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Cosmic Maypole to be removed from New Westminster park

What's happening at city hall

Cosmic Maypole is being removed from its longtime home in Friendship Gardens because of safety and cultural concerns.

Council has approved a recommendation from the city’s public art advisory committee to remove Cosmic Maypole from Friendship Gardens because of safety concerns. The city will initiate a process to decommission the work.

A staff report states that Cosmic Maypole was carved by artist Georganna Malloff and volunteers during the Vancouver United Nations Habitat Forum in 1976 as part of a project funded through Public Works Canada. After being placed in storage, a federal committee recommended in 1979 that the pole be placed in New Westminster.

“Following approval from council, the artist was contracted by the city to complete the carving and design and attach a rainbow cap,” said the report. “In 1979, the city signed an exhibit agreement with Public Works Canada for indefinite loan and assumed full responsibility to all costs, including maintenance and ongoing insurance, recognizing the proprietorship of the Crown.”

According to the report, the top section of the pole was removed after a 2012 engineering inspection found significant deterioration, including a large vertical crack extending the length of the pole, bacterial growth and an insect infestation. A 2017 inspection detected there had been further deterioration and recommended complete removal of Cosmic Maypole.

The staff report stated a 2018 assessment outlined a $70,000 treatment plan that would stabilize the existing deterioration but wouldn’t address structural concerns or alleviate the need for future and ongoing maintenance.

“The work was carved by a non-Indigenous artist incorporating Northwest Coast Indigenous carving traditions, and therefore is not aligned with the city’s commitment to decolonization, truth and reconciliation,” said the report. “Consultation and engagement will be required to ensure the city proceeds with a decommissioning approach that is respectful and culturally sensitive.”

At a closed meeting in July, the public art advisory committee recommended Cosmic Maypole be decommissioned and removed from Tipperary Park and that staff seek counsel from Indigenous communities about the decommissioning approach.

Now that council has approved the committee’s recommendation, staff will inform Public Services and Procurement Canada (formerly Public Works Canada) and the artist of the plan to remove the work. The city will also review a time capsule that was once located in the top section of the pole, will try to identify any Indigenous connections to the work or carvers who may have been involved in its creation and make arrangement for the removal and interim storage of the  work.

Cosmic Maypole is located in the lower portion of Tipperary Park, near a small plaza and pond not far from city hall.

A staff report states the cost of removing the piece is about $11,000, which will be funded through the public art reserve fund.

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