Bears Playing
Artist: John McKinnon
Created: 2014
Medium: Steel Sculpture
2015 Queen Street, Rossland, BC
This playful and intimate sculpture has been greeting people outside the historic Rossland post office since 2014. Affectionately called “Bears Playing”, the bear and its cub are also referred to as “Acro-Bears” by the artist, John McKinnon.
The original concept piece was installed following an upgrade to Rossland’s Columbia Avenue. It was installed by the Rossland Council for Arts and Culture (RCAC) who wanted a design that celebrated the natural environment, history, and heritage of Rossland. McKinnon’s design was one of 13 submitted to the RCAC when the call went out to artists from the Columbia Basin area.
“I decided to use the bears for my image because of the frequency of bear activity in the Rossland area,” said McKinnon. A long-time resident of Nelson, BC, McKinnon is very familiar with the impact bears have on a community. He’s also aware of their typical behavior and intentionally took an artistic approach to their depiction.
“This pose is something bears probably wouldn’t do,” he said. “But I wanted to endow them with an anthropomorphic, or human quality.” Inspired by the fact that bears like to play a lot, McKinnon put them in a position that reminded him of what he did while playing as a child.
Two meters high, the bears are constructed from steel and finished with a black mat paint. Cast bronze is incorporated into the claws and mouth.
McKinnon said that prior to Acro-Bears, he hadn’t worked with fabrication and welding steel as a medium to any great degree. More known for stone sculptures, he chose steel to make the large scale of his design more affordable.
The bears are mounted low to the ground to make it look more natural. Described as approachable and appealing to all ages and audiences by the RCAC, Bears Playing has become a hallmark of Rossland’s successful downtown renovation. The sculpture is both a reminder of our relationship with the environment and an invitation to live—and play—in harmony.
Bears playing was funded by RCAC through grants from Columbia Basin Trust’s Community Initiatives Fund and Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance ($10,000) with support from the City of Rossland.