Dumpster art: Aitken Centre trashes student murals

A former Aitken Centre employee has a shed full of student paintings he salvaged from a dumpster — just where staff at the hockey arena tossed them.

Terry Oakes, former director of the arena at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, said he has no idea what to do with the art but knew he had to save what he could.

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"I was flabbergasted," he said.

"It was like, 'What? How can you throw somebody's artwork away? Somebody spent their time and imagination on painting these things, and why would you just discard it like it was trash?'"

The large-scale urban art project was painted almost six years ago by a group of graphic and digital media design students during their final year at the Centre for Arts and Technology.

In December 2011 and January 2012, they created two separate murals using vibrant acrylic paint in bright colours. The project, a semester's worth of work, was titled Art4Aitken.

One featured cartoonish Chinese-style dragons with a floral background, but Oakes was unable to save any of the panels.

The other was a take on athletics and the culture of the Aitken Centre itself. Jackson Pollock-style paintings with neon paint splatters were also thrown into the mix.

Oakes, who commissioned the work, said the students delivered and mounted the murals on the concourse walls themselves.

Last week, he received a message saying the work had been thrown in the dumpsters behind the centre.

He immediately texted Jean Rooney, an artist who had her own piece in the arena and supervised the student project. He also contacted the director of the UNB Art Centre, Marie Maltais, to see if anything could be done to save the former students' art.

A friend of Oakes collected two loads of the painted panels and dropped them off at his home.

Oakes figures only about 20 per cent of what had been on the walls is now in his shed. Many of the other canvases were broken up in pieces, he said.

"Now that I have it, I don't know what to do with it."

Worst-case scenario

Natasha Ashfield, the University of New Brunswick communications officer, said the Aitken Centre lobby is being updated with images of recent student athletes to reflect their accomplishments.

Because of this, wall space was limited, she said.

"After spending more than half a year reaching out to groups and individuals in an effort to find a new home for the murals, the decision was made to decommission them," Ashfield told CBC News in an email.

She said the university had little information about the murals but tried a number of art groups and individuals in hopes of insight and finding a place for the art to go.

With no luck, the paintings ended up in a dumpster, though Ashfield said this shouldn't have happened.

"The murals should have been placed in storage or kept somewhere until a new home could be found, and we regret that this did not happen," she said.

Jean Rooney, whose hockey fan piece was among those removed from the walls of the concourse and thrown in the trash, said the student projects, as well as her own, were positive experiences.

She said that under Oakes's management, past students were always notified when it was time to remove or decommission a piece of their work.

"That's why it is a real surprise to us all that this was not followed through this time," Rooney said in an email on Friday.

She said she's since reached out to UNB but wishes she had been contacted initially.

"My name was written large and legibly on every panel of my work," Rooney said. "There was a framed notice explaining I was the artist and also an explanation of the project and all the contact details.

"That is why it is a real mystery how I did not receive any calls or emails or was [not] contacted. I wish I knew."

Now that I have it, I don't know what to do with it.- Terry Oakes, former director of the AUC

Rooney said she hopes that the former students can be reunited with their work, if possible, or that the work can be put in a place where it's enjoyed and respected.

Marie Maltais said the arena contacted the UNB Art Centre a few weeks ago and a staff member gave the arena Rooney's contact information.

Maltais said she had no idea the Aitken Centre was going to throw the art out.

"I really don't think there was any excuse for them not to contact the artist in an amount of time that would have allowed this resolution for her to either claim the work or disperse the work," Maltais said.

"And in the worst-case scenario, they could have called us and we could have stored the work. I think there were a lot of different options that could have been explored, and it's unfortunate that this happened."

Oakes said he, too, could have been consulted.

"They didn't contact me and they knew that I commissioned the artwork," Oakes said. "They can get hold of me very easily … and they didn't do that.

"It should've gone back to the artists. … You should at least have the option … but it shouldn't go in a dumpster."

'More than just a hockey rink'

Maltais said she feels bad for everybody involved, including staff at the Aitken Centre.

"They had something in their mind and they had to accomplish it by a certain date, perhaps," she said.

"So, they weren't thinking … about the job at hand and what they were trying to do and just weren't sensitive enough, I think, to the issue."

Oakes said the reason he commissioned the artwork in the first place was to draw upon the Aitken Centre's ability to do more than house wild hockey fans.

"It is more than just a hockey rink. It's a multi-purpose facility, so there's a lot of concerts and stuff going on there," he said.

"I wanted to bring a little bit of art to the centre, and there's a lot of people who walk around the Aitken Centre, and so it gives them something to look at."

Now, Oakes' shed is a little more vivid, but it's also a lot more crowded. He's still not sure what to do with the canvases but hopes to put them to good use.

"I have room enough maybe for one piece on my wall, but there's quite a few pieces there, so maybe another artist will take it and turn it into another piece of art," he said.

"Maybe call it 'dumpster art.'"