REGINA - An iconic sculpture in front of the University of Regina’s downtown College Ave. campus has finished receiving its makeover.
Restoration is complete for the College Ave. Campus Frog, a sculpture that has stood on the campus grounds since 1971.
On Wednesday, officials at the University of Regina held a community celebration to mark the completion of restoration efforts -- an event moved indoors in the college building due to the rain happening outside. Among the items on hand: a special frog replica celebration cake prepared by Queen City Cakes.
“The Frog” has been a beloved, iconic, and even somewhat controversial part of the downtown campus, a fond memory for students who attended and particularly loved by children who have climbed over the sculpture over the years.
The sculpture has seen a lot of wear, tear and damage over the years and this is not the first time it has required restoration.
Here are a few facts about the history of the College Avenue Frog:
“The Frog” was created as a class project by the late Joe Fafard and his art class consisting of ten women. It was a collaborative effort, with the frog made of armature, foam, ceramic and concrete.
“Frog” was in honor instructor David Gilhooly, an influential artist who had created a series called Frog World. Gilhooly had been unceremoniously dumped by the university at the end of his contract, and the Frog sculpture creation that followed was seen as a homage to Gilhooly and also a protest of that parting of ways.
The story goes that the frog sculpture was dragged out to the lawn in the dark of night and by the time it was discovered the next morning, the administration couldn’t do a thing about it.
The Frog survived a kidnapping attempt in October, 1971 by a number of engineering students from the University of Saskatchewan who were in town for a football game. The plan was to take the frog back to Saskatoon and hold it for a $100 ransom which they would donate to charity, but they were only able to move the frog about 30 feet. The frog was left badly damaged and in several pieces, resulting in the first of its restoration efforts.
The frog was restored again in 2005 and today holds a special place in the minds of Regina residents.
“It was one of the first sculptures that I saw when I moved here in 2015, and I was told immediately that this was part of everybody’s childhood and history, everyone feels extremely nostalgic about it,” said Alex King, the University of Regina's curator of the President's Art Collection which the Frog is part of.
“I think it’s just lovely. It wasn’t a planned structure, it didn’t go through a big planning process. It was kind of just created, plumped on the lawn and sort of earned this place in Regina’s hearts.”
This latest restoration effort got under way in 2018 while artist Fafard was still alive, as the frog had seen the impacts of years of wear and tear.
“Parts of the exterior had basically cracked and fallen inside,” King said to reporters. “It was at that point that we decided to do this project and to renovate it. So now it’s filled with foam so it’s much more stable, and it has a partly new concrete exterior with mosaic tiles.”
Despite budget delays and the pandemic, the project eventually came to being. Local artist Jay Kimball was brought on to create the new tiles. “He’s done an incredible job kind of matching the colours to the original textures.”
After Fafard’s passing, the project kept going thanks to the determined efforts of Fafard’s partner Alyce Hamon, Phillip Tremblay and his team of artists, the financial support of Leslie and Gordon Diamond and of ECO Concrete Levelling Ltd.
Hamon explained to reporters some of the reasons why she thought the Frog achieved its iconic status. One reason she pointed to was that ten women were involved in its creation.
“If you look at the plaque the ten women’s names are on the plaque and they were as important and instrumental as Joe was,” said Hamon. But the second reason was because the frog sculpture was “part of us.”
“You can play with it, you can climb it. There’s no hard edges. It’s just a playful piece and it brings joy to everyone’s lives.”
One of those in attendance for the celebration, Wendee Kubik, was one of the ten students who were involved in creating the frog.
“(Fafard) was very collaborative. There was no hierarchy. He included us all. We all decided what we wanted to do. We voted on what we wanted to do. And the class was a mixture of practical as we were building it, but also how does this work, how are these going to stay together. And we did basically all of it.”
Kubik was pleased to see the restoration complete.
“My kids have climbed on it. My grandkids have climbed on. Lots of people have told me ‘oh, the frog!’ so I’m really happy.”
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