StarWoman shall delight residents once more now that city council has voted to replace a statue that had been smashed by vandals.
Council voted 5-1 Tuesday in favour of replacing the city's damaged StarWoman statue with a second version of it made by artist Stewart Steinhauer. Coun. Len Bracko was absent from the meeting.
Not replacing this statue would mean giving in to vandalism, Mayor Nolan Crouse said before the vote. "The vandals are not going to win the battle against society. They're not going to win the battle against the City of St. Albert."
StarWoman, the sequel
Council bought five granite statues from Steinhauer last September at a cost of $232,500 and placed them on the promenade behind St. Albert Place. The statues illustrated aboriginal creation myths.
On May 7, someone intentionally toppled the tallest of the statues, StarWoman, decapitating it. The statue depicted a women and a star in the sky. An engineer's report found that the 2,700-kilogram statue was intentionally tipped over with more than 300 pounds of force. Police have yet to catch those responsible.
Kelly Jerrot, the city's director of cultural services, said no funds will be taken out of city coffers to pay for the new statue. She said the city received about $40,000 in insurance money for the statue, which was valued at $65,000 (the policy had a $25,000 deductible). That money, plus the remains of the first statue, will be given to Steinhauer to pay for the replacement that is valued at $85,000.
Steinhauer, reached by phone, said he was shocked when he heard of the destruction of the first statue and immediately started work on a replacement. "I felt there should be another StarWoman," he said. "It was something I wanted to do internally."
The new statue is about 60 centimetres taller than the last one, Steinhauer said, about 1,600 kilograms heavier and much wider at the base. "It would take more than a roving gang with a rope to topple the second one."
Whereas the original was black granite, the new one features a very dark blue granite base, meant to represent the ocean, atop which sits a dark green turtle shell, meant to represent North and South America — known as Turtle Island in aboriginal mythology. Atop that stands StarWoman in black granite. "There's still a star, and she's still reaching skyward, but you'll see it's not the same exact figure as the original."
Why not fix it?
Coun. Cam MacKay, who cast the lone opposing vote, noted that Steinhauer had originally agreed to repair the statues should any of them be damaged. "Where's Mr. Steinhauer to repair the statues now that they've indeed been damaged?"
Steinhauer and an independent art dealer examined the first statue and determined that it was irreparable, Jerrot said. "This is very significant damage."
Steinhauer said he could fix the statue, but it would still have an obvious crack. "I could glue the head back on, but it's going to look like it's glued back on."
Coun. Cathy Heron asked why administration did not want to bolt or glue the statues in place to prevent others from toppling them. "Where there's a will, there's a way, sometimes."
An engineer's report found that the remaining statues were unlikely to be tipped over due to their weight and width, Jerrot said. Bolting or gluing the statues in place could damage them and could rip up the promenade if any of them were tipped, as the paving stones aren't fixed to the ground.
City manager Bill Holtby said public works plans to install three surveillance cameras at St. Albert Place this month, one of which would monitor the statue site.
But cameras can be foiled, said Coun. Roger Lemieux. "Criminals are pretty smart. All they have to do is wear a balaclava." He suggested that one or two of the statues be moved to the front of St. Albert Place for greater visibility.
Steinhauer said he'd have no problem with the statues being moved, as they were city property. "I never intended it to be a permanent exhibition," he said, and they were placed where they were as a matter of expediency.
The new statue is already in Alberta, Steinhauer said, and can be installed at any time. The broken one would likely be donated to Blue Quills First Nations College in St. Paul for teaching purposes.
