Cheap And Cheerful Things

Not THAT!!

Get your mind out of the gutter! Jim Yanchula, Windsor's manager of urban design and community development was talking about the expansion possibility of the South Windsor Art Gallery on Dougall under the E C Row underpass.

My goodness gracious. That unanimous vote at Council a few weeks ago re Cultural projects has certainly changed the minds of some of the Budgeteers. They understand that saving money is not all that Council must do. For the appropriate project (especially if it can be justified as helping bring in tourist dollars) then certain Councillors will agree to open the purse to spend money.

Here is what Councillor Halberstadt had to say in Saturday's Star after attending a forum that involved brainstorming ideas to improve the look of the designated civic streets like Howard and Dougall:

• "The issue of money was not addressed at the design forum, but several councillors attended the session to get a sense of what people wanted. Some of them said they're willing to start loosening the purse strings because the beautification of the two roadways is a priority.
  
  "I think we're going to have to find the money somewhere," said Coun. Alan Halberstadt. "But it's difficult. There's just so many bucks out there."
  
  

Now I have talked about the opening of the South Windsor Art Gallery before and showed its first acquisition [February 02, 2006 "Is This Windsor Art."] Well since then, thousands of Windsorites and tourists have viewed the new mural depicting the downtown skylines of Windsor and Detroit--what Mayor Eddie Francis called "a vast improvement over what had been "an ugly" bit of infrastructure."

Now I call it a "billboard" but what do I know about "art." (I wonder if Councillor Cassivi has finished reading the "62 pages of downloaded answers to the question, "what is art?" given to him by Brenda Francis-Pelkey, director of the school of visual arts at the University of Windsor.)

Accordingly, Jim, who may be in line to be the curator of the gallery and oversee its expansion, could say

• "The stark concrete walls in each of those underpasses of the E.C. Row expressway offer enormous opportunities to do a 'POW.' They could be developed as mural programs or art projects... That's cheap and cheerful..."
  
  

He did say that the expansion probably wouldn't start for a year or two but it is another checkmark on the Mayor's Report Card, you know, "in progress."