The City of Saskatoon spent about $87,000 to create a habitat for an artist to stay at the Saskatoon Forestry Farm Park & Zoo, according to documents obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF).“Artists can practice their craft without city taxpayers paying for a special building for them at the zoo,” said Gage Haubrich, CTF Prairie Director.“Taxpayers can understand when they pay for habitats for naked mole rats and crested porcupines at the zoo, but why are they paying for a human artist’s terrarium too?”The project started back in 2019 to “to provide opportunities for artistic expression in a civic facility,” and “to inspire artists through nature, animals and people.”Artists in the program were paid to set up a studio space at the zoo’s bunkhouse. They were expected to spend set amounts of time there, making art and hosting workshops.So far, the city has spent $13,029 on the program and $74,244 renovating and repairing the bunkhouse. The program is currently set to continue until March 31 2025.Saskatoon city council recently passed its budget, hiking property taxes by a decade-high 6% in 2024.“City council is pushing through record property tax hikes while spending thousands of dollars to give artists a place to hang out at the zoo,” said Haubrich.“Mayor Charlie Clark and the rest of city council need to cancel this artist-in-the-zoo project before any more taxpayers’ dollars are wasted.”The Western Standard reached out to the City of Saskatoon for comment but did not hear back.The Bunkhouse Studio's website profiles the artists taking part in the January 15 2024 to March 31 2025 “residency.” The first is Alexa Hainsworth, a Masters of Fine Arts recipient from the University of Saskatchewan who produces fibre sculptures and installations and has won awards for wearable art.Of the second artist, it says, “Kevin Wesaquate… is also remotely working from his home studio,” which may suggest the bunkhouse is a benefit, but not a necessity.Wesquate is a ‘Virtual Artist Teacher’ for Northern communities for the Taking IT Global, Connected North Program. The Piapot First Nation member also founded the Indigenous Poetry Society.The third profile says, “Qiming ‘Sezava’ Sun (he/him) is a queer Canadian visual artist and a practising witch based in Saskatoon on Treaty 6 territory. He specializes in oil paintings and sculptural works inspired by nature, symbolism, and animalistic paganism. Sun uses visual art as his vehicle for navigating his spirituality and the intimate connection between humans and nature as a practicing witch.”Xiao Han is a Saskatoon-based artist and curator originally from Wuhan, China.“Her creative practice focuses on narrative photography, visualizing emotion, affect sense and community-based art practice. Han's research explores diaspora identity, contemporary gender issues and decolonial practice. She has produced numerous projects investigating the Chinese one-child policy,” the website explains.Tetiana Hrytsenko, a painter and mother of four who immigrated from Ukraine 16 years ago, was also chosen for the program, as was Tyler McCaig. This analog and digital photographer composes poems and music, makes clothes and collages and, in his spare time, crafts art with resin and wax, producing plant-based soaps and candles.The Bunkhouse was built in 1916 as a residence for workers on the Sutherland Forest Nursery Station which opened in 1913 as a tree nursery station and model farm with landscaped grounds, a superintendent’s residence, operational buildings, propagation fields, trial shelter belts and experimental plots.The nursery closed in 1965 and a portion of the site was reopened as the Forestry Farm Park by the City of Saskatoon in 1966. The zoo opened in 1972. Since that time, the Bunkhouse has been used as administrative offices, a veterinarian office and more recently a storage facility. In 1990, the farm park and zoo was designated a national historic site.Below, 2022-23 Bunkhouse artist Kei Tanaka offers a brief look at a day in her life at the studio.
