Civic partner criticized for spending $65,000 on phone line to listen to Bow River
A fiscal watchdog is taking the city's public art authority to task for spending tens of thousands of dollars on a phone line that allowed people to listen to recorded sounds of the Bow River.
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The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) issued a freedom of information request to the city in 2024, revealing that the Reconnecting to the Bow public art project cost taxpayers $65,194.
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'If someone wants to listen to a river, they can go sit next to one, but the City of Calgary should not force taxpayers to pay for this,' the federation's Alberta director, Kris Sims, said in a news release on Thursday.
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The project was led by Calgary Arts Development, which has run the city's public art program since 2021.
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A web page devoted to the audio art project states Reconnecting to the Bow invited Calgarians to 'connect to the Bow River' by calling a hotline to listen to recordings of the river water as it gurgled and babbled.
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The toll-free phone number — 1.855.BOW.LSTN (1-855-269-5786) — was active from August to December 2024.
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Calling that number now returns an automated message stating the project has concluded.
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The public art project, a relaunch of a 2014 initiative called Varying Proximities, also included several promotions for the hotline throughout the city on billboards, at transit stations and on social media platforms.
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Emails the federation obtained from the city revealed the project cost just over $65,000. The budget included approximately $32,000 in installation costs, $15,000 in artist fees, $14,000 in consulting fees and technical support, and $3,500 for communication and research. The project also included the costs to activate the phone number.
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The arts group collaborated with Broken City Lab, a Windsor, Ont.-based interdisciplinary artist collective.
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