Alan Storey's new memorial pays tribute to the late Tom Cone's love of music, art, and words
Bench-like sculpture, to be unveiled March 26, was years in the making
The bench-like sculpture in artist Alan Storey’s studio.
The new installation at Charleson Park.
Tom Cone, Image Anvil Press
A DECADE AFTER the passing of playwright, librettist, and tireless arts supporter Tom Cone, an artful memorial sculpture in his name is finally being erected at the west end of Charleson Park.
The unveiling of veteran public artist Alan Storey’s park-bench-meets-sculpture happens on March 26, from 1 to 1:40 pm. That’s a day after Tom Cone Day, March 25, declared by the mayor in 2012—the same year Cone died at just 65 from cancer.
The sculpture has taken the form of a 75-foot-long installation of a curved, steel I-beam, modified into a "T" beam for “Tom”, that cantalievers out of a berm in the park.
The bench bares the text of Cone’s last poem, water-jet-cut into the leading edge. Fittingly, the seating is a keyboard: Cone was a die-hard music fan, enthusiastically supporting Standing Wave and other new-music trailblazers. Later in his career, music also became prominent in his own work: in 1994, Cone created The Architect with composer David MacIntyre for the Vancouver Opera, and in 2000, penned the hockey-themed Game Misconduct with composer Leslie Uyeda for the now-defunct Festival Vancouver. He also helped to establish the Song Room series of salon concerts and the Opera Project, which commissioned 10-minute operas.
Recognizing that love of new music, Vancouver composer Jocelyn Morlock will also be on hand to unveil a song written to accompany the words by Cone that are embedded in the sculpture, “Somewhere Along the Line”.
Fabricating and installing the public artwork turned into a complex, years-long process, costs rising significantly from the original budget. Cone’s family and his supporters are aiming to raise additional money to include a commission for Storey for the memorial. A special campaign page has been set up by Music on Main. All donations above $25 will be issued a tax receipt. (To directly donate, please follow the the link here.)
Finding the site for the memorial was a relief after a long, arduous process that saw the sculpture relocated a few times (one delay came when the Parks Board announced it had decided to put a bike path through the site) and put through two public consultations.
Still, it’s been a labour of love for Storey, who met Cone 35 years ago. His wife, Karen Matthews, and Storey’s wife, Jori Woodman, knew each other from costume designing in the film world.
“Our daughters were both born in the following year and our families grew up together,” Storey tells Stir. “We had a mutual admiration for all things odd about art, music, dance, theatre, et cetera.
“After Tom died there was a general consensus in the colleagues, friends and family, that something must be placed somewhere to remember Tom by,” he relates. “It needed to be more than an ordinary bench, and Tom's daughter Ruby made the suggestion that I should be the one to design and make the work.”
Cone was born in Miami, dabbling in amateur acting and diving into poetry. He headed north because of the draft, choosing Vancouver, he once said, because it was home to poets like Robin Blaser and Warren Tallman. He quickly found his way to the heady theatre scene of 1970s Vancouver, writing well-known scripts including 1975's Herringbone and 1978's Stargazing (the latter written while playwright-in-residence at the Stratford Festival).
In was the absurdist hit Herringbone that would take Cone south side again, the play running in New York City and Chicago. By 1987, Cone and Matthews were moving back to Vancouver, having their child, Ruby Cone, here a few years later.
It’s poetic that Cone was also a fan of public art: Cone and Matthews once hosted a Marko Simcic’s Park, a covered-car-shaped sculpture, right out front of their East Side house.
After its unveiling, you can find the new memorial east of Spruce Harbour Marina at 1015 Ironworks Passage, False Creek.
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