For more than 40 years, Studio West Bronze Foundry and Art Gallery has enthralled people all across the country with its craftsmanship and professionalism.
From casting the famous Wayne Gretzky statue that once sat outside of Edmonton’s Rexall Place, to the National RCMP Memorial in Ottawa, to the monument of Saskatchewan’s first Premier, Walter Scott, that stands out front of the Regina Legislature, the husband and wife team of Don and Shirley Begg are seen as the best of the best in their respected profession.
Despite all of their accolades, the studio shares a special bond with a place that’s not on a lot of people’s radars: Dauphin, Man.
The Begg’s recently completed a bronze monument titled Compassion for the city’s Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate chapter, commemorating the 90 years of service the sisters have given Dauphin and its people.
The sisterhood is an international congregation of nuns founded more than 100 years ago in Western Ukraine by the Ukrainian Catholic Church, whose mission is to follow the example of their patroness Mary, the Immaculate Mother of God.
“They’ve provided health care and education, as well as taking care of the elderly and orphans,” Shirley said of the sisterhood. “Now, the government has taken over all of their facilities, including a very large senior centre.
“The sisters wanted some permanent recognition for their work in Manitoba, which we were happy to provide.”
Dauphin, which has a population of 8,251, is somewhat of a regular stomping ground for the Beggs, as they’ve now been commissioned to cast five bronzes for the community.
How the studio managed to team with Dauphin to create a series of bronzes that commemorates the city and its pioneers, is one of those rare cases of complete coincidence.
“We were in Saskatoon a few years ago and had a couple of hours to kill,” Shirley remembered. “So, we went to the Egg Bunny statue that we did for the city (which is part of a series of three, with the companion pieces located in Cochrane and Fish Creek Park in Calgary) and decided to clean it up.”
Shirley recalled that she and Don had their safety vests on so people would know they were doing a professional clean up, when two men who were in town for a conference approached them. As fate would have it, one of those men turned out to be Dauphin’s mayor, Eric Irwin.
“They thought we were city workers, and as we got talking, it turned out they were interested in bronze statues,” Shirley said. “When Eric found out we were the sculptors, he was impressed with our work and commissioned us to build a statue to put in Vermillion Park, which was the first one we did.
“It was so well received, Eric came up with this program of representing the foundation spirit of Dauphin.
“We’ve been a part of it ever since.”
