Public Art
Public art has the power to energize public space, promote thinking and debate, and celebrate an area’s past, present or future. It transforms our community by enlivening streetscapes, parks, built forms and community spaces. Burnaby is host to many works of art stemming from a range of sources. The most recent civic public art commission is shown above: James Harry and Lauren Brevner’s, Shù7mayus, created in 2022. The title is a Skwxwú7mesh word that translates as “come face to face with spirit. ” Artwork like this has the ability to offer a statement of presence, linking pasts and futures for people in the place now known as Burnaby.
Civic public art collection
Burnaby Art Gallery is responsible for public art, caring for civic artworks through its management of the City of Burnaby Public Art Collection.
Jonas Jones (TsuKwalton), k̓ʷə səlilwətaɬ syəwenəɬ ct - Our Tsleil-Waututh Ancestors, 2023
This artwork was commissioned for Burnaby City Hall to honour the relationship between the City of Burnaby and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh Nation). Conceived as a carving in the style of a traditional Coast Salish house post, the work brings a two-sided wolf design in relief carving and metal.
Nathan Lee, Hak Chu/Pak Chu, 2021
In the 1990s, during a renovation designed to preserve heritage at Deer Lake Park, several artifacts were discovered. Among them was a single white "Pak Chu". These tiny game pieces and their black counterparts, "Hak Chu", were used by early Chinese labourers in games of chance.
Jennifer Marman and Daniel Borins, Rite of Passage, 2018
Rite of Passage is a series of integrated public artworks running the full length of Willingdon Linear Park. This public art project draws on themes of braiding and weaving, which were inspired by Burnaby’s setting within a watershed, a river delta, and as a city in transition. Colourful beacons signal gateways to the park and serve as markers for bus stops. Alternating art screens featuring wave and weave variations provide privacy to community members while acting as visual topographies for passersby.
Private sector public art
Our active Private Sector Public Art Program brings new commissions to public space through private sector development. Projects by artists from around the world activate Burnaby’s streets and public plazas.
Ken Lum, The Retired Draught Horse and the Last Pulled Log, 2020
A draught horse that is no longer called to work, this rendering in bronze is a Clydesdale or a Persheron, the largest of draught horses that were commonly employed in British Columbia in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The log with chains that has come to rest nearby on the Edmonds street site stands in dialogue with the larger than life-sized horse. Together they signal a bygone era of Burnaby’s modern development.
Marianne Nicholson, Rise and Fall, 2021
This four-part sculpture wraps around the columns at the entrance to the building using blue-green glass cladding. Each pillar is sandblasted with distinct patterns to form a cohesive narrative using symbols that represent national signatories to the 2016 Paris Climate Agreement, pictured as their national animals. The pictographic style is reminiscent of early Indigenous signatures on international treaty agreements.
Julian Hou, Crossroads, 2021
This triptych of stained glass pictures memorializes figures in the fashion that was popular during the early 1990s, the time of the artist’s youth, which was spent loitering around Lougheed Mall. Resonating with the fashion of today, the work speaks to historical echoes and to the continued history of cultural diversity that marks Burnaby as unique within Canada.
Selected projects in private sector public art:
Brentwood
- Vanessa Brown, Bird House Screen commissioned by Amacon
- Gunilla Klingberg, Title to be Determined, commissioned by Onni
- Maskull Lasserre, The Visitors, commissioned by Ayoun
- Eva Rothschild, Open Arms, commissioned by Onni
- Nancy Rubins, Untitled, commissioned by Concord Pacific
- Kambiz Sharif, Growth, commissioned by Beedie
- Catherine Widgery, Wind Veil, commissioned by Marcon
- Soo Sunny Park, Title to be determined, commissioned by Shape
Edmonds
- Susan Point, Salish Spirit, commission by Open Road Properties
- Illarion Gallant, Title to be determined, commissioned by Ledingham McAllister
Lougheed
- Xwalacktun, Eshlhihkw'iws - Making Connections, commissioned by Shape
- Jun Kaneko, Heads, commissioned by Shape
Metrotown
- Marian Penner Bancroft, WindWaveWeave, commissioned by Rize
- Thomas Cannell, Sacred Belongings, commissioned by Keltic
- Douglas Coupland, Rock Garden, commissioned by Intracorp
- James Harry, All My Relations, commissioned by Kingborn
- Kimsooja, Unwrapping the Horizon, commissioned by Anthem
- Alicja Kwade, The Measure, commissioned by Bosa
- Random International, public(glass), commissioned by Qualex
- Soo Sunny Park, Title to be determined, commissioned by Anthem
- Ben Reeves, Title to be determined, commissioned by Anthem
- Debra Sparrow, Weaving the Wind, commissioned by Westland
- Rebecca Bayer, Title to be determined, commissioned by Belford
- Thomas Cannell, To Morrow’s Windows, commissioned by Bosa
- Khan Lee, Reflection, commissioned by Anthem
- Lyse Lemieux, Skirted Herons, commissioned by Concord Pacific
All completed private sector artworks are catalogued in the City’s Public Art Registry.
Civic projects
- Jill Anholt, Gliding Edge at Rosemary Brown Arena
- Adad Hannah, TimeLine at Burnaby Lake Aquatic & Arena
- Susan Point, Vision Quest at Confederation Centre
- Susan Point and Jonas Jones at Cameron Community Centre & Library
Resources
The City of Burnaby Public Art Policy documents provide guidance for the acquisition, installation, interpretation, maintenance and lifecycle planning of artworks in public areas.