Image from Google, © 2022
In 2019, Brampton spent about $10 million building a noise wall along Williams Parkway. Once it had been approved – after it was too late to turn back – complaints started rolling in: the fence is hideous. To add insult to injury, the road expansion that would have necessitated the building of the wall never happened. Earlier this year, the municipal government sent out a survey asking residents what they should do with the wall. The most popular idea was turning it into a piece of public art. At the January 26 City Council meeting, local artists passionately argued in favour of this proposition. They were strongly supported by Councillor Santos, who asked for the matter to be referred to municipal staff, so they could create a report on how the plan could be implemented.
But, it doesn’t seem like that will happen. Councillors were worried about money (adding public art to the wall will cost about $300,000), graffiti, and the unfairness of focusing on the wall as the only location for public art, among other things. So, Councillor Williams successfully had the words “public art” struck from Councillor Santos’s motion. Instead of becoming a mural, the wall will simply be obscured by trees, bushes, ivy, and maybe some floral gardens.
Though efforts to make the wall a piece of public art seem to have come to nothing, they did lead to a good discussion on the state of public art in the city. When responding to questions from the Councillors, municipal staff claimed that Brampton does not have a dedicated annual budget for public arts and we spend about $7 per capita less on public arts than the average municipality. The City does give $500,000 a year to our Arts, Culture, & Creative Development Agency, but public art is only one of that agency’s many concerns. For the most part, public arts initiatives in Brampton rely on a partnership with other areas of the municipal government. Based on the discussion about the Williams Parkway Noise Wall, it seems as though efforts to increase funding for public arts in Brampton would be supported by the Council. But, it remains to be seen whether or not that will actually happen.
By Gabrielle VanderBerg
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