Well look what......... Kelowna paid for a bear

[Evan]

Well I missed having my name on a fancy plaque by a year! Shoot!

[Smaug]

How outrageous! The City actually paid an Artist? How dare they!!! Lawyers and Planners NEED all that money! I don't suppose the sculpture took much time to create, and a lowly Artist can't be worth more than, say $12.50/hr.

[chrisanddave]

The Bear is here, it's beautiful and I don't care where it came from. It's fabulous at night!

[Nationalpro]

who doesn't have $160,000? i wipe my *bleep* with 160,000!!

[Roadster]

who doesn't have $160,000? i wipe my *bleep* with 160,000!!

Worth of thoughts that is,,,

[countach]

Yeah wow I agree with a lot of people it's a nice bear and certainly well worth the investment, because as we all know were not investing in just a bear or artist but the future of Kelowna in general. I hope we have many more investment projects in the future too.

[Queen K]

Oh at this very moment the City Council is spending $25,000 on a roadmap on how to further enhance Kelowna with more public art projects. Maybe get more bears too.

[stay at home mom]

That's great that Kelowna is supporting U.S. artists because that U.S. dollar is tanking right now and they could use Canada's support.

I am not serious, but I do have to wonder about your local elected leadership that does not support local people and the local economy. Maybe come election time, someone should bring this up to any incumbents.

[butcher99]

That's great that Kelowna is supporting U.S. artists because that U.S. dollar is tanking right now and they could use Canada's support.

I am not serious, but I do have to wonder about your local elected leadership that does not support local people and the local economy. Maybe come election time, someone should bring this up to any incumbents.

Perhaps it is better to have a slick looking sculpture like that one than some piece of local stuff that is not up to snuff. Not saying nothing local is not good enough, but if something like the bear, which I find quite stunning, beats it out to bad local artists, sharpen your pencils.

I would much rather have a great piece of art from outside the community than a good piece of local art.

BTW, next time you are all shopping in Walmart Safeway or Costco but especially Walmart, perhaps you could all get together and have a little discussion on buying local.

[Bestside]

That's great that Kelowna is supporting U.S. artists because that U.S. dollar is tanking right now and they could use Canada's support.

I am not serious, but I do have to wonder about your local elected leadership that does not support local people and the local economy. Maybe come election time, someone should bring this up to any incumbents.

If our local artists had to rely on local sales of their product to live, most would starve...

Like everyone else, local artists need a larger footprint, national and international, to enlarge a following for their unique craft...
Be careful what you wish for, when talking protectionism ....

[GenesisGT]

so they unveiled the big bear today, and say it will look really nice at night time. well I'm glad.
But what also caught my eye in the story was the cost of the park went from 3.5 million on aug 24th

http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-st ... .htm#56517
"Design work on the $3.5 million park began back in 2004. It was originally scheduled to be complete as part of the city's centennial in 2006."
to 4.4 million in todays story,
http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-st ... .htm#56721
"After several delays, the $4.4 million Stuart Park opened to the public back in June."

So which is the right number? that's a pretty big discrepancy, Kinda makes the price of a $160 000 dollar bear seem minuscule

I believe this is the bigger issue, how did they manage to miss the completion date by 5 years and spend nearly and extra $1M, which it was probably a lot more then that if you include management of the project by City Hall. May..June..July..Aug..Sept..

[Queen K]

MAJOR BUMP

Public Art Installations

Seriously, folks the entire thread above is about how Kelowna got rooked for see-through bear and If I'm not mistaken that twisted metal "thing" at the Bennett Bridge.

The Emperor Has No Clothes!

Here we have Victoria grappling with "is the art Native enough" because an artist is trying to say the shape represents an Orca and well, Orcas represent indigenous people and once again retreating to the old saw, "art is what you make of it. Pay up."

I feel the citizens of Victoria are screwed blued and tattooed to allow this surfboard "thing" be installed at all. Completely hoodwinked like fools. It's not like it ever happened in Kelowna right?

Is the art "Native" enough? NO, it's not native at all. Not one bit. Someone even has to ask?

https://www.castanet.net/edition/news-s ... htm#214231

[WalterWhite]

Haha! Just finished reading that story, ^^ and the first thing that came to my mind was people are going to be looking for the paddle board rental kiosk. The second thought was, if an artist requires a plaque or some other form of explaining what the piece is supposed to represent - then they've missed their mark.

What's also interesting, is the Castanet article is a complete copy/paste of a Canadian Press/Vancouver Sun article, yet no credit to the original story. Isn't that the same as posting photos without crediting the photographer? Certainly appears to be a Castanet original story, until one looks into it further online, only to find the entire article has been pulled from another source - yet no credit is given to that source.

[oneh2obabe]

Castanet did credit The Canadian Press ... wherever they snatched an article from is always shown under the headline.

Is art native enough?
The Canadian Press - Dec 17, 2017 / 7:58 am

[Queen K]

The surfboards are in the shape of one genetically mutated Orca.
And would they not be black and white?
Who is going to "get" the colours on that thing?