By Gagandeep Ghuman
Published: July 10, 2015
IT’S NOT hard to glean inspiration from nature when you live in Squamish. So when Stan Matwychuk moved here five years ago, he realised the bland dreary walls and surfaces grated on his artistic instincts. And twice they have become his unlikely muse, inspiring him to bring nature on to these dreary canvasses. He painted a mural on the former PacWest building in downtown Squamish with artist Chili Thom and this summer, you can find him painting — and sweating — his heart away on the Centennial Way underpass near Brennan Park Recreation centre. Matwychuk is working on a mural that will depict salmon running up the river. It’s a project he has spent as many as 20 hours on and soon plans to send a call out to the local youth and community members to join him in painting the mural.
In the past five years, this will be the first public art project in Squamish that the district will pay him via a grant in aid given to the Squamish Arts Council. There is a lot more he’d like to do but he also has to make ends meet with a job and his art business.
And there isn’t much public money available for public art, at least not for the one done by local artists if the numbers are to be believed. Last year, the district cut the arts enhancement grant given through Squamish Arts Council from $15,000 to $10,000 because of budget restrictions. And yet, last year the district found a whopping $47,955 in the budget for Vancouver Biennale artists to come to Squamish and this year will be giving $15,000 for this project.
“The district chose to support the Biennale program to enable the internationally successful public art program to come to Squamish,” said district spokesperson Christina Moore. “The high-profile biennales attract representation from renowned international artists, with cultural tourists making specific efforts to travel and see the artworks associated with the shows.”
Matwychuk feels the district does try to support the local arts community but says there should be some way for local and international artists to work together. “I think the scope of the Biennale is a great idea but it loses its validity on the local level. It’d be great if the Biennale artists would engage and work with the local artists so we can have the perspective of both in our art,” he says.
Matwychuk’s views are shared by Squamish Nation artist, Rick Harry, whose art installations can be found at the local Howe Sound Secondary School, BC Hydro building and, most recently, on the Squamish Nation overpass near the casino.
Harry says the Sea to Sky region has no dearth of artists and it would be a good idea if Biennale and local artists worked together. “When they come here they are more focussed on what they are going to be doing. But if they included someone from the local artists community, it would be very interesting to see what they come up with,” he says.On the public funding for the Biennial projects, Harry says it should find a way to support local artists. “If you spend the money on local artists, the money stays in the community. Include local artists in this. It’s that simple,” he says.
Long-time Squamish artists Toby Jaxon says the town presents many challenges to artists, from lack of art gallery and fewer patrons. “As a local artist, I’d be starving if I didn’t have my husband supporting me. We have the foyer gallery and some cafes, but there are no art galleries,” she said.
Jaxon was part of a public art contest a few years ago when one of her paintings was chosen to be wrapped around a hydro box in downtown Squamish. The project was a partnership between the district, BIA and the arts council and winning prize was $500. Jaxon supports more funding for local artists but is conflicted about Vancouver Biennale funding for she feels there is value in international artists coming to town. The money spent on the international artists provided publicity and marketing for Squamish as it attracts cultural tourists to visit Squamish to see these projects.
“I’d love to see more money put towards local artist, but these international artists are quite well known and I think their art in Squamish encourages tourism and culture,” she says.
Cheyenne Smith, a concerned citizen with artistic inclinations, says in trying to make the town more marketable to the world, Mayor Patricia Heintzman and council are forgetting about the smaller, community-level picture. “Local artists are being left in the dust in favour of artists that come with ‘bigger names’ or those who are ‘more marketable’,” she says. “I firmly believe that Squamish has a plethora of untapped artistic talent, and I find it both sad and frustrating that the council is not recognising these local artists, and is instead funneling local taxpayer money into outside entities [Vancouver Biennale] that have, as of now, not delivered the community’s money’s worth.”
Smith says she had been thinking of writing publicly about the issue ever since the wood sculptures appeared on the piece of property just in front of the Squamish Elementary School. “Not only did they cost Squamish taxpayers $15,000, they also remain unfinished, and frankly not very pleasing to the eye. To me, and many others to whom I have spoken, this ‘art installation’ is a gross waste of resources, not only money-wise, but also material-wise. Those were some beautiful pieces of wood that now sit there, battered by the elements, and in no way fulfilling their true potential,” she said.
Similarly, she says, the Vancouver Biennale project at the intersection of Logger’s Lane and Victoria Street is now grossly overgrown to the point that you can hardly make out what the image is meant to be.
Smith says the council gets easily caught up in trying to be the best and they believe in order to do so they need to bring more attention to Squamish. Sometimes focusing on the smaller picture can be very beneficial on the community level because it provides a strong base on which to build the community, she says.
Mayor Patricia Heintzman says there have been collaborations between the Biennale artists and the local artists, including with Squamish Nation artists and with the ‘I have a Dream’ project where an artist from India worked with a local woodworking artist. She also says the district funding went to the Biennale and not to individual artists and the project was about creating bigger conversation and giving exposure to Squamish. “The best way we can support local artists is to make sure we are highlighting and featuring the idea and importance of public art and Biennale was one way of doing that and one way of putting Squamish on the map,” she said.
Heintzman also says the district has just implemented a public art policy and would spur more public art in the community.
Concerned citizens such as Smith, however, feel the council needs to stop funneling money into projects like the Vancouver Biennale and instead set up a similar program that instead funds local artists to create public art installations. She also says the community and the council need to better recognize the artistic talent of the local Aboriginal community, who are not represented in the community arts.
“Funding for the arts is debate that has been going on for ages, and I know that there is no one right answer. Nevertheless, I hope that by just bringing more awareness to the situation locally, we can start to provide more support to our own community members and their various talents,” she said.
Matwychuk feels one way the district can help local arts is by funding a paid position of an executive director who can help anchor and encourage art in the community. The arts council is run by volunteers and a paid position would go a long way in support the arts in the community, he says.
Michelle Neilson, Chair of the Arts Council, says, “Biennale will teach us many things. Not just about art. The project revealed some holes in our arts community, demonstrating the need for a stronger arts voice with the municipality. When the Biennale is over I hope we can do a postmortem with key stakeholders and the District. Let’s talk about lessons learned. Let’s look at goals and how they aligned with the finished product.”
As Chair of the Arts Council, she says she wants to be a part of finding solutions for our arts community. “Distilling the lessons. Building bridges. Not pointing fingers,” she adds.
