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Public Art Brochure (PDF)

Public Art

Fredericton has a variety of public art that celebrates our heritage and enhances our public spaces.  Some of the City’s earliest pieces were gifts from politicians, such as the City Hall Fountain (1885) from Mayor George Fenety, and the Temple Fountain (1899) from Senator Thomas Temple.    Others were gifts from groups of people such as the Robert Burns Memorial (1906) gifted from Scottish cultural societies of the province, and the Lord Beaverbrook Statue (1957), a gift from more than 60,000 New Brunswick school children who contributed their pennies to recognize a significant benefactor of the province. 

 Other works specially commissioned feature local and New Brunswick artists including: Air Shapes (1964) at the Fredericton Airport and Beavers (1959) in Officers’ Square by Claude Roussel; The Playhouse Fly Tower (1972) by Tom Forrestall; Executives Ascending (1989) in Barker House by Craig Schneider; Fathers of Confederation (1967)  in the Centennial Building by John Hooper; The Art of Conversation (2004) at UNB by Peter Powning; Pawakon/Spirit Guide (2002) at St. Mary’s Memorial Site by Ned Bear; and an Acadian Mural (2004) at Centre communautaire Sainte-Anne by Marcel Boudreau.

Fredericton’s most recent piece of public art is The Birth of Venus (2009) by André Lapointe which was commissioned by the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in celebration of the Gallery’s 50th anniversary and Fredericton’s designation as a 2009 Cultural Capital of Canada (Department of Canadian Heritage). It is located in the sculpture garden next to the Gallery and beside the riverfront trail.

A self-guided tour of Fredericton’s public art is included in the brochure A Guide to Public Art in Fredericton / Guide de l’art civique de Fredericton which is available for download here.