After participating in sculpture symposia in other countries I felt that these events are something we should be presented here in Alberta. Over a five-year period, I wasn’t able to convince a community in Alberta to host one so I just decided to go ahead and do it at my acreage in Bergen. I was pretty sure that although the pomp and ceremony that is normal at these events in other countries would be absent the grassroots nature of my concept would be interesting enough to attract sculptors. I contacted 20 friends from around the world and all of them responded that they’d love to participate. In good conscience I couldn’t choose between them, they were all great artists, so I literally drew five names from a hat for Bergen Rocks 2008. Each year awareness in the international sculpture community has grown, 178 proposals for participation were received for the fourth event!!
Organizing an event like this is a huge task for one person, so I started a year ahead of time. The budget, even for a small event like I planned, is relatively large. Each artist receives an honorarium for their participation, meals, tools, activities, insurance, volunteer recognition, and 50,000lb of marble delivered to the site totaled more than $50,000. In 2008 the Alberta Foundation for the Arts contributed $15,000 and in 2009 Mountain View County chipped in $2000. I funded Bergen Rocks 2010 and 2011 100% on my own
