An Earlton artist has been chosen to design the public artwork that will be displayed at the yet-to-be-constructed Place des Arts building in downtown Sudbury.
Lise Beaudry, an artist and photographer with more than 20 years of experience in the visual arts, was chosen from among 10 artists who submitted portfolios.
She will design artwork to be placed on display within the Place des Arts structure. Among other things, her work will include a sculptural installation made of thousands of stacked photographs.
This pictorial pillar will evoke the history and background of the founding organizations, and create the impression that they are physically supporting the building itself.
"As a Franco-Ontarian artist, my identity has a considerable influence on my artistic work and on my interest in Franco-Ontarian arts and culture,” she said.
“I have always been attracted by Sudbury's lively and welcoming arts community. Place des Arts is a project, an organization, and an institution that exhibits the energy so typical of this admirable community.
“Franco-Ontarian arts and culture are dynamic precisely because of the contributions made by every founding member of Place des Arts. I am honoured and extremely eager to begin work on an installation that will pay permanent tribute to their efforts and contributions."
"The installation will be about the deep roots of the artistic community, and will build its very history into the structure of the Place des Arts building,” said Danielle Tremblay of Galerie du Nouvel-Ontario, who chaired the selection committee.
“Because it poetically recounts the history of the arts community — with the bands of photographs accurately depicting the many major and minor events that shaped our future — her installation struck us as the one that was most appropriate for incarnating what and who we are."
The artist will begin her public art project by consulting each of the Place des Arts founding members.
Tests of the installation are scheduled for the fall of 2019, and it will be unveiled at the official opening of Place des Arts in 2020.
