public art network

2012-01-25T11:10:00.002-05:00

Guerilla Art Restoration: From Wired magazine: In Paris, a group of clandestine art and culture lovers have made a career of restoring neglected cultural treasures:

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2012/01/ff_ux/all/1

Central Indiana Community Foundation kills Fred Wilson project

2011-12-15T15:53:00.003-05:00

December 13, 2011/Modern Art Notes/Art-focused Journalism by Tyler Green

The Central Indiana Community Foundation announced today that it has terminated Fred Wilson’s E Pluribus Unum project. The proposed sculpture, considered by some critics the most significant public art work proposed in America in many years, had long been on life-support.

The backstory: In 2009 a CICF-funded Indianapolis civic organization and project called the Indianapolis Cultural Trail – a pedestrian/cycling path that connects far-flung Indianapolis neighborhoods – commissioned Wilson to create a public artwork. Wilson, who describes himself as being of “African, Native American, European and Amerindian descent,” proposed an artwork that took as its point of departure the city’s Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, a 30-story-tall, neo-classical enormity located at the geographic midpoint of Indianapolis. Designed by German architect Bruno Schmitz, it was erected in 1901-02. One of the figures on the memorial is an African-American man, apparently a former slave (as symbolized by his muscular, bare torso and by the way he is holding a recently broken chain and shackles). Indianapolis has the second-most public monuments of any American city, but according to Wilson this figure is the only African-American depicted in any of them.

Wilson’s proposed sculpture, titled E Pluribus Unum [rendering above via the ICT], would have reproduced that figure isolated and relocated it from its position on the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument. Wilson would also have removed the signifiers of human bondage, resulting in his literally and figuratively freeing the African-American figure from references to slavery. Into the figure’s outstretched arm, the arm that the figure uses to reach up toward the white man on the monument, Wilson would have placed a flag that celebrated the African Diaspora. Wilson’s sculpture would have been visible from the existing memorial, thus pointedly critiquing its paternalism.

This past summer, CICF and Indianapolis mayor Greg Ballard announced that they would no longer support citing the sculpture there and the project entered several months of limbo. In the immediate wake of that decision, Wilson initially told MAN he was unsure of whether he was willing to move forward with the project at another site, but in late September he said he’d try to work with CICF on a new location.

“Indianapolis is crazy not to go ahead with it,” Los Angeles Times art critic and three-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Christopher Knight said in July. “Wilson is a first-rate artist. Not only is this one of the most provocative ideas he’s come up with, it’s one of the most compelling ideas for a public art project that I’ve encountered in a very long time.” Read more. And remarks from Fred Wilson.

Fargo wins grant for new approach to public art

2011-12-12T11:31:00.000-05:00

Posted at 2:45 PM on December 8, 2011 by Dan Gunderson
minnesota.publicradio.org

National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Rocco Landesman visited Fargo Thursday to talk about a public art project he says the NEA will use as a model across the country.

Fargo received a $100,000 NEA grant to turn a large drainage basin into a public art space. The funding comes from the NEA Our Town program. The city will provide matching funds, mostly in staff time coordinating the project.

The city has been building these drainage basins for the past 10 years to catch runoff from heavy summer rains and prevent street flooding. The basins are empty most of the year, typically only holding water for a short time after a heavy rain.

Local artists will work with Jackie Brookner, an ecological artist from New York, to develop a plan for making the drainage basins into a space that's pleasing aesthetically and can be used for recreation.

Landesman says he liked the Fargo idea of incorporating art into community infrastructure.

"We're going to do much more public art, community based, and this is a perfect example," he says. ""We're making the point the arts are part of the real economy of this country. There are five million arts related jobs in this country."

The project will be designed over the next several months.

Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker says the basins are now used only by ducks and geese.
He challenged local artists to come up with ideas to make the sites useful and beautiful.

Walaker called the project a great example of "thinking outside the box".

Santa Monica's Chain Reaction Public Art Sculpture Safety To Be Assessed

2011-12-01T12:08:00.002-05:00

posted Nov. 29, 2011, 9:00:00 am
Parimal M. Rohit / Staff Writer / Santa Monica Mirror
Photo by Victoria Vallejo

What was once a controversial sculpture designed as a statement of peace is now at the heart of a city-sponsored public art preservation campaign, as City Hall will be studying the structural integrity of Paul Conrad’s “Chain Reaction” across from the Santa Monica Civic Center.

The city’s Cultural Affairs office announced a team of structural engineers and art conservators will work together to assess Chain Reaction and determine whether the public sculpture has any threats to its structural well being, such as corrosion or other problems.

Once the testing is complete, City Hall will study the results and determine a plan of action on how to preserve Chain Reaction.

Next week’s structural integrity study is the latest in a series of actions to prevent Chain Reaction from becoming a public safety hazard.

The City has retained both a structural engineer, who is working with a well known testing lab, Twining, and a highly respected conservator, Rosa Lowinger, who has worked on important works both nationally and international, including for example the Watts Towers. Their work is independent, but complimentary. The contract with the conservator is for $10,000.

“From the time that a potential public safety hazard was identified by Building Officer Ron Takiguchi, City staff have worked diligently with a highly skilled team of professionals to devise and implement a plan that employs best practices to gather adequate information while doing everything possible to preserve the integrity of this important work of art,” Cultural Affairs Manager Jessica Cusick wrote in a release.

In addition to having an analysis conducted by a structural engineer and a conservator, City Hall also researched “the fabrication of the work” and interviewed those who originally built the structure more than 20 years ago. The results of the analysis and information gathered by the interviews dictated how next week’s tests will be conducted, Cusick stated.

Conrad’s family was also notified of the testing of Chain Reaction’s structural integrity. Conrad, who was a cartoonist with the Los Angeles Times, passed away in September 2010.
Chain Reaction was Conrad’s gift to Santa Monica with the $250,000 cost paid by an anonymous benefactor, but it was controversial.

A scale model of the sculpture was displayed at City Hall next to a ballot box, and visitors rejected it, 730 to 392. However, the Santa Monica Arts Commission unanimously voted four times to accept the piece, and the City Council finally agreed, voting 4 to 3 in favor of it in 1990. The sculpture was placed in its currently location in the shadows of City Hall, the Civic Auditorium, and the RAND Corporation headquarters in 1991.

In An Era of Budget Austerity, Public Art Projects Take on Increased Impact

2011-11-29T11:30:00.002-05:00

By Sean Bowie | November 28, 2011
technologyinthearts.org

One of the unfortunate realities of the current economic climate is that with so many Americans unemployed, and others saving money instead of using it to purchase goods and services, the states, counties and municipalities that rely so heavily on sales tax collections are faced with fewer tax collections and larger annual budget deficits. With most local governments required to balance their budgets every fiscal year, they are forced to cut spending, lay off workers and delay investment on previously planned projects.

Since the 2007 recession, this trend has spread towards nearly every corner of America. As it relates to the arts community, investments in public works of art, like sculptures, statues and murals, have been shelved due to budget cuts. However, at the same time, a rise in grassroots public art projects, funded using online crowdfunding programs, have helped deliver quirky and imaginative works of art to cities nationwide, bringing a small sense of civic pride back to areas devastated by the economic downturn.

We here at Technology in the Arts have previously looked at the crowdfunding website Kickstarter, which serves as a simple way for artists to solicit and accept donations for arts projects from people online. The way the site works is simple: an artist has an idea, he/she sets a fundraising goal that they wish to achieve, and they have three months to reach that dollar amount. The artist will often design a list of rewards for donors to motivate them to donate, and if the project does not reach its fundraising goal by the end of the three month time period, no money is spent and all money is returned.

Kickstarter features projects from many different categories, including theater, music, games and fashion, but its most unique and inspiring pieces come from the world of art, and more specifically, the projects that don’t belong to a gallery or museum, but instead to the people of a particular city. Projects that serve as public goods, ones that all people, from residents to tourists, can enjoy, are the ones I find the most inspiring and important.

Last week, The Atlantic Cities (one of my favorite city/urban policy sites) took a look at six successful and wildly unique public arts projects that have cropped up around the country. These projects, along with the thousands of others featured on Kickstarter, offer a fascinating glimpse into how ordinary people are using the cities around them to express their artistic creativity.

The city of Grand Rapids, Michigan, no stranger to the economic downturn, saw one of the more unique projects I came across: a slew of metal monkeys hanging from a pedestrian bridge near the city’s downtown. The project, titled “Metal Monkey Mania,” successfully completed funding last month.

Across the country, in West Berkeley, California, a set of large ceramic tiles by artist Juana Alicia, designed for a low-income housing complex, were finished, but sitting in boxes because she did not having the funding necessary to install them. Enter Kickstarter, and last week, she reached her goal of raising over $5,000 to finish the project. The beautiful tiles will be hung in the near future.

While not a physical piece of art, one of my favorite public art projects featured on Kickstarter puts everyone who comes across it in the position of artist extraordinaire. Artist Katie O’Beirne has left disposable cameras in New York City and other cities around the world for a few hours at a time, letting regular people who come across the cameras to take pictures of whatever their hearts desire. Taking a look through the images offers a fascinating look into what people choose to show in their contributions. Katie is compiling the pictures and hoping to turn them into an art show in the near future (as of the time of this writing, there is still time to donate to the project and make her dream a reality).

South of the border, in Puebla, Mexico, a group of independent artists have been painting beautiful murals across their city in an effort to celebrate the town’s rich heritage. The group has plans for over two dozen more murals, and has their own Kickstarter page dedicated to bringing more artists to the area that is currently very close to its target of over $29,000.

Nobody will mistake any of these projects as a perfect substitute for a large scale government or privately funded works of art. However, many of the projects featured serve as an inexpensive, quirky way to bring a sense of culture and artistic expression to cities large and small across the country that are grappling with severe budget cuts and austerity measures. And while the economic downturn has forced cities and states to cut back on the kind of 21st century arts projects that many of us in the arts community would love to see, the rise of crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter and the entrepreneurial spirit of artists everywhere have shown that technology can help bridge the gap until the economy gets back on the right track.

Dr. Dirt: Street artist scrubs images into the urban landscape

2011-11-10T18:44:00.001-05:00

by Greg Hanscom

4 Nov 2011 3:24 PM

Photo: c/o MooseStreet artist Moose Benjamin Curtis was having some difficulty with the police. The officers had just arrested him for creating designs on a wall in South London. But it was complicated -- as things often are when Moose is involved.

You see, Moose doesn't use spray paint or wallpaper paste -- the usual tools of this trade. Instead, he wields scrub brushes, old socks, cleaning fluid, and, when he's living large, a high-pressure hose. He creates images by cleaning shapes into filthy urban surfaces such as retaining walls, signs, and tunnels.

People have called it "reverse graffiti," "clean graffiti," and "negative space." Moose prefers "grime writing." He has called himself "a professor of dirt."

He is not the only one working in this medium: Brazillian artist Alexandre Orion scrubbed a gallery of skulls onto the wall of a tunnel in Sao Paolo a few years back; street artist Banksy has also used the technique. But Moose is a pioneer -- and a bit of a character to boot. Read mor e.

Trust fund to inspire more public art in San Francisco

2011-11-02T14:06:00.000-04:00

By: Sarah Gantz | 10/30/11 10:45 PM
Examiner Staff Writer

Downtown developers required to finance public art may soon be able to meet that requirement as easily as writing a check.

On Thursday, the Planning Commission unanimously supported a measure by Mayor Ed Lee and Supervisor David Chiu that would create a Public Art Trust Fund. It would allow developers who are required to put 1 percent of their construction costs toward public art to give the money to the fund instead of commissioning a project on their own.

The support came with revisions recommended by planning staff, most notably excluding developers with large public spaces from using the fund and consideration for expanding the art requirement throughout The City.

“If it’s good, let’s expand it,” said Commission Vice President Ron Miguel.

Currently, developers of projects of at least 25,000 square feet in downtown near Market Street must spend 1 percent of their budgets to pay for public art installations.

Jason Elliott, Lee’s legislative director, said the new proposal stems from that program’s success and is an effort to improve it by giving developers more flexibility.

The fund would be maintained by the Arts Commission and would be used not only for permanent artwork, but also for temporary and performance art in public places, maintenance of existing art and to support nonprofit arts groups.

Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2011/10/trust-fund-inspire-more-public-art-san-francisco#ixzz1cZZ4aSI1

Backers of Ann Arbor's Percent for Art program must remain vocal in supporting it

2011-11-01T11:51:00.003-04:00

By Tony Dearing
AnnArbor.com

Editorial Posted: Sun, Oct 30, 2011 : 6:07 a.m.
Sculpture by German artist Herbert Dreiseitl
Photo: Angela J. Cesere | AnnArbor.com

Art is inherently controversial.

Most people will not present themselves as experts in math or science or engineering, but everyone is an art critic. Art evokes strong opinion and reaction. So, it seems, does Ann Arbor’s Percent for Art program.

The program, which takes 1 percent of funds spent on certain public works projects and sets it aside for art, is facing a cacophony of criticism. The Ann Arbor City Council has entertained motions to scale back the program. In a recent poll on AnnArbor.com, more than 900 people responded and 56 percent said it should be done away with altogether.

Against such an onslaught, those who support the program must continue to be vocal in defending the value - both intangible and economic - of public art. Today, we join them by reaffirming our strong support of the Percent for Art concept. At the same time, we see valid concerns about the program, and hope they can be addressed in a way that leads to broader acceptance over time.

The case for public art was made when the program was approved in 2007. A well-run public art program enhances the visibility and reputation of a community, attracting visitors, new residents and economic development. World-class art helps make us a world-class destination.

None of that, of course, makes the program immune from criticism. Is it art? Is it “worth’’ the price that was paid for it? Given the nature of art, there will always be such questions. A harsh economy intensifies the objections of those who view art as a luxury. In Ann Arbor, the Percent for Art program also has become a foil for people whose real concern is some of the city’s other spending priorities - particularly public safety.

PUBLIC ART COVER-UP! MOCK ART TREND?

2011-10-17T12:40:00.003-04:00

October 11, 2011 By John Perreault

RTOPIAnews

LENIN DESECRATED IN BULGARIA. AND IN NYC GEORGE WASHINGTON AND THE ASTOR PLACE CUBE. WHO’S TO BLAME?

Is the public so disgusted by outdoor sculpture that even temporary defacement is cheered? Who’s to blame? Soon not even works by Calder or Oldenburg will be safe from mockery.

Olek, the Polish-born crochet artist, made a cheerful one-day coverlet for Tony Rosenthal’s Alamo, that point-balanced black cube at Astor Place that each new generation of Cooper Union art students discovers can be rotated with a little bit of muscle. The cube itself is fussy. The rotation adds a populist note to Astor Place. But not as populist as Olek’s temporary improvement. LINK

In Sofia, Bulgaria, citizens awakened to see a Soviet-era monument transformed by paint into a paean to comic book heroes. The base of this ugly piece of work was scrawled with the phrase “in step with the times.” Was the artist provocateur making fun of Socialist Realism or of Western Pop Culture? Or indicating the superficiality, the mythological basis, and thus the equivalency of both? LINK

For “Art in Odd places,” a 10 -day art extravaganza (Oct.1 -10) along 14th Street in NYC, Leon Reid IV somehow gained permission to equip a bronze statue of George Washington with a subway map and shopping bags for one day, re-Christening the Union Square statue Tourist-in-Chief. Previously this statue has been invisible, so I am not sure this was a service to the public or not. LINK. Story lead: ArtNet.com

Debate over public art continues as Ann Arbor City Council postpones decision on funding

2011-09-21T14:32:00.001-04:00

By Ryan J. Stanton
Political Reporter, annarbor.com, originally posted Tue, Sep 20, 2011 : 2:59 p.m

Ann Arbor City Council members heard an outpouring of support for the city's Percent For Art Program Monday night — a protest to a proposal to cut back its funding.

Six different speakers lined up to voice their support for the public art program that was first approved by the City Council four years ago and since has faced repeated attacks.

"It's true that we could live in any number of dull cities that would just take care of our basic needs, and they'd probably be cheaper to live in, too, But instead, we've chosen to live in a city that has a pulse and a soul," said Mark Tucker, who teaches art at the University of Michigan and is one of the organizers behind the annual FestiFools and FoolMoon events.

"This council has an obligation to invest wisely in the future infrastructure of Ann Arbor, and public art is a part of this infrastructure," Tucker said.

Council Member Sabra Briere, D-1st Ward, brought forward a series of changes to the city's public art ordinance Monday night aimed at curbing funding for the program.

Under the ordinance approved by the City Council in 2007, 1 percent of the budget for all city capital projects — up to $250,000 per project — is set aside for public art.

In terms of this year's budget, $334,660 of $314 million — or 0.1 percent of all expenditures — is going to public art.

But some council members have expressed concerns that more than $500,000 in street millage funds have been channeled to public art over the last four years. Read more here

The remains of that day

2011-09-13T11:07:00.003-04:00

By Simon Schama, Financial Times, 9/2/11

What are public memorials for? Are they meant to perpetuate the sorrow of loss; pay a debt of respect, or set a boundary about grief by turning it to public reverence? Must their primary obligation always be to the immediately bereaved? Should such places be no more than a site where those victimised by slaughter can find consolation in a community of mourning? Or is a public memorial, by definition, created to make something more universally redeeming from atrocious ruin? Does remembrance invite instruction or forbid it? Should it make mourners of us all; bow the heads and stop the mouths of all who stand before it? Is it greatly to their credit that Presidents George W Bush and Barack Obama will stand at that haunted site on the 10th anniversary and not utter a word? Or is that silence a missed opportunity for reflection?

For some of us these will never be purely academic questions. I was in New York on 9/11 and in London on 7/7. I am a citizen of both of these unapologetically secular, mostly tolerant, rowdily cosmopolitan cities that the exterminating apostles of destruction chose as their target. I am at home in both places: I think of them as “the mansion house of liberty” – in John Milton’s fine phrase from Areopagitica, the poet’s passionate 1644 defence of freedom of publication – and the temerity of that liberty was, in the mind of the murderers, cause enough for immolation.

Read more here.

Airport might not remove artwork for digital billboard

2011-09-02T20:00:00.005-04:00

The airport is reviewing whether to remove "Chrysalis," a piece by James Wille Faust (right). Jan Martin (left) was the engineer who built the metal components for the artwork. / Michelle Pemberton / The Star

Indianapolis International Airport officials are reconsidering their plan to remove a prominent, three-story sculptural painting inside the terminal and replace it with a digital screen full of advertisements and scrolling art.

The move follows an outcry from the arts community -- and a nudge from Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard -- after the proposed removal of the piece, "Chrysalis," was reported earlier this month.

Last week, a representative for artist James Wille Faust, officials from the airport and the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and other concerned parties met, many arguing that the metal sculpture should remain.

"We are looking into that . . . to see if it's feasible to have the video wall placed somewhere else," airport spokesman Carlo Bertolini said Tuesday.

It probably didn't hurt that Ballard, who has been an advocate of public art in the city, expressed his own disappointment.

"Our office expressed the mayor's support that visitors to Indianapolis be greeted with a high-profile, appropriate public art," said city spokesman Marc Lotter. "We were obviously working with the airport, the IMA to basically maintain the mayor's strong commitment to public art and have that be a welcoming feature at the airport."

The Indianapolis Museum of Art recently signed on as the airport's art consultant.

The proposed removal of "Chrysalis" was especially disconcerting to those in the arts community. They said it didn't jell with the special attention airport officials gave to public art when the terminal opened in 2008. At that time, officials said the terminal would serve as a "visual gateway" to Indianapolis culture. Read more here and here

Despite budget woes, public art 'about soaring possibility of man'

2011-08-03T11:44:00.003-04:00

By MARIA RECIO, McClatchy Newspapers

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Maybe it was the fairy. Or it may have been the toad. But the combination of a fairy riding a toad as a finalist in a sculpture competition at a new federal defense complex - along with the $600,000 price tag - set off howls of protest from disgruntled residents, with local critics dubbing the artwork "the gurgling toad."

It's the latest flap over public art - the movement born in the 1970s to set aside a percentage of federal, state and local construction projects for artwork - and it reached a fever pitch last spring in northern Virginia, stretching from a congressman's office to local critics to the blogosphere.

In cities across the country, art at public buildings and public spaces is burgeoning, sometimes generating controversy and sometimes becoming instant landmarks. Read more

Endangered Species Roam San Francisco

2011-07-10T11:16:00.009-04:00

Artist and landscape architect Todd Gilens created a series of bus wraps that are currently circulating throughout San Francisco. Featuring endangered species, the wrapped buses bring attention to the relationship between humans and nature and the impact that cities have on wildlife habitat.The wraps also beautify the buses, encouraging people to ride public transit, decrease their carbon footprint and help save the natural environment.

Co-sponsored by several organizations, including Bay Nature and San Francisco Metropolitan Transit Authority (SFMTA), Gilens' Endangered Species buses have bring a touch of whimsy and a serious message to transit commuters. (Photo: Todd Gilens)

http://www.masstransitmag.com/press_release/10243062/san-francisco-artist-turns-public-transportation-into-endangered-species-habitat

http://follywog.net/projects/endangeredspecies.html

Review of Year in Review

2011-07-07T12:19:00.001-04:00

I have just received my download of the 2011 Year in Review selections and presentations and went over the whole show again. Having worked to improve the process, I was interested to see how the results held up from the perspective of a month after the conference.

On the PAN Council Committee we had long discussions, attempting to come up with improved categories and selection criteria. The three jury members proceeded to ignore both, but they did this in an intelligent, thoughtful and provocative manner. Lesson: it is important to come up with rules for Public Art that can only be ignored intelligently.

The work selected and the way it was presented was better, more interesting and instructive than what we got the year before. So what do the selections tell us about the state of public art?

I am going to say something here that invites rebuttal and discussion among us, please respond. With only a handful of exceptions, the work selected, presumably representing the work we produce, is moving closer toward ephemeral entertainment and commentary. The selections were clearly lively, fun to watch. But few places shown are likely to l become lasting, energizing facilities for a city or community. Very few of the places will be visited or looked at in 5 or 10 years. While the awkward phrase “Placemaking’ is gaining currency among public art circles, very few of the projects chosen would qualify as such. Are we then content to only comment and entertain, or do we have a bigger, deeper and longer range role in shaping our complex culture, evolving cities and stressed environment?

Lajos Heder