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  • From: "Steve Wright" <swright AT townofchapelhill.org>
  • To: <chpac-staff AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Chpac-staff] project artist in news
  • Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 16:30:17 -0500

Dear CHPAC,

 

Linked and printed below to an interesting article on a Janet Echelman project for the City of Phoenix:

 

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1209art1209-ON.html

 

 

Phoenix ditches $2.4 million public-art project for park

Connie Cone Sexton
The Arizona Republic
Dec. 10, 2007 12:00 AM

A $2.4 million public art piece chosen by a city-appointed panel for the planned downtown park near Van Buren Street and Central Avenue has been rejected by the Phoenix City Manager's Office despite $104,000 already paid to the artist.

Phoenix Arts and Culture Commission members are angry and wonder if someone in City Hall thinks the proposed piece, which resembles a floating jellyfish, is too unconventional and will reignite a controversy on what makes for proper public art.

Internationally known artist Janet Echelman was chosen by the arts panel in April to create an iconic piece for the 2.77-acre planned Civic Space, part of the downtown Arizona State University campus. The 100-foot-wide piece, which would be made of diaphanous, flexible nets to move with the wind, would rise about 55 feet above the park attached to three towers, the highest being 160 feet. The design is meant to evoke a cactus flower.

 

 

 

Plans for the art, which have been reviewed in several public meetings earlier this year and were poised to receive the remaining funding by the City Council, were dropped suddenly last week by Ed Zuercher,a Phoenix deputy city manager. The project, which he said involves complex engineering to install the work's steel beams, could delay the November opening of the park by three to nine months. That's news to Civic Space's general contractor Todd Macalady, who said Friday afternoon that no one from the city had talked to him about canceling the project.

It was also news to the artist, who said she had been working closely with the contractor and the architect on installation configurations. Echelman said no official has asked her if the art could be installed sooner.

'Not a lot of return'

Zuercher, who recently began his job after serving three years as Mayor Phil Gordon's chief of staff, said Friday he won't ask the council to authorize the remaining money for Echelman's work. City officials will have to start over to have art in the park, he said.

Gordon issued a statement Friday saying Echelman's work was "not a lot of return" for $2.4 million, saying the piece would only withstand the elements for a decade.

Echelman said Gordon was misinformed, adding that webbing material alone has a 15-year warranty. Of the $2.4 million, only $315,000 is budgeted for the netting material, the artist said.

On Saturday, the Downtown Voices Coalition and some arts members who selected Echelman met with officials, demanding answers.

"All of a sudden, it's a no go," said Andrea Norman, chairwoman of the public art committee for the Phoenix Arts and Culture Commission. "I feel the whole process has been hijacked."

City officials on Saturday told coalition members they would consider their comments and would give them an update today.

Architect Will Bruder, who has designed several Phoenix buildings including the Burton Barr Central Library, said the city is losing the chance to showcase the work of a "world-class" artist. Echelman's art pieces include a 160-foot-tall waterfront wind sculpture in Porto, Portugal, and she has been chosen to create work for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games.

"I know everyone is afraid of the pots process," Bruder said, referring to the early 1990s controversy of the artwork placed along the then-named Squaw Peak Parkway portion of Arizona 51.

Echelman was chosen from among 178 artists.Arts and Culture Commission members expected the process to be finalized soon, with the City Council approving the remaining funding for the project. Money for the public art is already set aside as part of the percent-for-art program.

If Echelman's piece is not used, the $2.4 million still must be used for public art. A selection process would begin again.

"Our commitment to have art in that space is not diminished," Zuercher said.

Gordon also said he wants art for the space.

"I am confident we will end up with a defining piece of artwork that can be appreciated for generations and centuries to come," he said.

Some members of the arts community wonder if city officials are worried about allocating $2.4 million during a tight budget year.

"It's capital money, it won't come from the police or fire budget," Norman said.

Iconic or complicated?

Speaking from her home outside Boston, Echelman said she is dismayed.

"I think the city is trying to dump me," she said. "All fall we've participated in weekly meetings with the entire Civic Space team. The contractors for landscape and sculpture have worked together to create a feasible schedule, and so far they've tackled the numerous challenges that are always present in a project of this scale. Our plan for the sculpture is completely feasible."

Echelman acknowledges the design is unfamiliar. "But great cities have always taken bold steps. . . . No city ever built an Eiffel Tower or a Vietnam Veterans Memorial without moving beyond the comfort zone."

Zuercher insists that the piece isn't being killed because someone didn't like the design.

He said he likes the piece, especially how it would be lit with different colors, depending on the season: pink for fall and spring, blue in summer and red-orange for winter.

"That was going to be neat," he said. "The scale of it is very dramatic."

Zuercher said the work's fate is tied to a firm opening of the Civic Space park by November. Several things converge this fall at the space, including the opening of the ASU journalism school and a downtown student dormitory. Light rail is also scheduled to start next December.

"It had been the desire and plan and intention to have a large-scale iconic piece of art integrated into the design of the space," Zuercher said.

To put the piece in after the park is open would be impossible, he said, because landscaping would be damaged. It's going to require significant engineering with cranes and lifts to install the three steel towers that would support the piece, he said.

"There has been a strong commitment to the ASU community and larger downtown community that the park will open on time," Zuercher said.

Wellington Reiter, dean of the College of Design at ASU, who helped the city select Echelman, said if the art installation causes a delay, the city has to consider "the greater good, which is the park."

But Susan Copeland, a member of the Arts and Culture Commission, can't believe the project was scrapped. "I'm furious," she said. "The park opening is an arbitrary deadline. This piece of art would have drawn people, even if they liked it or didn't. Without it, it's going to be a little nothing park."

 



  • [Chpac-staff] project artist in news, Steve Wright, 12/12/2007

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