Trail Sponsorship Program

Trails at I-Park

Becky’s Trail

Since the artists-in-residence program began in 2001, the Pond Path was the cleansing gateway to I-Park’s inner sights and sounds – misty mornings, dew studded spider webs perched on tall, weepy grasses; pitch black nights punctuated by the gruff entreaties of bullfrogs; the birthing, squabbling and flight-training of generations of Canadian geese. The Pond Path opened us to the wild, varied faces of this land: parti-colored fields; miles of lichen-encrusted stone walls; teaming wetlands; the interjection a pristine river; sheer cliffs. And winding, stealth-like, this Path drew us to the pond for our recreation and improbable celebrations. Subsequent offshoot trails further informed us as to the natural and human history, and promise, of this fetchingly gnarly landscape. While crediting the considerable, but gentle, power and presence of mother nature, these trails – site-sensitive, adaptive – have been fashioned by our artists

Pond Path

and in-house creative team. While each trail has a unique character and intention, a commonthread is that an I-Park trail should reveal something interesting about the area being traversed without imposing a heavy intervention – or dampening I-Park’s underlying auras of mystery and memory.

Trail Sponsorships

The system of inter-connecting trails – now more than 25 – requires constant care. After a few months of neglect, a trail is no longer a trail. I-Park expends an estimated $20,000 per year to maintain the aesthetics, functionality and safety of this system for the benefit of our resident artists and visiting guests – as well as, every two years, to undergird I-Park’s international Environmental Art Biennale. Please help us to maintain, improve and extend this wonderful resource by contributing to our Trail Sponsorships Program. Received monies will be used for clearing, bedding materials, debris removal, safety

dj’s Trail

improvements and mapping. In the case of certain trails, artists’ fees, including commissions, materials and transportation will be supported. Note that the Pond Path has the added cost of a lighting system that requires annual upkeep. Your contribution (or your pledge, to be fulfilled within four months of submission) will result in your being named the sponsor of YOUR trail for the current residency season – on the I-Park website and on the trail maps that get picked up regularly by the artists-in-residence and visiting guests (an estimated 500 maps are put to good use each year).

The ADA Trail (working title)

River Trail

You are also invited to become a founding sponsor of I-Park’s ADA Trail Project, an ambitious new pathway network and trail system that will connect all of I-Park’s ADA compliant facilities – and extend out into the landscape, at least as far as the pond. This will provide much needed access, especially to those with ambulatory disabilities, to I-Park’s beckoning grounds and the evolving collection of art installations that they sustain. For this trail, financial gifts in any denomination are most welcome. We have initiated discussions with potential beneficiaries of this new resource and done preliminary materials and design research. We will start the civil engineering and landscape design phase of the project once $5,000 has been contributed.