{"id":5883,"date":"2011-05-13T00:05:14","date_gmt":"2011-05-13T04:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingottawa.ca\/?p=5883"},"modified":"2013-01-21T09:04:19","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T14:04:19","slug":"sculpture-set-to-trump-theatre-at-nepean-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/ottawa\/2011\/05\/13\/sculpture-set-to-trump-theatre-at-nepean-point\/","title":{"rendered":"Sculpture set to trump theatre at Nepean Point?"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure style=\"width: 480px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" \" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4039\/4694510942_b1fd6c054f_z.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"640\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">  Astrolabe Theatre: No more postcard views under Champlain&#39;s statue?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>One of Ottawa&#8217;s outdoor performance spaces, the Astrolabe Theatre\u2014a legacy of the 1967 Centennial celebrations\u2014is slated for demolition by the NCC this summer, and it&#8217;s unclear what exactly is to replace it.<\/p>\n<p>Behind the National Gallery of Canada lies Nepean Point, which boasts arguably the best view in Ottawa, overlooking the Ottawa River and the Alexandra Bridge to Qu\u00e9bec.  At the crest of the hill stands a statue of Samuel de Champlain erected in 1915 to celebrate the tricentennial of his exploration of the area.  He holds aloft (upside down, and incorrectly) an astrolabe\u2014a device used to make navigational calculations based on the position of the sun and stars (the forerunner of today&#8217;s handheld GPS devices).  It is from this that the amphitheatre situated on the side of the hill facing the Parliament buildings takes its name.  It was built as a vantage point for the sound and light show on Parliament Hill, and used for many decades as for concerts and other performances.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>You could be forgiven for not knowing it&#8217;s there\u2014and therein lies part of the problem.<\/p>\n<p>In a May 11th interview with Alan Neal of CBC Radio One&#8217;s All In A Day, Jean Wolff (NCC Senior Manager, Media Relations) cited the site&#8217;s inaccessibility, a lack of demand for it as a performance space, and the presence of lead paint and asbestos in its dressing room area as reasons why the neglected structure is to be torn down.  According to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ottawacitizen.com\/sets+Astrolabe+Theatre\/4761398\/story.html\">Ottawa Citizen <\/a>, one million dollars has been budgeted for the demolition project.<\/p>\n<p>The NCC has some valid points.  The amphitheatre is only accessible on foot; about a 500 metre walk from the main entrance of the Gallery.  It shows no signs of recent use, and the benches are in disrepair.  There&#8217;s no doubt that the structure underneath the hill, built in the 60s, is filled with hazardous materials.  But why not restore and maintain the space, if its demolition is going to run up a million-dollar bill?<\/p>\n<p>The answer may be at the end of a one-hundred-foot line.<\/p>\n<p>Between Astrolabe Theatre and the National Gallery of Canada, a tortuous spike of stainless steel stretches from the grass of Nepean Point one hundred feet into the sky. <em> One Hundred Foot Line,<\/em> a sculpture by New York artist Roxy Paine, was unveiled in October 2010.  The plan to acquire the sculpture (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/ottawa\/story\/2010\/10\/21\/tree-sculpture-101.html\">which cost one-eighth of the Gallery&#8217;s annual acquisition budget<\/a> ) was announced in January 2010 as part of a project to revamp Nepean Point\u2014an arrangement of mutual benefit between the NCC and the Gallery.  There was talk of establishing a sculpture garden; something the NGC lacks which most other national art galleries have.  At the time of <a href=\"http:\/\/communities.canada.com\/ottawacitizen\/print.aspx?postid=428868\">the original announcement<\/a> , Linda Dicaire (NCC Chief of Federal Design Approval, Heritage, and Archaeology) went on the record as saying that there would be a design for a new amphitheatre as part of the redevelopment project.<\/p>\n<p>According to Wolff, that&#8217;s no longer part of the plan\u2026 but we haven&#8217;t been told what is; only that the area&#8217;s &#8220;visual appeal&#8221; will be made its focal point, that the statue of Champlain will stay, and that fireworks will still be set off from Nepean Point on Canada Day.<\/p>\n<p>Visual appeal?  Perhaps the Gallery is getting their sculpture garden after all.<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/snobiwan.wordpress.com\/\">Andrew Snowdon<\/a> is a freelance writer and theatre reviewer who has called Ottawa home since 1983.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>-photo by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/dugspr\/4694510942\/sizes\/z\/in\/photostream\/\">Douglas Sprott<\/a><br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of Ottawa&#8217;s outdoor performance spaces, the Astrolabe Theatre\u2014a legacy of the 1967 Centennial celebrations\u2014is slated for demolition by the NCC this summer, and it&#8217;s unclear what exactly is to replace it. Behind the National Gallery of Canada lies Nepean Point, which boasts arguably the best view in Ottawa, overlooking the Ottawa River and the<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/ottawa\/2011\/05\/13\/sculpture-set-to-trump-theatre-at-nepean-point\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;Sculpture set to trump theatre at Nepean Point?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7091,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5300],"tags":[3410,768,3407,1097,404,687,1558,937,2658,3409,3416,1636,3411,3412,2368,3415,1760,590,794,394,790,2163,718,3414,3408,2880,3417,3413,1980,725],"class_list":["post-5883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","tag-alan-neal","tag-alexandra-bridge","tag-andrew-snowdon","tag-artist","tag-arts-culture","tag-canada","tag-canada-day","tag-cbc","tag-chief","tag-douglas-sprott","tag-freelance-writer","tag-gps","tag-jean-wolff","tag-linda-dicaire","tag-manager","tag-media-relations","tag-national-gallery-of-canada","tag-ncc","tag-new-york","tag-ottawa","tag-ottawa-river","tag-paint","tag-parliament-hill","tag-radio-one","tag-roxy-paine","tag-samuel-de-champlain","tag-stainless-steel-stretches","tag-statue-of-champlain","tag-the-ottawa-citizen","tag-usd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Sculpture set to trump theatre at Nepean Point? - Spacing Ottawa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/ottawa\/2011\/05\/13\/sculpture-set-to-trump-theatre-at-nepean-point\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sculpture set to trump theatre at Nepean Point? - Spacing Ottawa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of Ottawa&#8217;s outdoor performance spaces, the Astrolabe Theatre\u2014a legacy of the 1967 Centennial celebrations\u2014is slated for demolition by the NCC this summer, and it&#8217;s unclear what exactly is to replace it. 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