U.S.-themed World Cup beaver designed by Ottawa artist destroyed in Toronto

Toronto visitors and residents will have to search throughout the city for a chance to see the FIFA-themed beavers on display. Heather Butts reports.

An Ottawa artist who painted a beaver celebrating the United States for a World Cup promotion in Toronto has learned her creation was destroyed over the weekend.

The beaver was part of a scavenger hunt of 48 sculptures for the “Great Beaver Quest,” each designed with paintings unique to every country participating in the tournament.

The Old Town Toronto Business Improvement Area (BIA) says the approximately four-foot-tall beaver in St. James Park was damaged sometime on Saturday night.

“Unfortunately, this is something we anticipate and expect when putting items in public realm. Whether it’s boredom, or public intoxication, or public mischief, it’s especially unfortunate when it’s art that is damaged,” the BIA said.

While other previously damaged beavers have been able to be fixed, the U.S. one is not repairable, the BIA says. Photos posted to social media show the top of the beaver’s head was smashed.

“I was initially very, very sad. I still am. I’ve been sitting with it for a bit,” said artist Alyah Holmes, who was born in Ottawa and holds U.S. and Canadian citizenship.

“It was a big team effort, and it was a very exciting thing for the people of Toronto to have all these beavers. So, it really sucked to find that out.”

The beaver was designed in a way to honour America’s vast landscape, different regions and cultures, featuring the Statue of Liberty, a lighthouse, golden wheat fields from the Midwest and tropical imagery to represent Hawaii and Puerto Rico.

Holmes says she spent nearly 200 hours painting the beaver that was designed and created by another artist. The beavers are being auctioned off to raise funds for a local charity after the World Cup concludes.

Holmes said she doesn’t know what the motive of the vandalism might be but understands political tensions between the United States and Canada may have played a role. She hopes those responsible can think about those they are hurting before destroying public art.

“At the end of the day, breaking that beaver does absolutely nothing to the U.S. and who’s running things there. It was myself, a Canadian artist, a Canadian sculpturist, a Canadian team, the Old Town Toronto BIA, who put this all together, and it was going to be donated for Canadian charity, so it was like all Canadians that got hurt in the process for this,” she said.

The Toronto Police Service says it has not received any reports about the vandalism. The BIA says people completing the scavenger hunt can scan a QR code posted on a nearby flagpole in place of the U.S. beaver.

Holmes says despite the setback, she wants to continue painting and designing public art.

“Even after it’s been broken, I’m still getting great messages, people sending me pictures of them with it before it was broken. I’m still happy that my work got to be out there and people got to enjoy it,” she said.

“I just hope people rethink their actions and just think about who they’re actually hurting and these kind of actions.”

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