In this episode, Engage Radio contributor Audrey Nelson explores the City of Middletown's TunnelVision public art project. TunnelVision is the brainchild of artist and Educator Kate TenEyck, which aims to beautify one of the City's darker corners while reconnecting Middletown residents to their waterfront and history!    

Engage Radio Episode 11 - Tunnelvision

I have the good fortune of living in a place that values public art -- art that anyone can see at any time of night or day-- and that, with its very presence, invites just a little curiosity in a way that you might imagine would appeal to me.

So I was delighted when Tomora Wright Swann, Public Art Projects Manager of Arlington County (Va.) reached out -- and propelled me to connect with contributing artist Aurora Robson.

When I visit other cities, one of the things I look for is iconic walking tours – the cisterns of Istanbul, the passages couverts of Paris, the murals of Philadelphia, New Orleans’ Garden District. What a pleasure to talk with two people behind Arlington County's own art walking tours!

Aurora Robson: https://www.aurorarobson.com

Check out Arlington public art: https://www.arlingtonva.us/Government/Programs/Public-Art/About/Self-Guided-Public-Art-Tours 

Theme music by Sean Balick. Hickory Interlude, Lemon and Melon, Sunday Lights, Town Market and Tuck and Point by Onesuch Village via Blue Dot Sessions.



Ep. #274: Public Art Is a Curiosity Practice

Why is one 1975 Calgarian so angry at a NWMP officer who left Fort Calgary a century earlier? Historian Aritha Van Herk talks about the turbulent career of Ephrem Brisebois, the “winter jerk.” 

Episode 2: Colonel James F. Macleod Should Have Been Named Citizen of the Century, and Not Brisebois the Winter Jerk

Episode 2. Brisebois and MacLeod

Did Guy Weadick get enough credit for the creation of the Calgary Stampede? Most people who nominated him thought he hadn’t. Dr. Christine Leppard of the Stampede’s Sam Centre discusses Weadick’s bold vision and his famous falling-out with the Stampede.  

Episode 6: Wrap-up and Resealing the Time Capsule

Episode 3. There’s Only One Choice and it’s Guy Weadick

Tom Baines was a hero to hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren. The former curator of the Calgary Zoo visited schools with his collection of shark’s teeth, bear claws, amazing stories, and a boa constrictor named Agnes. Hear some of the charming and funny entries those kids submitted, and actual audio of Tom Baines making a school presentation.

Episode 4: I Mean Come on, The Citizen of the Century is Clearly Tom Baines.

Episode 4. I Mean Come on, The Citizen of the Century is Clearly Tom Baines.

One man’s life-changing encounter with Agnes the boa constrictor. The mystery of the “snake eye” solved. And the legacy of the legendary Mr. Baines.    

Episode 5: If Tom Baines isn’t Citizen of the Century, I Don’t Even Know What We’re Doing Here

We talk about Colonel James Walker, who was named Citizen of the Century.  

We’ll hear a few final entries, and then audio from the ceremony in which the capsule was re-sealed. We finish with messages to the future — this podcast will be placed in the capsule! 

Wind Angle – a visual and poetic dialogue on sustainability by Lukas Kroulik and Zillah Bridget Bosworth-Coleman. 

Zillah, with a background in public art, brings participatory engagement, while Lukas’ photography explores nature’s resilience and human impact. 

Framed by Earth

That Will Stand Alone

In the past 50 years, hundreds of thousands of Calgarians have walked past a time capsule in the city’s Plus 15 system without knowing it was there. In Greetings from 1975: The Calgary Time Capsule, host Peter Brown uncovers the time capsule’s story and explores its intriguing contents. 

The time capsule held thousands of nominations from a 1975 contest to crown Calgary’s "Citizen of the Century," alongside letters from local organizations, citizens, and school children. Through the podcast, Peter shares some of the most entertaining stories behind these entries — from a Northwest Mounted Police officer who still sparked anger a century later, to the man who brought cowboy hats and pancakes to the Stampede, to a beloved zoo curator and his boa constrictor named Agnes. 

Greetings from 1975 offers a revealing, surprising, and thought-provoking look at who and what we choose to remember, introducing listeners to engaging characters from Calgary’s past.

Greetings from 1975: The Calgary Time Capsule

Introduction Greetings from 1975: The Calgary Time Capsule

In the past 50 years, hundreds of thousands of Calgarians have walked past a time capsule in the city’s Plus 15 system without knowing it was there. In Greetings from 1975: The Calgary Time Capsule, host Peter Brown uncovers the time capsule’s story and explores its intriguing contents. 

The time capsule held thousands of nominations from a 1975 contest to crown Calgary’s "Citizen of the Century," alongside letters from local organizations, citizens, and school children. Through the podcast, Peter shares some of the most entertaining stories behind these entries — from a Northwest Mounted Police officer who still sparked anger a century later, to the man who brought cowboy hats and pancakes to the Stampede, to a beloved zoo curator and his boa constrictor named Agnes. 

Greetings from 1975 offers a revealing, surprising, and thought-provoking look at who and what we choose to remember, introducing listeners to engaging characters from Calgary’s past.

Visit cada.at/public-art-stories

Choose to be Curious is a show all about curiosity. We talk about research and theory, but mostly it's conversations about how curiosity shows up in work and life.  

Now syndicated and available via Pacifica RadioNetwork.

New tracks tagged #Public Art