The intersection of art and public spaces is a complicated dance, but one that St. Albert is finding fresh ways to navigate.

One of those ways is the Arts Development Advisory Committee (ADAC). Formed in 2020, the committee serves as an advisory body to city council, helping the city make informed decisions on arts development and public art in the city. It replaced a previous, likeminded committee, but expanded its focus beyond the city’s existing stock of public art into a wider range of arts-related issues.

“ADAC was meant to be something that could be a little bit broader,” Emily Baker explains. “Rather than just looking at acquisitions, we could look at policy, we could be the voice of the community with the city when they're talking about all things public art.”

Baker is the curator of the Art Gallery of St. Albert, and has been a member of ADAC since its inception. She notes that working on public arts-related issues aligns with her own inclination to help make art more accessible.

“I've always been really passionate about visual arts, and especially sharing arts with people in a really open and accessible and friendly way,” she says. “It felt like a really interesting opportunity to kind of make a jump from my day-to-day—which is in the gallery space, talking to people about exhibitions and the artists that are showing—into more of a public art space, get to know how cities plan policy, which is not something I had any experience in.”

ADAC’s work has ranged from supporting one-off projects—Baker notes an upcoming public art mural at Fowler Park—to deeper, more structural ideas, such as helping rewrite the city’s arts policies.

“For policy nerds, it's really fun and exciting and it's a way to set a new benchmark for, what are the goals? What is the purpose of having a public art collection? How do we want to move that forward?” Baker says.

The committee has looked at how other, similarly-sized cities have managed their relationship with art, as one way of helping determine how St. Albert should do the same. But Baker notes that discussions within the committee itself—whose members have a wide range of backgrounds and relationships with art—have been particularly helpful, and given her new perspectives on how art and the city intersect.

“It's really eye opening,” she says. “There's a lot of people who are involved with bringing public art into a public space and good policy makes all the difference.”

“It's been a lot of really interesting conversations,” she continues. “There are people who work in insurance and in literature and all these other backgrounds [on the committee]. So you're able to get a lot of input and insight …  There's been a lot of change on the committee as well. There are only two of us who've been there since the beginning. So we've been able to add all of these new perspectives and voices and build something that I think is going to serve the city really, really well.”

Article Written by: Paul Blinov

For more information about the Arts Development Advisory Committee, please follow this link. 

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