THAT City Council APPROVE funding of $144,500 which will be available for use from the Arts Endowment Capital project (7179003) for this project; and further,

THAT, in the event that the other sources of funding are no longer available, that any shortfall with regards to the sculpture project BE FUNDED, as a first charge, from the 2020 minimum contribution of 1.5% to the Arts Endowment capital project.

Executive Summary:

N/A

Background:

Project History

At its January 27, 2010 meeting, the International Relations Committee (IRC) supported an initiative to erect a sculpture to honour the current Sister City relationships with the City of Windsor. The sculpture would act as the focal point in the Sister City Gardens section of Jackson Park, which was created as a result of the Jackson Park Master Plan review. The IRC received approval to erect a sculpture or monument in the park by way of IRC Committee Report 28, approved at the May 17, 2010 meeting of City Council pursuant to M152-2010.

Known as the "Twin Cities Monument Project," the project began as an art competition aimed at post secondary students studying visual arts or related disciplines beginning in 2010. The competition returned a disappointing result which prompted the committee to open up the competition to the community in 2011 and later through an Expression of Interest in 2012. These attempts also did not garner much interest or participation in the competition. Prior to the Expression of Interest in 2012, the committee approved increasing the funding levels from $5,000 to $15,000 toward the project in an effort to attracting greater participation. The committee committed greater funding to the project from their 2013 Budget at their September 26, 2013 meeting, where funding was increased by another $10,000, bringing the total contribution to $25,000.

Not finding a suitable entry through an Expression of Interest held in 2012, the committee contacted Laura Shintani, a local artist known to the committee to determine her interest in participating. Ms. Shintani was known to the committee as she had been previously selected by our twin city of Changchun, China to participate in their Annual Art Symposium, and furthermore had enlisted the assistance of the committee in 2012 in making contact with Fujisawa, Japan. Ms. Shintani forwarded a proposal for consideration, which was discussed by the committee at the March 18, 2013 IRC meeting. The original agreement proposed the City contribute $25,000 plus $1,000 received from the Korean Society, with the remaining cost of $224,000 to be raised through fundraising efforts by the Artist.

The original plan for the "You + Me" sculpture was to create two wooden seven foot tall Windsor Chairs which would be covered in wax fingerprints moulded to the chairs. Once the chairs were covered in fingerprints, they were to be cast in bronze and then installed in Jackson Park.