FFQing in Downtown Calgary's Udderly Art Pasture!
By Richard White, November 21, 2013
Next time you are downtown and between meetings and looking for something fun to do head over to the Centennial Parkade along 9th Avenue from 6th to 5th Street and checkout the Udderly Art Legacy Pasture. Or bring the family down on sunny but cold winter day and enjoy the warmth of the greenhouse-like pasture. It is a great place to just let the little ones run. Weekend parking is just $2.
Here you will not only find a dozen or so fun, funky, quirky cows basking in the sun, but also the history behind one of Canada's biggest and best public art projects. There are several large didactic panels that tell the story of how the project came to being, a well as background on some of the most famous bovine beauties.
You will find some interesting factoids like:
Did you know that $1,234,896 was raised for 76 local charities?
Or, that each virgin cow was 54" tall head to hoof and 84" long from nose to tail and weighs 90 pounds.
How about the fact that 800,000 people visited the website from 36 different countries (that was before iPhones and iPads).
You can learn more by visiting the pasture which is open 7-days a week and its Free.
Kid Friendly
Kids will love to have their picture taken with famous beauties like "Jingle Belle" (great christmas card opportunity), Cow Belle with a working Fisher Price musical instrument that kid's can actually play.
This is the entrance to the pasture from 5th Street. As you can see it is a wide open space for kids to run in the sun.
There are several huge information panels that explain the story behind some of the more popular bovine beauties.
Moony Trader is one of the first cows you encounter. Damien Manchuk from ACAD was the artist, the piece was commissioned by Hugh McGillvary of CIBC Wood Gundy who had an idea to dress up a cow as a stock-trading pit trader. Hugh took Damien to men's clothing store to see what well-dress cows were wearing in 2000 and let his imagination go to work. The result was a pin-stripped hind quarters, a bright yellow striped power tie and the now antique looking computer strapped to his nose so he could keep up with the TSE quotes 24 hours a day.
Chew-Choo was also done by artist Damien Manchuk and was commissioned by Canadian Pacific Railway.
Another large information panel gives the history of the project and has a picture of each of the more that 100 cows commissioned for the project.
The Udderly Art Pasture is a great place to meet friends or even have lunch together. Too bad there weren't a few tables and chairs.
Be careful to look closely as there are lots of subtle details that can be missed at first glance.
One of my favourite pieces was Chewing the Cud by Evelyn Grant commissioned by the Calgary Downtown Association (yes I am bias as I was the Executive Director of the CDA at the time). The piece was a wonderful bronze bovine schmoozing with the two "fat cats' on Stephen Avenue. Unfortunately the piece was often vandalized not only when it was on the street but even in the pasture.
Today all that is left is this photo of Chewing the Cud and The Conversation on Stephen Avenue but it is hard to view with the reflections.
This is Clayton Kaplar's photograph of the Chewing the Cud on Stephen Avenue from the book "Udderly Art Colourful Cows for Calgary."
FFQing is the act of finding fun, funky and quirky things as you flaneur the urban spaces and places!
There are fun bits of humour everywhere you look.
Jingle Belle is a great kodak moment for any family.
Cow Belle invites visitors to play a song or two.
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