Valley Line Southeast LRT artworks on track to wow commuters
‘I really love being able to deliver something that people can see everyday’
"It's priceless."
Edmonton artist Stephanie Jonsson beams as she looks up at the Muttart stop of the Valley Line Southeast LRT.
"This is my first public art project," Jonsson says. "I really love being able to deliver something that people can see everyday."
Jonsson created two brightly coloured aluminum sculptures mounted on the canopy on either side of the platform. She drew inspiration from the flora next door at the Muttart Conservatory at 9626 96A St.
"It's almost got a little bit of an under-the-sea theme to it when you first look at it, a little bit like seaweed," says David Turnbull, director of public art and conservation with the Edmonton Arts Council.
You can see more of the artwork at Davies Station and three stops along the Valley Line Southeast LRT on this week's Our Edmonton on Saturday at 10 a.m., Sunday at noon and 11 a.m. Monday on CBC TV and CBC Gem.
It's an example of artists getting in early at the beginning of the design and construction process — in this case six years ago — and really considering the space and relationship to the art, Turnbull says.
Art is already in place or planned for the 11 stops and one station along the $2-billion Valley Line Southeast LRT, scheduled to be up and running in the first quarter of 2022.
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The budget for art on the entire Valley Line LRT project is $2.6 million, Turnbull says.
Work by local, regional and Canadian artists are now on everything from bridges to ramps and stops along the 13-kilometre line between Mill Woods and downtown Edmonton.
Turnbull says the only commission that went to an international artist was Shan Shan Sheng for the massive ceramic coloured glass Fluid Landscape at the Davies LRT Station southwest of the intersection of 75th Street and Wagner Road.
Sheng travelled from San Francisco and toured the capital region "and really got a sense of what it was like to be here on the prairies so this is her vision of when she came to Edmonton," Turnbull says.
Other major projects include more than 400 paintings on the ceiling of the Tawatinâ pedestrian bridge over the North Saskatchewan River by Métis artist David Garneau, who is originally from Edmonton but now lives in Regina.
"When you cross that bridge you're actually going to learn some of the stories of the history of the place and what is important to the Indigenous peoples," Turnbull says.
The trail systems at either end of the pedestrian bridge through Louise McKinney and Henrietta Muir Parks are set to be finished by the end of November with the bridge opening to the public in the next few weeks, according to TransEd, the construction company in charge of the LRT project.
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