I just came across this little item in the online version of Vancouver’s arts newspaper The Georgia Straight. I’ve lifted it in its entirety below. I had heard about the controversial show but not seen it. I must say I admire Crist’s comment, a voice in the wilderness of the North Shore, it seems. What do you think of this?

Everybody Loves Landscapes
By pieta woolley
Publish Date: 12-May-2005

The District of North Vancouver Municipal Hall art gallery, which removed a controversial exhibit in March, is opening another show on Thursday (May 12). This time, there likely won’t be any controversy. Art in Public Places will present Joan Baron’s “large, bright and bold landscapes”, and Sharon Greig’s “intricate pine needle baskets and weaving”, according to the press release.

In response to the removal of Shawn Stibbards’s paintings of guns and semi-naked women, North Vancouver District Coun. Ernie Crist complained that the gallery doesn’t have any guts. “Art is controversial always,” he told the Straight, “because artists always have something to say. Should we just hang paintings of blueberry bushes and turnips in district hall?”

Art in Public Places is open at the hall weekdays from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.