By Laurie Watt

Sometimes getting the best bloom requires a bit of cutting back – and Barrie is poised to spend $10,000 to carve up to six tree stumps, to give the city a competitive edge in next year’s Communities in Bloom competition.

On Monday, council’s General Committee will deal with the motion, which itself required some moulding. Originally coming from the city’s Communities in Bloom committee, the engineering staff report acknowledged the proposal could be “cultural and heritage project.”

However, the engineering report didn’t consider the city’s cultural plan, Building A Creative Future, which advocates art in public spaces. It also did not include input from the city’s newly created Cultural Development Office – a key city investment to drive council’s strategic priority of “encouraging culture as an economic driver” – nor from the MacLaren Art Centre, which is renowned for pioneering art in public spaces.

“Why is there no cultural planning rationale and impact direction on this project? And perhaps a second question is why is there no community consultation including visual arts organizations?” asked arts and culture consultant William Moore, who launched the MacLaren’s Art City program while he was director there.

“If Barrie is to manage its arts and culture direction, then obviously public art is a vital component.

“The implementation of a public art strategy is an important part of Barrie’s cultural plan (which is held up as an example for municipalities across Ontario). This is not necessarily a bad project or a wrong decision. The issue is, this decision is being made without an overall public art strategy.

“One of council’s priorities is to encourage culture as an economic driver. To drive the cultural economy, now at $100 million, we must manage the part, including this and every project. Significant and successful outcomes will only come from co-ordinated and thoughtful planning.”

Moore zipped off his opinion to councillors as well as the arts community the morning of the Community Services meeting.

Committee chairperson Coun. John Brassard acknowledged Moore was right – and the city now plans to consult its Cultural Development Department before the carvings are created next year, most likely in Queen’s Park and the lower St. Vincent Street area.

“William is quite right. We have a cultural plan that calls for art in public spaces, and it’s important (the arts community) is involved,” he said in an interview.

“(The motion going to council’s general committee Monday) calls for the cultural department to be consultant on what the stumps will look like. William is right – in the sense of the cultural plan. There’s no question the arts community needs to be involved.”