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This is a revised draft for the article

= Watershed+ art project = Watershed+ is a public art project in the form of a long-term program embedding artists at the heart of a municipal department. In 2010, the Utilities & Environmental Protection Department (UEP) of The City of Calgary commissioned Watershed+ as a new public art project. The overarching ambition for the project was to commission artists to develop in-depth knowledge of the subject and work collaboratively with the Department to create an emotional connection between Calgarians and their watershed.

Development
In 2007, as part of the larger municipal Public Art Program, UEP released its own public art plan. The overall approach of the Plan was “to encourage sustainability and environmental stewardship through public art in collaboration with other disciplines”. Described as the cornerstone of this plan, the Visual Language Project was released as an international call to artists later that year. The intention of this project was to create a 'visual language', “an iconographic or symbolic language that will map and identify infrastructure [...] and codify the watershed systems”.

In 2009, a cross-disciplinary team was awarded this project. Led by Sans façon, an artists collaborative, they put together a team of 5 other subject-matter experts: Water engineer Bert van Duin, social geographer Eric Laurier, architect Yan Olivares, artist Matt Baker, and graphic designer Emlyn Firth. Through site visits and in-depth discussions with City staff across multiple departments, the team spend a year exploring the complexity and nuances of how Calgarians relate to and understand their watershed. As a result of this research, the team expanded upon the original brief of the Visual Language Project to look beyond visually identifying or codifying the watershed. The team effectively devised a long-term program to embed creative practitioners in the workings of the Department, involving artists as complementary participants in issues related to the work of UEP, and ultimately creating an emotional connection between citizens and their watershed.

The initial visual project became an ambitious and comprehensive 25-year program that aimed to rethink the role of artists as valid participants in designing and experiencing our environment.

The Pilot Period for the project started the following year in 2011.

“The output was not a work of art but a manual that outlined a vision and framework for implementation. Lead artists were embedded full time in the water utility, working alongside staff on the core business of the department. We approached this pilot without preconceived ideas of what the public art outcomes would be.” explained Heather Aitken, Project Manager, City of Calgary Public Art Program in 2017 during The Future History of Public Art, A Symposium on Public Art.