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Calgary Herald

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. Article content 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. Article content Article content Article content '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. Article content Article content The project was led by Calgary Arts Development, which has run the city's public art program since 2021. Article content 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. Article content The toll-free phone number — (1-855-269-5786) — was active from August to December 2024. Article content Calling that number now returns an automated message stating the project has concluded. Article content 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. Article content Article content 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. Article content The arts group collaborated with Broken City Lab, a Windsor, Ont.-based interdisciplinary artist collective.