UPDATE - 7/4@11:09AM: Here's an associated TV news story (thanks RushFanForever):
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The late Neil Peart grew up in the St. Catharines, Ontario community of Port Dalhousie, the lakefront home of Lakeside Park which inspired the lyrics to the 1975 Rush song of the same name. Back in 2020 the St. Catharines City Council, with the full support of the community, voted to name the newly rebuilt pavilion at Lakeside Park the Neil Peart Pavilion at Lakeside Park in honor of the hometown icon who passed away over 4 years ago in January of 2020. The Council also established the Neil Peart Commemorative Task Force, with the objective to commission a public work of art commemorating Peart's life and legacy. Back in January of 2021 the Task Force officially began welcoming artists to submit requests for pre-qualification via the city's website, and revealed the finalists in September of 2021 along with the launch of a fundraising campaign for the Memorial. In November of 2022 the Task Force finally revealed that the artist who will have the honor of creating the memorial is Morgan MacDonald of The Newfoundland Bronze Foundry. The installation itself will depict two bronze statues of Peart - one as a young artist and the other in his later years. A pathway will connect the two statues with interpretive panels about Peart's personal and professional legacy. The project and its timelines are contingent on the Task Force raising the $1 million required for completion, and donations of any size can be made online at stcatharines.ca/neilpeart. A video depicting what the Neil Peart memorial will look like in Lakeside Park was posted online by the City of St. Catharines yesterday as its citizen task force prepares to launch a major fundraising campaign, and you can watch it below or on YouTube. From the St. Catharines Standard:
..."We've got the assets ready, we've got the video produced so people can actually see it, we've got the sponsorship thresholds, so we're close," said David DeRocco, chair of the volunteer Neil Peart Memorial Task Force. "All we need is that dedicated push and as we get closer to the finish line to tap into the love people have for Neil." ... "It's going to be on the backs of fans to fund this. That's why we really wanted to build something that made it really special for people," DeRocco said. ... The statue will be really, really compelling to look at based on the renderings that I've seen. So, it's going to be quite spectacular," he said. "I think people, once they see it installed, they're going to be amazed. It's going to be a destination location for Rush fans and just casual lovers of art."
