Two Public Art Controversies Emerge in Alberta

Edmonton and Calgary are embroiled in disputes about public art and colonial history.

In Edmonton, civic authorities have decided not to install a pair of sculptures about the fur trade by Ken Lum, a respected contemporary artist with roots in Vancouver.

Meanwhile, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney plans to install a sculpture of Winston Churchill outside his southern Alberta office in Calgary. A year ago, an Edmonton statue of the wartime statesman was defaced amid anger over children's graves on the sites of former residential schools.

CTV News reports the city decided not to install Lum's work near the North Saskatchewan River because it could be seen as a celebration of colonialism. The bronze sculptures, one of a bison and the other of a fur trader, were commissioned for  $375,000 and completed in 2016.

Lum told CTV News the work had undergone "enormous" oversight and had been approved by city officials. "Perhaps the city is not ready for a real dialogue about its colonial past and the conditions of coloniality that continue to mark the present," he wrote in a message. "That was my intention with the work: not to celebrate colonialism as the city suggests."

In Calgary, the plan is to erect an eight-foot bronze statue of the former British prime minister by Edmonton sculptor Danek Mozdzenski, next spring. The $300,000 tab for the statue has been covered by donations to the Sir Winston Churchill Society of Calgary, a group led by Mark Milke, a former aide to the premier, CBC News reports. 

While Churchill led Britain against the Nazi threat of Adolf Hitler, he also said remarkably racist things, University of Calgary historian John Ferris told the Calgary Eyeopener. For instance, in 1937,  Churchill said he didn't believe Indigenous peoples of the United States or Australia were wronged "by the fact that stronger race, a higher-grade race … has come in and taken their place."

Source: News reports