Site Opportunities & Constraints

The Bend in the Bow site holds many opportunities for artists to engage, enhance, and reveal highly unique natural and cultural resources and systems. With this rare set of overlapping circumstances come many necessary regulations about working with these systems. While these restrictions place constraints on how the land can be used, they also open up possibilities for environmentally sensitive artist interventions. Particular considerations are listed for each individual art project identified in the Art Opportunities section. The following general conditions should also be considered when developing art for Bend in the Bow.

The area holds the heritage of many stories: °

First Nations people used this land

The Colonel Walker Homestead is a legally protected historic resource and must be protected for future generations

The former refinery site of the British American Oil Company is an evaluated historic resource by the Calgary Heritage Authority

Pearce Estate Park commemorates the former homestead of one of Calgary’s most visionary citizens, of which no physical evidence remains

The Inglewood Bird Sanctuary is the only federallyrecognized bird sanctuary to be located within an urban setting in Canada: °

Any development activity must conform to requirements of the Migratory Bird Act and other environmental regulations

Dogs and other domestic animals (except for service dogs) are not permitted in the Sanctuary or Wildlands and must be leashed in Pearce Estate Park

There is no public access to the river at the Sanctuary Active recreation or sports are not allowed at the Sanctuary or Wildlands In the Wildlands, remediation work is ongoing and all site improvements must be approved by property owners, Suncor Energy, and meet the following conditions: °

Existing site remediation monitoring wells and contaminant recovery systems must be retained and protected

No enclosed structures may be installed over buried contaminants

approved by Suncor

Land must be used as a passive, urban wilderness park

Passive use includes the enjoyment of nature, the attraction of wildlife, and environmental education

Bikes, sports and dogs are not permitted

City uses must coexist Suncor’s ongoing remediation work

An experimental mandate is included in the lease

Part of the site is located within the floodplain: care needs to be taken with the addition of new buildings or structures within the floodplain Retain dark sky; no artificial illumination allowed in the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary; artificial illumination can be disturbing to wildlife and needs further study to be incorporated as part of artwork in the Wildlands

A railroad spur track used by Canadian Pacific Railway divides the Inglewood Wildlands from the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary The Wildlands Lease Agreement is to be upheld, in order to specifically: °

Provide a contemplative experience and passive enjoyment of nature

Acknowledge the site’s history

Encourage appreciation of the re-establishment of ecological processes, actively assisted by people

Be a learning laboratory about restoration of a formerly industrial site

Allow for education and learning about ecological processes on this site and the role people can play in it

Attract wildlife

Serve as an annex of the Ingelwood Bird Sanctuary

City documents referenced in table to the right:

1. Colonel James Walker House: Design Development Plan (2007) 2. Shepard Wetland Park: Environmental Education Ethics Centre (2006) 3. Our BiodiverCity (2014) 4. Inglewood Bird Sanctuary Master Plan (1992) 5. Parks Open Space Plan (2003) 6. Imagine Calgary Plan (2007) 7. Natural Area Management Plan (1994) 8. Colonel James Walker House: Design Development Plan (2007) 9. Calgary Art Master Plan (2015) 10. Corporate Public Art Policy (2004)

Weave varying aspects of the site into a balanced dialogue of human and natural history.1

Promote ecological literacy. Ecological literacy depends on comprehension of both ecological and human dimensions of landscapes. It conveys an attitude about and aesthetic appreciation for landscape that promotes ecological resilience and engenders biodiversity.2

Facilitate transformative participatory experiences. Transform people’s knowledge of place through active experiences.2

Convey that natural areas are systems based on an interwoven matrix of landscape and habitat types. Species are rarely confined to a single habitat type for all their life requirements.3, 4

Connect site with a broader river valley system.5

Promote biodiversity, accessibility, and cultural diversity in use and management of natural/ parks sites.6, 7

Employ a cyclical exchange of information.3

The Walker Homestead was developed through initiatives of Agriculture, Industry, and Conservation.8

Undisturbed natural areas of Inglewood provide habitat to both migratory (the majority) and nesting species.4

Public art seeks to contribute to: a visually rich environment, attracting creative businesses and workers, art opportunities that are freely accessible to all, our diverse cultural character and celebrating our living heritage, and the growth of a culturally informed public.9, 10

Use public art to cultivate awareness about exchange occurring between natural and cultural phenomena of the site.

Create public art that captures the imagination and both conveys scientific information and arouses emotional connection with place. Highlight how human uses of the site, past and present, are tied to its natural systems.

Create public art experiences that encourage direct sensory engagement with natural and cultural systems of the site.

Encourage public art based on a “systems aesthetic,” in which the aesthetic message is inseparable from the systems which are revealed. A systems based artwork will incorporate organic and non-organic natural and cultural processes.

Use public art to transcend the site’s scale to encompass regional and global movements and cycles.

Create art that reflects dynamism, diversity, and cycles in the environment and in human systems.

Create public art that is completed by the interpretations its viewers bring to it.

Conceive each artwork as an act of conservation and regeneration.

Use public art to catalyze and reinforce flows and migrations of energy, life, and matter moving through the site.

Create a set of public artworks that respond to The City’s goals of visual richness, accessibility, reflectivity of diversity and heritage, and creation of a culturally informed public.