooding

 Riparian succession

 Wildlife habitat

 Aquatic habitat

 Cultural heritage

Conditions & Constraints

 Calgary Land Use Bylaw may restrict the design of structures that are permitted within the floodway. Design art so that it is impervious to damage from floodwater and retains river water from flowing beyond it except as desired. Work with hydrologists and engineers to understand the criteria and forces relevant to designs.

 Permitting requirements and regulatory by-laws must be understood prior to call to artists and concept design for each project.

 Lagoon gate may each require several levels of water flow (low flow vs. high flow).

 Incorporate gate structures that can be repositioned or temporarily placed to control water flows as needed.

 Work shall encourage and support and not inhibit movement by wildlife, especially the passage of fish.

 Quality of existing and desired habitat, including methods of enhancing desired species and controlling non-desired species, must be researched and understood prior to developing concept designt. Caution must be taken when

considering how deep-rooted plants could affect the weir structure and cut.

 Lagoon gate may incorporate an element for controlling human and dog access onto the island, which must meet Bird Sanctuary’s criteria for access control.

 There is not extensive information about previous uses of the lagoon inlet by First Nations peoples, though evidence of a campfire in the vicinity exists.

 Interpretations of known historic uses and documents point to this location as having possibly once been used to store log booms.

 A metaphoric interpretation of historic events and structures may be appropriate.

Artist Qualifications

 Ability to apply functional requirements to large scale sculpture

 Interest in environmental phenomena, ecological processes, and hydrology

 Experienced artist

Collaborative Process

 Design-team led project

 Artist develops ideas for integrated elements in collaboration with Project Partners

 Collaboration level: high

Potential Partners

 Water Resources

 Structural and Civil Engineers

 Hydrologists and aquatic ecologists

 Inglewood Bird Sanctuary staff

Current end of lagoon

Path approaching site of lagoon cut with Bow River in background Prince’s Island weir on the Bow River Beaver dam in lagoon

BLACKFOOT UNDERPASS BLACKFOOT UNDERPASS

Location

 Corridor: Bow River Regional Pathway as it passes under Cushing Bridge

Program

 Art incorporated with surfaces of bridge underside and abutments and integral with riparian edge enhancements to manifest river flows and mobility corridors and support habitat

 Permanent and temporary art opportunities

Indigenous Policy Framework

Because of the unique aspect of the Blackfoot Underpass site relating to traditional routes and river crossings, it is recommended that a traditional Blackfoot Knowledge Keeper name this place in a ceremony. Indigenous actions, beliefs, ceremonies, stories, songs, spirits, dreams, patterns, phenomena, relationships, technologies, and teachings may have a bearing on how artwork for this site is developed. The engagement of a Blackfoot custodian of traditional knowledge will bring a rich layer of cultural heritage to Bend in the Bow and should be a part of the early work. Other parts of Bend in the Bow may also be incorporated into this activity.

Possibilities

 Crossroads of mobility corridors used by different animals and peoples at different times

 Intersections with other transportation corridors

 River datum; register and respond to fluctuating water levels through survey and other methods

 Conceptual link between passage of wildlife and passage of humans

 Change through time: day to night, season to season, historic overlay, long term ecological changes

 Increased awareness of riparian wildlife mobility corridor necessitating an extra level of sensitivity in regards to the protection of habitat

 Tapping into the site’s unique aura of light, sound, and space

light/dark now/then land/water human/wildlife inside/outside sacred/common

BLACKFOOT UNDERPASS

Site Stories

 Natural Processes: floods and water management, wildlife migration, riparian landscape, aquatic habitat, bioengineered river bank

 Cultural Heritage: First Nations trails and traditional route to a reserve of the Blackfoot Nation, First Nations trails as groundwork for present-day highway network, First Nations encampments along the Bow river, former ferry crossing, Grand Trunk railroad, William Pearce Estate, legacy of William Pearce’s experience as a professional surveyor for Western lands, stadia flood markers, Bow River Weir and William Pearce’s irrigation experiments

Educational Opportunities

 First Nations heritage

 Fragile nature of riparian edge

 Changing water levels

 Transportation corridors

 Legacy of William Pearce

Conditions & Constraints

 A pinch point in this section of Bend in the Bow wildlife mobility corridor is created by the bridge abutment and regional pathway on one side, and river on the other side, spatially impeding this site. This condition will be accerbated by the future addition of a Bus Rapid Transit bridge. Art and design solutions that facilitate, guide, and funnel wildlife safely through the site will be important. Strategies to improve the underpass’s habitat qualities include widening the bank, taking into consideration methods that can withstand flooding if possible.

 Planting and bioengineering solutions here may be challenging because of low light level. Because of its low exposure to sunlight and rain, the underpass is currently mostly devoid of vegetation. Its concrete embankment, asphalt paving, metal railing, and heavy rip rap bank create inhabitable places for wildlife. Biodiversity can be facilitated through infusion of smaller scale textures that retain water, should catchment of rainwater or other sustainable irrigation solutions be proposed.

 Artificial lighting will be disruptive to wildlife, who use the mobility corridor at night, so should not be incorporated into the site. Light may also distract drivers.

 Cushing Bridge, a City asset, is part of the Deerfoot Trail, which is maintained by Alberta Transportation. City and Province Transportation shall review the addition of art that impacts the bridge structure in any way.

 The structural capacity of existing structures is unknown and will need analysis. The bridge will likely be upgraded or replaced in the future. Surface treatments to the bridge underpass will have fewer structural issues than sculptural treatments. Avoid art treatments that will inhibit visual inspections of bridge structure integrity.

 Calgary Land Use Bylaw may restrict the design of structures that are permitted within the floodway. Design art so that it is permeable to or can withstand inundation by flood water or has other features acceptable to floodplain requirements and constraints.

 Permitting requirements and regulatory by-laws must be understood prior to design.

 Avoid barriers that could inhibit passage of wildlife, including fish or waterfowl. Consider ways to enhance the passage of wildlife.

 Avoid visual barriers and create a safe environment for people.

Artist Qualifications

 Emerging or established artist

 Interest in environmental phenomena, ecological processes, hydrology, and engineered environtments

Collaborative Process

 Design team-led project

 Artist develops ideas for integrated elements in collaboration with Project Partners

 Collaboration level: high

Potential Partners

 First Nations Blackfoot Knowledge Keeper

 Province of Alberta Transportation

 Landscape Architects

 Engineers

 Wildlife and Fisheries Biologists

 Hydrologist

Cushing Bridge underpass, approaching from south Cushing Bridge underside and abutment with flood marker Bridge underside and abutment

Underpass, with old boat ramp in background

PEARCE MONUMENT PEARCE MONUMENT

Locations

 Pearce Estate Park (primary site) and Corridor (secondary site): primary site is existing monument near Harvie Passage, secondary sites include “Bow Bend” play shack and markers at various locations with a focus on the water’s edge

Program

 Incorporate art into an existing monument to William Pearce, drawing on his work and life; possibly extending to design of a play shack inspired by Pearce’s home and markers inspired by Pearce’s work as a surveyor designed to reveal, mediate and frame unique aspects of the contextual environment

 Permanent art opportunities

Possibilities

 Commemoration of one of Calgary’s most visionary and accomplished citizens of the twentieth century

 Increased awareness of the site as an engineered environment

 Relate waterworks in the river to Pearce’s accomplishments in irrigation and water conservation

 Relate surrounding riverine forest to Pearce’s accomplishments in urban forestry

 Surveying as an engineering method, an observation method, and a philosophical method

 Aesthetic lens to enhance important views and features

 Interactive experiences with tools that have formed Bend in the Bow over time

 “Bow Bend” play shack as an interactive sculpture that interprets Pearce’s sandstone mansion as an architectural treasure and its siting on high ground as a flood protection measure

Site Stories

 Natural Processes: floods and water management, bioengineered river bank, wildlife migration, habitat forming processes, riparian landscape, urban forestry

 Cultural Heritage: William Pearce as visionary, surveyor, water conservation advocate, land manager, irrigation scientist, experimental farmer, botanist, City Beautiful advocate; bioengineering, survey transits, stadia flood markers, Bow River Weir, flood control, windmills, water pumps, and other agricultural tools; moving, pausing, observing, learning

Educational Opportunities

 The visionary life, work and legacy of William E. Pearce

 Bow Bend “Shack”

 Bow River Weir

 Surveying and engineering tools

 Changing water levels

 Natural habitat

 Cultural heritage

Conditions & Constraints

 The site is part of the Province’s William Pearce Water Conservation District.

 According to historians who participated in the stakeholder engagement process of Bend in the Bow, the existing monument is believed to be a Federal landmark and may have previously included a fountain element. Further investigation about the monument’s history should be conducted. While the sculptural element of the existing monument is missing, its plaques are intact and in good shape and shall remain a part of the piece after new artwork is incorporated.

 The structural capacity of the existing monument structure is unknown and will need analysis. Art may include structural reinforcements if necessary to accommodate additional loads of attached artwork, subject to approval by The City and Federal entities.

 Permitting requirements and regulatory by-laws must be understood prior to design.

 Calgary Land Use Bylaw may restrict the design of structures that are permitted within the floodway. Design art so that it is permeable to or can withstand inundation by flood water or has other features acceptable to floodplain requirements and constraints.

PEARCE MONUMENT

Artist Qualifications

 Emerging or established artist

Collaborative Process

 Artist-led project(s)

 Collaboration level: low to medium

Potential Partners

 Heritage Authority

 Bow Habitat Station staff

 Engineers

 A historic perspective is appropriate for the development of this artwork.

 Consider an audience of both children and adults.

 Moving parts must be sturdy for use through repeated motions and durable in exterior conditions.

 Avoid visual barriers.

 Avoid elements that could inhibit passage of wildlife.

 Federal Government

 Province of Alberta Environment and Parks

 Landscape Architects

 Structural Engineer

Pearce monument concrete ring, next to regional pathway Plaques at Pearce monument

Pearce’s windmill, reservoir, and experimental plantings

Su rvey marker located in Regional Pathway

Map of Pearce’s Bow Bend Estate lands

historic/contemporary man/monument man-made/natural frame/activate survey/observe

TREE LABS TREE LABS

Locations

 Corridor: urban forest along rail trail

 Sanctuary: orchard adjacent to Walker House

 Wildlands: phytoremediation plantings along railroad spur

Program

 Disseminate knowledge and exchange ideas about tree use in urban forests, phytoremediation, and habitat formation; trees as a regenerative resource

 Permanent, temporary, and documentary art opportunities

Possibilities

 Scientific inquiry into Landscape Beautification

 Reconceptualize Pearce’s “tree trials” and Walker’s “experimental orchard”

 Arboretum for ethnobotanical storytelling

 Heritage tree farm and community agriculture; innovative irrigation

 Tree nursery for riverine restoration, phytoremediation, and community beautification

 Botanical chimeras

 Dissemination of discoveries

 “City of Trees” community participatory actions around a greening of the collective consciousness

 Regenerative resource

 Observe experiments in action over long, slow time frame and potentially dispersed civic scale

Site Stories

 Natural Processes: tree succession, urban forestry, riverine ecology, bird habitat in trees

 Cultural Heritage: Pearce’s contribution to Calgary’s urban forest; Pearce’s and Walker’s experimental tree farms; Pearce’s irrigation waterworks; Wildlands phytoremediation; agricultural greenhouses in Sanctuary

Educational Opportunities

 Legacy of William Pearce

 Spirit of Colonel Walker

 Use of phytoremediation to restore the Wildlands

 Cultural heritage

 Immense environmental education possibilities around issues of environmental restoration, urban forestry, and equity on a city-wide scale; requires the commitment of a program administrator

 Artist residency possibilities

Conditions & Constraints

 Fruiting trees are not typically permitted in city parks.

 Plants are an especially effective tool for bioremediation and have been used at the Wildlands. Trees with deep roots have been planted to extract pollutants from soil, and previously, groundwater.

 Phytoremediation can include various interactions between plants and soil, including:

° converting organic pollutants into a nontoxic form

° extracting non-organic substances (such as heavy metals) and sequestering until plant is harvested

° extracting pollutants and converting them into a gas that can be safely released into the atmosphere

° releasing substances that bind to contaminants to make them less mobile and reactive in the soil

Artist Qualifications

 Conceptual practitioner

 Social practitioner

 Interest in environmental phenomena, ecological processes, and botany

Collaborative Process

 Design-team led project

 Artist develops ideas in collaboration with Project Partners

 Collaboration level: high

Potential Partners

 Landscape Architects

 Bow Habitat Station staff

 Inglewood Bird Sanctuary staff

 Suncor

 Inglewood community

 Arborist

Tree trials at Pearce Estate Rail Trail through Urban Forest Heritage Grove Pearce’s tree trial paperwork

Allée of trees framing driveway to Walker Estate

social/sited natural/synthetic temporary/permanent condensed/dispersed

FLOATING ISLAND FLOATING ISLAND

Location

 Sanctuary: central part of lagoon, exact location to be determined with artist and Project Partners; possibly migrating to different locations

Program

 Aquatic and wildlife habitat that encourages and supports bird nesting, aquatic life and fish habitat compensation programs, and/or water cleansing bioremediation; could be a pilot project for additional man-made islands

 Permanent and temporary art opportunities

Possibilities

 Habitat-forming processes

 Encourage nesting

 Compact landscape with large message

 View from lagoon bridges and shoreline to island landscape that forms new bird and fish habitat

 Registration and magnification of dynamic site phenomena such as water flow, wind flow, sunlight, wildlife cycles, and plant cycles

 Island as something “other” than surrounding landscape

synthetic/natural floating/grounded migratory/stationary wet/dry

FLOATING ISLAND

Site Stories

 Natural Processes: lagoon ecosystem and aquatic habitat, floods and water management, nests, beaver dams, hydrologic relationships to habitat, riparian plants and habitat

 Cultural Heritage: First People encampments along river, Colonel Walker sawmill and log booms, fish hatchery, previous IBS lagoon weirs

Educational Opportunities

 Riparian succession

 Fragile and specific nature of island and lagoon ecologies

 Waterfowl, fish, amphibian, and mammal habitat

 Fish, bird, and/or mammal (lynx) habitat, potentially including geese nesting

 Cultural heritage

 Land management tools for the future

Conditions & Constraints

 Island must be able to withstand flood forces and/or be moveable and secured during storm events.

 Overwater structures can shade out water beneath them, inhibiting aquatic life. Consider making the island partially light permeable or mooring it in such a way that it subtly moves around the water, not excessively shading out any one area.

 Avoid barriers that could inhibit passage of fish or waterfowl.

 Permitting requirements and regulatory by-laws must be understood prior to design.

 The City of Calgary is required to implement fish habitat enhancements to offset effects on habitat productive capacity caused by flood repair works.

Artist Qualifications

 Interest in experimental landscape devices, environmental phenomena, and ecological processes

 Experience with design team collaborations

Collaborative Process

 Artist-led project

 Artist develops ideas in collaboration with Project Partners

 Collaboration level: high

Potential Partners

 Hydrologists

 Landscape Architects

 Inglewood Bird Sanctuary staff

 Wildlife and Fisheries Biologists

 Water Resources

Typical log boom

Existing lagoon island

Beaver dam in lagoon

Wood ducks in lagoon

Engagement

ENGAGEMENT DURING PREPARATION OF THE BEND IN THE BOW REDEVELOPMENT PLAN

Overview

The Bend in the Bow Redevelopment Plan is the product of a collaborative process of design and engagement between The City of Calgary Department of Parks, internal stakeholders (staff from other City of Calgary departments), external stakeholders (representatives of nonmunicipal organizations), a team of consultants (including landscape architects, artists, wildlife bioligists, ecologists, water resource engineers, remediation scientists, and historians), and the public.

More than 250 people participated in the formulation of the Redevelopment Plan in an engagement process occurring between April 2015 and October 2016 that included 8 stakeholder workshops, 2 open houses, online surveys and onsite engagements. The Public Art Program and artist planners participated in this process.

The engagement process for preparing the Public Art Plan included meetings with representatives from the following lists of project partners, City of Calgary internal stakeholders, and nonmunicipal erxternal stakeholders

Project Partners

 Suncor Energy: private energy company, producing oil, natural gas, wind-generated electricity and ethanol; Wildlands landowner and steward of natural resources

 Alberta Environment & Parks: protects the province’s air, land, water and biodiversity

 Bow Habitat Station: educational centre in Pearce Estate Park run by Alberta Environment and Parks

Internal Stakeholders

 Arts and Culture: facilitates active participation and access to the arts for all; manages the public art program; part of Recreation

 Parks: manages Calgary’s 8,000 hectares of parkland, including public parks, pathways, civic cemeteries, and open spaces.

 Recreation: plans and provides information about programs, events and festivals open to the public

 Water Resources/Water Services: manages the quality and delivery of Calgary’s water supply, manages The City’s stormwater, responds to floods, and contributes to the conservation of our precious water resource

 Environmental and Safety Management: implements strategies to save energy and water, remediate brownfields, expand recycling, control noxious weeds, and ensure pubic safety through emergency response

 Environmental and Educational Initiatives: develops educational programming centred around Calgary’s natural areas and their environmental importance; part of Parks

 Urban Conservation: develops policies and tools that guide the conservation of biodiversity

 Heritage Planning: identifies, protects, and manages Calgary’s Historic Resources

 engage!: collects public input about city programs and projects

 Communications: ensures Calgarians are aware of, understand, and can voice their opinions about City programs and services through communications and media

 Community and Neighbourhood Services: addresses social needs of the individuals and communities of Calgary and fosters strong neighbourhoods and resilient Calgarians

 Transportation Planning: provides information, develops plans and policies, and recommends actions to best serve The City’s current and future transportation needs

External Stakeholders

 Calgary Bird Banding Society: part of the Canadian Migration Monitoring Network, contributing to the study, protection, and conservation of migratory birds; engages in banding activities occurring in the south end of the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary to help in global studies on wild migratory birds

 Calgary Heritage Initiative

 Calgary Heritage Authority

 Calgary River Valleys: volunteer-led, nonprofit organization that and champions stewardship of Calgary’s watershed, river valley assets and resources

 Calgary Disc Golf Association

 Calgary River Users Alliance

 Calgary River Valleys

 Chinese Market Gardeners Society

 Chinook County Historical Society: chapter of the Historical Society of Alberta, promotes a greater understanding of Canadian and Alberta history in Chinook Country

 Inglewood Community Association: volunteer neighborhood organization with a mission to foster thoughtful, creative, high-quality development that enhances and reflects Inglewood’s character and values

 Inglewood Wildlands Development Society: non-profit organization with a mission to create a safe, vibrant and well used recreational and educational natural public space with an interpretation theme of industrial reclamation and remediation tied into the history of oil and gas in Calgary

 Nature Calgary: has beginnings as the Calgary Bird Club, non-profit organization involved in the preservation of natural areas in Calgary

 Rotary Clubs of Calgary: service organizations providing volunteer hours and funds to multigenerational local and international programs; a primary partner in the Wildlands remediation

Open House and Surveys

On November 24, 2015 The City of Calgary hosted an open house focused on the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary and Inglewood Wildlands. On October 13, 2016 an Open House was held to unveil the Bend in the Bow Grand Vision, encompassing all four park areas. Both open houses were accompanied with online surveys and onsite sounding boards and engagements. In total, over 2,500 comments were gathered. Overall, feedback gathered through the engagement meetings and online survey supported Bend in the Bow’s concept design and core values of nature, culture, and education. An overview of public comments around the values is as follows:

 Nature: The public emphasized the importance of conserving and enhancing the site’s natural condition. People expressed a desire for the project to increase overall ecological value of the site, maintain the

sense of “wildness” that the site provides, and design spaces that respect wildlife and their habitat.

 Culture: Because of the cultural significance of this site in the ongoing development of Calgary, sharing its cultural history was important to the public and stakeholders. They wanted the redevelopment plan to share the stories of this site and to educate visitors about the significant events that have occurred throughout the site.

 Education: Stakeholders recognized the importance of incorporating both formal education programs and informal education opportunities into the redevelopment plan. In doing so, education can play a key role in creating citizen stewards for the site, and appreciate the natural and cultural significanceof Bend in the Bow.

Comments from the Public

Key comments:

 Prioritize habitat conservation and wildlife protection over human use

 Improved connectivity for both people and wildlife

 Improve wayfinding, site circulation, and connectivity to the surrounding neighborhood

 Build less infrastructure in the Sanctuary

 Include more educational programs, especially in the Wildlands where there is significant opportunity to tell stories about the site

 Consider how to avoid impacts of recreational use

 Ensure that design elements comply with regulatory requirements and site constraints and are resilient to flooding

 Include public art that is sensitive to the site in locations that are appropriate for art

A general comment was that art should work with wildlife in terms of themes as well as pragmatics of how wildlife will affect the art and vice versa. There was a common interest in creating art that uses natural materials.

Potential stories for art identified by the public included seasonality, bird migration, wildlife, water, importance of the natural world to society, preservation and our role as citizens, interface of nature and industry, industrial heritage, remediation and the healing of the land, historic events, First Nations, Colonel Walker sawmill and homestead, William Pearce

legacy, western land surveyors, irrigation, changing river landscape and flooding, trees and experimentation, and urban and wild.

Art elements most often cited by the public as a positive addition included: wildlife hides that are artistic and non-obtrusive, tank traces recalled in an artful and subtle manner, transformer beacon as long as it retains its functionality as a raptor perch, and screens to control public access into sensitive areas.

When comments were not supportive, the focus was on preserving the Bird Sanctuary, and ensuring people’s experience of nature was not impeded or the natural environment damaged. Several responses indicated that art was more appropriate in the Wildlands than in the Bird Sanctuary and that art included in the Sanctuary should be kept to a minimum. This type of comment was often accompanied by a statement to avoid public art in the vein of large, free-standing sculpture.

The Public Art Plan has incorporated feedback heard from the stakeholders and public by prioritizing art in the Wildlands. It is suggested that the Wildlands be a site for public art that has a larger impact or is, in some cases, art for art’s sake (i.e., not-utilitarian); whereas public art proposed for the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary and Pearce Estate Park should be incorporated with functional elements that are already part of the Redevelopment Plan, such as picnic furniture, playground amenities, wildlife hides, screens, gates, and landforms.

The Public Art Plan is proposing that artists collaborate with Project Partners to conceive these discrete, functional elements in unique

and imaginative ways that tell stories and register in visitors the importance and value of the natural habitat. Involving artists who work in collaborative and site-sensitive ways to make these functional elements as memorable and one-of-a-kind as possible is an opportunity to create moments that capture the public’s imagination and draw out emotional connection with the place and its stories. Throughout this process there will be a need to find the appropriate balance between environmental preservation, public use, and education.

ENGAGEMENT DURING DEVELOPMENT OF PUBLIC ART PROJECTS

The City of Calgary Public Art Program places a high value on community engagement and strives to provide a variety of opportunities for public input, involvement, and enjoyment in the development of public art. Public Art works with Engage! to follow The City’s process for engagment. Programs for engagement can include artists discussing their work with the public, focus groups between artists and key stakeholders, oneon-one interviews, participatory events to generate either a public experience or content for public artworks in development, or other methods.

As art projects develop for Bend in the Bow, the Public Art Program will work with the commissioned artists and project stakeholders to define a process for engagement that makes sense for the individual project. In some cases engagement might occur during the concept design process to generate information that could be useful to the artist in their development of the project. In other cases, particularly for temporary art projects or an artist in residence, engagement might include a participatory event with an artist or artwork. In yet other cases, particularly for urban forestry and remediation-based work, engagement might be an ongoing process drawing on citizens to participate in the implementation of the artwork, and rehabilitation of the land, over a long time period.

For all of the artworks proposed in the Public Art Plan, there is a mission to enrich and diversify the public’s understanding and experience of Bend in the Bow’s core values of nature, culture, and education. Artists are highly encouraged to create work that invites direct engagement with the public.

Gate at west edge of Inglewood Wildlands, telling the story of the land through juxtaposed symbols of sun, water, wildlife, industry, oil, and landscape