Sue and I enjoy exploring Southern Alberta, and in late May we decided to go to Sundre and see what we could find along the way. We headed north up Highway 22 and just before reaching Sundre we came across a sign for the unincorporated community of Bergen. Well, we had never been there before so we turned west. Travelling 10kms on Township Road 320 we saw another sign, “Bergen International Sculpture Park." Well that looked interesting, so we turned north on the 760 and 3km later we arrived at the Park. We parked up and started to explore the site.
At the entrance way was an information board: The Bergen Rocks sculpture park is the result of four symposia hosted by Morton Burke on his acreage where the park is located. Twenty-three sculptors from around the world have visited Bergen, each for a period of one month. During their time in Bergen, each of them created a monumental sculpture in stone which was then placed in the park. An important element of the Bergen Rocks program is to have the sculptures moved into public places so from time to time some of the sculptures from the park are relocated. Other pieces that have been sculpted in the Bergen Rocks symposium program are exhibited in Olds and in Sylvan Lake.
As Sue and I were about to leave, Morton drove up and started to chat with us. He said that he would love to show his sculptures at other communities in Alberta and we all agreed that Cochrane would be a great location.
Fast forward to June 26th and Sue and I spotted an article in the Cochrane Eagle:
"The Town of Cochrane has completed the purchase of a 26-acre parcel from Rocky View County (RVC), securing the last remaining undeveloped piece of riverfront property within town boundaries," the article reads. "Acquired for $5 million, the land is located adjacent to Bow RiversEdge Campground, Jim Uffelmann Memorial Park and the growing Greystone neighbourhood.
'This is the last piece of undeveloped riverfront property in Cochrane,' said Mayor Jeff Genung. 'By securing this land, we are ensuring that we shape this space in a way that truly reflects the priorities, values and vision of our community. This is about building our future-- together.'"
When Sue and I read the release we thought about our visit to Bergen International Sculpture Park and our chat with Morton. Wouldn’t this be an incredible location to have a sculpture park overlooking the mighty Bow River. A place of tranquility and art that all the community could enjoy for generations to come.
