A community in Alberta could become the new home of stone sculptures created by artists from around the world if a Kickstarter campaign by the owner of the Bergen Rocks succeeds.
Morton Burke, whose property south of Sundre displays the unique works of art, hopes to find a new, more public home for his collection, which he has been building up through a number of stone sculpture symposiums since 2008.
“My project is to donate a sculpture park to a community in central Alberta. My minimum goal of $75,000 will allow me to donate five sculptures, while $285,000 raised will allow me to donate my complete collection of 19 monumental stone sculptures,” reads his Kickstarter campaign page.
“If I raise more than $285,000, I will restart the Bergen Rocks program, creating sculptures for communities. I believe that the creation of sculpture parks in my area will stimulate art tourism to become a significant segment of the tourism industry here — art tourism is virtually non-existent now.”
While tourism is a vital part of Alberta's economy, art tourism is essentially unheard of in the province and could potentially draw tens of thousands of art tourists from around the world every year, he said.
“Alberta is a young province,” he said. “We have been busy building roads and bridges and cities for the last 150 years. Public art has not been a priority and not gained recognition as a valuable asset in our communities. Placement of sculpture parks and the resultant tourism and community social benefits they create will help to increase support for the arts as well as beautify our communities for centuries to come.”
Having over the years attended a number of sculpture symposiums in other countries such as Vietnam, South Korea, China and Russia, Burke was once invited over to the home of an artist whose yard featured a number of sculptures. That's when the light went on and he decided to try hosting symposiums on his own property.
“I had participated in these events in other countries. I thought they were a wonderful way for communities to acquire public art,” he said.
“The result is something that beautifies and adds culture to your community.”
The symposiums are not restricted only to the artists. The public is welcome to come out and watch the sculptures take form from block of stone to finished work, he said.
Bergen Rocks is also the only artist-sponsored stone sculpture symposium in the world, “which is something to be noted,” he said.
“Bergen Rocks has grown to become well known in the sculpture community.”
During the last symposium he organized, Burke said he had received 178 proposals from artists, but was only able to welcome five, meaning 173 were turned away.
“The selection is really a difficult thing,” he said.
Unfortunately, Canada has not yet caught on to the concept of art tourism, whereas institutions in many other countries around the world are supportive of artistic pursuits such as stone sculpture symposiums, he said.
Additionally, stone sculptures created at the Bergen Rocks symposiums are very economical in comparison with commissioned art works, he said, adding several pieces at Bergen Rocks “would undoubtedly be commissioned artwork for more than $100,000.”
Although he wants to make the sculptures available to an Alberta community so they'll be more accessible to the public, Burke said he needed to have a minimum amount raised.
“What I'm looking to recover for the sculptures in order to donate them is $15,000 each,” he said.
There have been four Bergen Rocks stone sculpture symposiums including the first one that was held in 2008, he said, adding as many as five artists from countries such as South Korea, Turkey, Mongolia, Iran, Thailand, Germany, Cuba, India and Vietnam attended each one.
Whereas, for example, dentist or mechanic symposiums are more intellectually oriented with keynote speakers giving speeches and sharing information, a sculpture symposium is a working event, which typically goes on for as long as a month, he said.
Throughout the course of the four symposiums, a total of 22 sculptures were created, although three were relocated to Sylvan Lake this past spring, leaving the collection at 19, he said.
“At this point in time, I've got a lot of sculptures at my place, and I don't really have room for any more,” he said.
Burke ideally would like to continue with Bergen Rocks, but “in order to do that, I'm looking to disseminate this collection.”
His campaign, which is running until July 9, had as of last week raised less than $1,000.
If he can recover his costs, Burke said two things would happen — the artwork will become public rather than remain on his private property, and he'll be able to start Bergen Rocks from scratch and again being to host artists at new symposiums.
However, even though the sculptures are on his property, the public is welcome to visit.
“It's five miles from Sundre. People have told me this is the best sculpture park in Canada,” he said.
Burke enjoyed most about the symposiums the creativity coupled with the sharing of artistic inspiration and sculpting techniques.
“Then of course the resulting artworks are pretty darn nice to have. But I'd like to see them in a public place so they can be enjoyed by more people and create a stronger understanding of the value of public art.”
One of his initial objectives behind the symposiums was to stimulate other communities in Alberta to follow suit. A community with an international sculpture park should be able to, with some promotion, attract many thousands of people every year, he said.
In other parts of the world, art tourism is an identified segment of the overall industry and visitors can buy travel packages specifically tailored around tours to museums, yet it remains largely unheard of in Alberta.
“It's a completely foreign idea. If we had a number of sculpture parks within driving distance, we'd see an increase in art tourism,” he said.
“We don't have art tourism. It'd be kind of cool if we did, because it would add a whole new demographic of tourists that we could attract for all the benefits that tourism creates.”
"It's five miles from Sundre. People have told me this is the best sculpture park in Canada."Morton Burke
