Presented by Helen Lessick at the Annual Conference of the Visual Resources Association, April 3rd - April 6th, 2013, in Providence, Rhode Island.
Session #2: Visual Resourcefulness and the Public Art Challenge
ORGANIZER/MODERATOR: Helen Lessick, Web Resources for Art in Public
PRESENTERS:
Jack Becker, founder of Forecast Public Art and Public Art Review
Rachel Cain, Public Art Archive, WESTAF (Western States Arts Federation)
Elizabeth Keithline, Project Grants/Public Art Management, Rhode Island State Council on the Arts
Abby Suckle, CultureNOW
Visual resources are key to collections within and outside of the museum and academic worlds. Public art, art in public places, civic art and design, and artist-initiated projects all contribute to a growing national collection.
This session will present the diverse approaches to organizing and presenting public art collections online and discuss the challenges of working with municipal and for-profit clients in the field based on policy, innovation, collaboration and context.
This session will present challenges and opportunities for VRA members to engage the public art field locally and nationally, and build networks for catalogers and public art collection professionals across the nation.
Wednesday April 3, 2013 1:35pm - 2:55pm
3. Who Makes Art in Public?
• Cities, counties, states, federal government
• Regional agencies, airports, transit authorities
• Museums, non-profit programs, for-profit
businesses, academic classes and groups
• Artists funded by grants, sales, crowd-sourced
or self-funded
6. Why WRAP? Community
Public artists work
across diverse disciplines
Public art has history
Public art is a local issue
and a national discussion
7. Why WRAP? Visibility
Public Art professionals require
current, accurate information
Public Art works are siloed
Audiences expect on-site information
8. Why WRAP? Accuracy
Public Art historians cite web sites
Art critics and bloggers use
web resources
Public Art administration is taught
with on-line resources and references
9. Why WRAP? Advocacy
Public Art is challenging
Public art is challenged by others
Advocates need access to
success stories and lessons learned
10. WRAP LA: Pilot project
75 Los Angeles basin works funded by artists, non-
profits, grants and a church, without a percent for art
program
Simon Riordan, paid cataloger
UCSD Art Library internal review
Patricia Walsh, external review
Descriptive Catalog Discussions
• Urban Displacement
• Participatory Art
• Food fight vs banquet
• Material exchange
11. LA murals: Clockwise from top:
Cache, Bicycling chicken murals
Leo Limon, LA River Catz
Self Help Graphics, non-profit entry
12. Armory Center for the Arts Pasadena
Temporary Banner Projects One Colorado + Armory NW
Left: Daniel Buren, A Colored Square in the Sky
Right: Lorraine Cleary-Dale with students installing Watz Ur Sygn?
13. LA Temporary events, with/out permission
Clockwise: Elysian Park Museum of Art,
Tumbleweed Snowmen (at entry)
Fallen Fruit (at Machine Project)
Heidi Duckler, C’opera (at Los Angeles Police Academy)
14. Land overlays: clockwise: Michael Heizer, Suspended Mass , Bruce Nauman, untitled
Joshua Callaghan: Almost Invisible Boxes, Helen Lessick, Soil Sample: Los Angeles
15. Clockwise from top:
Arroyo Arts Collective: For the Birds
Performing Public Space: Octupy LA
JR: Makers of the City
16. Panelists
Elizabeth Keithline: Rhode Island State Council
on the Arts, Public Art/Grants Program
Rachel Cain: Western States Art Federation,
Public Art Archive
Jack Becker: Forecast Public Art +
Public Art Review
Abby Suckle: culturenow.org
17. Love Match
VRA + Local art
Engage your local public artist and collections.
We are always looking to partner.
Hinweis der Redaktion
Helen Lessick www.lessick.netWeb Resources for Art in Public (WRAP)
Public Art Programs in the United States – courtesy Porter Arneill, City of St. Louis, Missouri Public Art Program, 2010.
Art making purpose: projects, commissions, artist initiated projects, businesses, outdoor exhibitions and community art efforts.
Contemporary art in public is made locally; these pearls create a public art necklace.
WRAP is a grassroots effort, started in 2010 when Jack Becker, Forecast Public Art and LieselFenner, Americans for the Arts Public Art Network convened a meeting of interested parties in Baltimore, MD. A report was issued outlining the field’s efforts, challenges, concerns and purposes of putting works of public art on line.
Elizabeth Keithline will present an overview of the RISC collection and briefly discuss how municipal government commissions and collects public art. Rachel Cain will present WESTAF’s effort to assemble a public art archive.Jack Becker will present his efforts to create an archive for 30 years of magazine publishing of reviews, critiques, essays and artists pages in Public Art Review, and the efforts to make Forecast public art services accessible to local communities and international partners.Abby Suckle will present the grassroots efforts of culturenow.org, and the national program she is putting together for public art, architecture, and historical sites.
All images credit Helen Lessick except:Slide 2: courtesy Porter ArneillSlide 10: credit Performing Public SpaceSlide 13: credit Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre