Kinsmen Park and Mendel Art Gallery site targeted for renewal

Saskatoon’s largest park, together with the sites of the Mendel Art Gallery, Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan and the Shearwater boat tour docks are the target of a massive renewal project and the city of Saskatoon is ready to begin a two-year planning process to ensure that the public amenities best meet the future needs of the community. Attendance at Kinsmen Park has declined forty percent in recent years. A $5 million dollar sponsorship agreement with Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan provides funding for a needed renewal that will link the four City Parkarea amenities under one concept plan.

The $170,000 planning process was approved Monday by the city’s executive committee. Assuming that $100,000 in funding from next year’s budget is approved in December, the planning process for a transformation can begin immediately with the hiring of a consultant and a public call for ideas for the Mendel Art Gallery site that will become vacant when the Art Gallery of Saskatchewan opens in late 2014 at River Landing.

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