Post-panel thoughts from the Visual Arts team
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Last Wednesday, all our class teams presented in front of a panel of people from various areas of Calgary’s arts, cultural and economic sectors. Though it can be a bit of a nerve-racking experience to present in front of such knowledgeable people, we are quite happy with the outcome of our presentation and the feedback we received.
Our presentation began with a background of our team members, two information design students, one computer information systems student and one business student. We found a lot of value in having a team composed of different academic disciplines. It was interesting to see the different ways we’re all trained to think and work through complexity.
We continued our presentation by giving background information on the size scope and impact of our arts cluster in Calgary and Alberta. Research in our topic determined that in 2016, the visual arts sector contributed 716 million dollars to Alberta’s GDP and employed just under 10,000 Albertans with 5,400 of those jobs employing Calgarians. We also learned that citizens who attend art galleries and museums are more likely to volunteer, attend community meetings and vote. All of this information helps to support how important the visual arts community is to our city.
We spent a while discussing our ideation and prototyping process. All of our initial ideas from the starting weeks in this class have changed so much especially as we have gathered more and more information. One of our first plans was to consider how we might foster more creative confidence in Calgarians, though we circled back to this idea many times we ultimately went in a new direction for our final project.
During our presentation, we talked a bit about the controversy of public art in Calgary and how this inspired the desired outcome of our experiment. Ultimately, we are interested in changing the perception of Calgary’s public art scene so that it is framed in a more positive and enthusiastic way. The question we wanted to ask the public was “What makes Calgary beautiful?”. This was a heavy source of feedback from the panel members and we received lots of insight from many perspectives. Ultimately we learned that there may be merit in asking what Calgarians value, though there may be a better way to frame the question as beauty is not always the most important feature of Calgary’s amenities. It was suggested to us that we instead ask “What makes Calgary interesting?”. This is the piece of panel advice that we all discussed should be implemented in our final design, though we also considered all of our other feedback.
We were aiming to gather quantitative and qualitative data regarding Calgarians’ perception of what they value most in their city and encourage them to think positively about their environment and build a collective identity. This data could be used as a source of inspiration for visual artists to create visual art displays that represent the beauty of Calgary and the values its citizens hold. Our hope was that our experiment would foster inclusivity, community, and civic engagement. Thanks to the panel, we were able to fine-tune our experiment for a successful installation.
Though we now know that we are unable to install our final designs, as all Calgary Public Library locations have been closed due to COVID-19, we are still very proud of the idea we came up with and have enjoyed the whole design process.
Overall, this project has taught us so much through the course of the semester. We know how much value the arts and culture sectors add to Calgary’s vibrance as a city.