Locked like a bicycle against the back fence at the Argo Livery is half of an aluminum canoe–bow up, severed middle down, painted cheerfully inside and out. It’s a sign of things to come for the livery’s retired watercraft.
The canoes are pretty durable–“some are thirty-some years old,” says assistant facility supervisor Joe Wilhelme–but in May, the Ann Arbor liveries retired five, along with twenty-four kayaks. That’s about average for a year, says Wilhelme’s boss, Cheryl Saam.
Most of this year’s retirees were sold at auction, but next year they’ll be recycled into public art: “We call it ‘Canoe Imagine Art,'” says Saam. A committee of local art and river lovers hopes to inspire professional artists from around Michigan to transform the hulls into beautiful works of art–that, in turn, will excite tourists, celebrate rivers, and raise money for nonprofits.
Former Ann Arbor Art Center president Marsha Chamberlin says the committee is currently in the process of creating a logo, raising funds, and applying for grants. They hope to see the art-canoes installed along Main Street after the 2014 art fair, where they’ll remain on display through the end of November.
Chamberlin imagines a multitude of ways artists can transform the canoes. “It could be tall and thin,” she says. “I had this notion of cutting it in half and making a skirt on a figure.” And she’s not limiting her vision to the visual arts. “Maybe the Ann Arbor Symphony could put on Handel’s ‘Water Music,'” she says.
