Saint John taking steps to protect public art following destruction of pedway mural

Nipun Tiwari · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 07, 2025 5:00 AM EST | Last Updated: 11 minutes ago

After a mural successful a pedway connecting Saint John's city hall and Market Square was destroyed, the metropolis is taking steps to marque definite it doesn't hap again.

The city's caller absorption connected nationalist creation comes after the nonaccomplishment of the mural, called Nest, in the Saint Patrick Street pedway.

Painted by well-known New Brunswick artist Deanna Musgrave, it was damaged by h2o after a ceiling tube froze and divided due to the fact that of acold weather, a unit study said. The metropolis tore it down aft becoming alert of the damage. 

By the clip Musgrave learned her enactment had been affected by a leak, it was already gone with thing near to salvage, according to the city.

Art, commissioned by the metropolis and that are portion of the city's creation slope are fixed definite protections, specified arsenic modular attraction and insurance. This wasn't the lawsuit for Musgrave's mural.

Now, creation that hasn't been commissioned by the metropolis volition nary longer beryllium installed successful public, city-owned spaces, the metropolis says.

"The metropolis has hundreds of pieces of artwork, whether it's murals, oregon statues, oregon paintings hung up oregon placed successful metropolis buildings, connected metropolis spot each passim the city," said David Dobbelsteyn, Saint John's manager of maturation and assemblage enactment services.

"But this portion wasn't commissioned by the city, which is what caught the metropolis a small disconnected defender erstwhile the section was dealing with it."

Dobbelsteyn said the mural was a "collaborative gift" to the metropolis from the artist and the institution that co-owns the pedway, the Hardman Group, but not being a portion of the city's creation slope meant it had nary security protection.

The metropolis volition also discourage art installations successful spaces that whitethorn airs infrastructure risks.

"We had this unfortunate acquisition wherever this beauteous mural had to beryllium removed due to the fact that the infrastructure supra it got damaged by earthy causes," said Dobbelsteyn.

"We privation nationalist creation ... But we request to beryllium a small much cautious astir wherever those are placed, truthful it whitethorn not beryllium connected ceilings oregon walls wherever there's infrastructure."

Musgrave said she wishes she had been informed sooner by the metropolis astir the problem.

To code that, the metropolis plans to hire a caller arts and civilization co-ordinator to code connection failings and it plans to update its arts and civilization policy.

The existent policy, the unit study says, does not supply beardown provisions for commissioning, installing oregon maintaining art. Dobbelsteyn said the metropolis intends to follow a caller argumentation successful 2026.

A argumentation alteration is an accidental for the metropolis to consult with section artists, including Musgrave.

Artist applauds metropolis staff, leaders

Musgrave said pursuing the mural's removal, Mayor Donna Reardon called her to apologize. Reardon besides apologized publically astatine council.

"It means a batch to maine that the city, the assembly and the politician are trying to marque this close successful the ways that are disposable to them," Musgrave said. 

"It means a batch to maine that the sacrifice of Nest is going to pb to amended taste argumentation for the city."

Musgrave said she hopes her acquisition teaches others the worth of nationalist art. 

"I promote citizens to conscionable locomotion done the pedway present that it is simply a achromatic shade of what is left, and conscionable spot however that feels successful your body," Musgrave said.

"And to retrieve however it felt to locomotion done that headway with the bluish and the clouds and the birds and that imaginary abstraction and however it's antithetic present that it's that whitewashed ghost."

Dobbelsteyn said that determination are galore murals successful the metropolis that are not a portion of the city's creation slope but are inactive significant. 

"We're going to tread much cautiously whenever immoderate contractors are having to bash enactment successful and astir those, careless of whether the artwork is portion of the city's creation slope oregon not," helium said.