FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 4, 2012
Ahmon Katz “Great Blue Heron” Selected for Art in the City
The City of Charlottetown and the Prince Edward Island Council of the Arts are pleased to announce the latest addition to the City’s collection of public art.
“Great Blue Heron” by Island artist Ahmon Katz has been selected for installation at the corner of Queen Street and Water Street. The selected work is an artistic rendition of a Great Blue Heron, an iconic symbol often seen in the area’s harbours and marshlands. The piece will be 7’6” feet (2.3 metres) tall.
"I am honoured to build a sculpture for Prince Edward Island,” said Ahmon Katz. “I would like to thank the City of Charlottetown and the Council of the Arts for having the foresight to continue the program."
The Art in the City installation will be accessible to the public, and people will be encouraged to touch and be near the work. The sculpture will be created over the winter, and it will be installed in the spring of 2013.
“One of the building blocks of a healthy and sustainable city is a focus on the arts,” said Charlottetown Mayor Clifford Lee. “We’re looking forward to seeing Ahmon Katz’s artwork installed. It will be an important addition to the City and to the waterfront, and it will become a focal point for citizens and visitors alike.”
“The Council is again thrilled to be partnering with the City on this important project. One needs only to look at other major cities around Canada and the U.S. to see the importance of public art to people's perception of a city,” says Council Chair Dr. Greg Doran. “Moreover, these pieces, combined with the older pieces, begin to create a compelling story about Charlottetown's growth and values. There are pieces that honour its past, and this program is adding the contemporary part to Charlottetown's story. In the end, I cannot overstate the importance of this program for the City, its artists, and its citizens: we will be measured by what we leave behind. Through this program, the Council and the City are ensuring that future generations will understand that we valued the City and the Arts.”
This work is part of the Art in the City program, established in 2011 when the City of Charlottetown was named a Cultural Capital of Canada. The program is a collaboration between the City and the PEI Council of the Arts, with both sides sharing costs and the Arts Council providing the administration.
Ahmon Katz’s piece will join the nine other works created under that program and become part of the City’s growing public urban art landscape that includes historic and recent monuments and memorials, as well as contemporary works in painting and sculpture.
Download the high-resolution image: GreatBlueHeronSketch-LARGE.jpg
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ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Ahmon Katz is a sculptor who lives on Prince Edward Island. He has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Eckerd College (St. Petersburg, Florida) He also attended Savannah College of Art and Design, (Savannah, Georgia) where he pursued a Master’s Degree in Industrial Design. Ahmon has been producing and exhibiting sculpture on PEI for the past fifteen years. Ahmon most recently showed at Art in the Open 2012 and was one of the artists commissioned in the last Art in the City call for his “Hydrant” sculpture at Fire Station No. 2
Media contacts:
Jennifer Gavin
Communications City of Charlottetown
902-629-4102
jgavin@charlottetown.ca
Darrin White
Executive Director
PEI Council of the Arts
902-368-4410
dwhite@peica.ca