Posts Tagged ‘Public Art Parks’
And speaking of innovation, the National Museum of Wildlife Art’s (NMWA) new three-quarter mile sculpture trail, designed by Walter Hood, is due to open on schedule this month. The presence of the trail adds a whole new dimension to the museum. NMWA is literally merging the concept of wildlife art with the landscape wildlife inhabits. Not only will visitors be able to sit outside NMWA and take in those glorious Elk Refuge and Gros Ventre vistas, they will be able to walk the hillsides around NMWA. A new pathway links the Town of Jackson to NMWA–bike & walking paths lead you right to the Museum. Hood has been tweaking trail details; it sounds like those grid pattern surface boulders will be a part of the design. If you’ve had a chance to look at Hood’s design for the trail, you would have noticed those boulders bracing and anchoring the trail’s fluid design. Good news!
Visiting the trail is free, and open to the public. “Pathway stones and the trail’s Hood-designed Douglas fir benches also are being engraved with names from museum donors, with a number of stones and several benches still available for ‘naming,’ ” NMWA says. “It’s a great way to recognize a loved one in a beautiful outdoor place.”
The trail’s official opening is scheduled for September 2012, when all sculptures are installed and completed. If you’d like to adopt and dedicate a piece of the trail, contact NMWA’s Ponteir Sackrey at 307.732.5444. www.wildlifeart.org
PS: Thinking about the Museum caused me to wonder about Jackson’s lodging statistics for September, 2011 Fall Arts Festival month. Downtown Jackson was 85% full, up 1% from 2010; Outlying Jackson lodging was 86%, up a whole 7% from 2010′s 79%. 2010′s lodging stats for Fall Arts set records, so 2011 looks like a new record! Still awaiting September 2011 sales tax stats.
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Here’s that plus sign again! It’s the new arts text symbol.
Literary + Visual Art, a collaboration between Heather James Fine Art and the Teton County Library’s Page to Podium Series, offers a chance to attend an in-person conversation
with writer Michael Cunningham, author of “The Hours.” Local artist Pamela Gibson will interview Cunningham about his latest book, set in New York’s art scene; other topics include the status of art in America and the “art of living a writing life.”
(Hint: Get up early. Brush teeth. Make coffee. If you write in your jammies, lock front door! Sit down, and do it the Anne Lamott way: bird by bird.)
Cunningham’s talk begins at Heather James at 6:00 pm, on Friday, October 21. Tickets are $125 if purchased at the library; a little bit more if you use PayPal. www.tclib.org/authorchat.
From 3:30-6:00 pm on October 21, peruse the scary scarecrows up for auction at the Center for the Arts. The auction is silent until 5:30 pm, then goes live. Food, drink, live performances–it’s free to attend! Arts educator Jane Lavino is building a scarecrow. “At various times during construction my cat scarecrow resembled a kangaroo, a squirrel and a large rat,” Lavino says. “I hope the balance is tipping more towards ‘cat’ right now! After wrestling over 100 square feet of chicken wire into some semblance of an animal, my hands look like they were attacked by all of the above!”
Buy a scarecrow–all one of a kind and made by local artists–and raise funds for the Center and JH Public Art Initiative.
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The Art Association presents arts industry consultant Bruce Baker, conducting a two-day workshop: Thrive, Not Merely Survive, As a Studio Professional. Baker teaches the workshop November 5 & 6, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm both days. If you have great ideas, why be starving, artists? Baker will talk about how to effectively sell your art, particularly if you work the art fair circuit. Booth design, sales and customer service, tips on slides for juried shows and trends and product development will be discussed.
Many of Jackson’s artists are, by now, practiced art fair veterans–but maybe there’s much more to being successful than meets the eye. One gal who always hits it out of the park: Michelle Miller, of Magpie (Driggs, Idaho) fame. Miller nabs that corner booth, she can be found in the same space every year, her displays are chock full of goodies, she’s whimsically fun and makes jewelry on the spot. Merchandise it, baby!
Cost for Baker’s two-day workshop: $165 for A.A. members, $175 for non-members. www.artassociation.org
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For Annie on Her 39th Birthday
Before I slept I asked
Where do we go when we leave?
Like Annie left,
She rode away one day.
A mountain lion came for her
And up the stairs they went.
Here’s what happened:
Sarah and I are on a plane
We fly over shimmering water
We fly over emerald grasses
Waving at us.
Sacred views, magic earth.
We fly into night sky,
Through stars.
My plane is a spaceship-
Now I am alone.
A Heavenly spirit,
Round, starry and warm
Floating in space
Asks, “How do I speak
To my friends on Earth?
They cannot hear me
And I have something to tell them.”
I say,
“Just be You.
Nothing fancy,
Just You,
And You will be heard.”
He smiles
And I fly
Further into the sky,
Higher.
I see Annie’s house in the stars.
A tiny log cabin,
Windows aglow,
Wrapped round by tall firs
And twinkling lights.
That is where Annie
Is living, I know.
Thump! I land in a field
Boundless countryside
Rolling hills, sunshine,
Birds singing.
Annie’s flower,
Hydrangea,
Over and under me
In branches, spilling
Over fences
A periwinkle carpet.
A pony pulls his farmer
And wooden cart piled deep
With hydrangeas
High as the sky.
“Sarah, look! She is Everywhere!”
The first part of this series (planned as two parts, it is now a three-part) touched upon landscape designer Walter Hood’s cursory views on Jackson’s approach to its own landscape. This second installment addresses Hood’s vision for a new NMWA sculpture garden and connective earth design.
“It is not the stuff you have. It is the stuff you no longer have. A lot of planning is too much about “what we need” v.s. “what we have.” In a reciprocal way, planning should be about the things that connect us-how to connect us. That makes us special.” – Walter Hood
Walter Hood has travelled to Jackson Hole to consult with the National Museum of Wildlife Art (NMWA). In a recent edition of NMWA’s member publication Call of the Wild, Hood described the beginnings of his collaboration with NMWA that will, ideally, result in a new museum sculpture garden.
It’s not as if Hood’s work to date has included an ongoing interest in wildlife museums, but the environment and how people use it drive his work on the project. Process and progress, inspiration ignited by how people choose to make “place.” On a certain level, he says, it’s all the same, whether one is talking about a sculpture garden or an entire community.
“The museum is interesting in that there are these cultural artifices, pieces of art, 
that are trying to represent nature,” says Hood. It’s a bit ironic that bronze elk are stationed at the base of the Museum’s driveway right across from the Elk Refuge; the installation seems an attempt to convince the public that there is a connection between NMWA and the Refuge.
“If the landscape itself was powerful enough it could move people in fantastic ways. That is what I am interested in. Standing out on NMWA’s hill, is there a way to allow a visitor to be in the Refuge? It is possible. NMWA’s architecture builds on the idea that it is “with the landscape,” and ironically that is one of the issues they are dealing with.”
Hood believes he could scale and shift existing landscape, so that art as well as the landscape is legible. “Attempt to eliminate design dichotomy, the experience of being either here, or there – either at the museum or in the landscape; either in Jackson or in the landscape.”
Check out parking lot ratios to the buildings they serve, suggests Hood. Looking at the Museum’s site, the parking lot stretches incredibly far, perhaps taking more space than the building itself. Part of the lot might be converted to trail, and a pervious surface is healthier for surrounding growth than asphalt, an oil-based material.
Rarely filled, and within a couple of miles of town, a reduced parking lot would be no problem if more mass transit options existed. “You don’t even want to know what asphalt is doing the environment; pervious surfaces would change our world drastically.”
Will NMWA pursue traditional design for its sculpture garden? Hood thinks both representational and contemporary design will be utilized.
“As a designer I have my own preferences, but when I do work I accept that scope,” he affirms. “What they are interested is figurative art with a long tradition, pre-Renaissance. But they had a show last year with Picasso and other contemporary artists rendering wildlife. Fantastic! Jane (Jane Lavino, NMWA’s Sugden Family Curator of Education) talked about the possibility of having contemporary installation in the landscape that would talk about wildlife in very different ways. I think then the project becomes broader in scope.
It is not about placing things; it is about creating more of a visitor experience where you can have permanent and temporary pieces co-interacting in the setting. Helping people make discoveries without bringing in the artificial. We have some strong ideas on how that might be achieved. It is my job to provoke. NMWA has the ability to create amazing indoor and outdoor experiences, and those are what museums are about today. It could be fabulous!”
It’s all already there. It’s only a question of how to make it visible.
The Art Association has named a new Executive Director: Jennifer Crawford. Karen Stewart, outgoing director, says Crawford has strong arts credentials, “infectious energy and ideas.” Crawford takes over in January, 2010. She replaces Stewart, who led the Art Association through 16 years of growth. She guided the Association’s transition to its current home at the Jackson Hole Center for the Arts. Stewart will retire at the end of January.
Congratulations to Jennifer Crawford, and KUDOS, KUDOS, KUDOS to Karen as she begins the next phase of her life with family, friends and great projects.
NOW….
Jackson artist Jenny Dowd is being honored at her alma mater, the University of Missouri. The university’s first Alumni Exhibition features Dowd’s sculptural aged 
forms…forms that look like teeth and books. We wrote about that, and we are proud to have collaborated with Dowd on her Blurb Book, “Collection.” Dowd and her husband Sam work for Jackson’s Art Association, and are noted for their sculptural works; Jenny is inspired by history, data and nature, while Sam creates fanciful, orbital and aerial inspired-forms, forms that would transfer very well to claymation. Jenny’s work was also featured in the Premio Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro International Competition for Young Sculptors in Milan, Italy.
Item #2: Charlotte’s Arts – Why Not Here? Connect the Dots!
Charlotte, South Carolina’s arts, that is. Charlotte’s Mayor Joseph Riley is solidly behind public arts initiatives in his city—and he’s been re-elected for NINE terms! I’m excerpting some highlights from an article on the subject, compiled by various Gazette-Virginian staff, here:
“The arts, public grounds/parks and historic preservation are “the three basic reasons, the initiators” of Charleston, S.C.’s phenomenal change, keynote speaker Mayor Joseph Riley told Art & Creative Economy Conference guests, town and county officials Wednesday.”
Oh heck. I’m crunched for time. Here’s the rest of the article, and it’s a good one. I’ve italicized major points.
“Riley described downtown Charleston as almost dead in 1977, the year the Spoleto Festival USA debuted there. “But the arts, all those people coming, and all the flowerings started” igniting the rebirth of the downtown district.
However, the seminal course change almost floundered.
Initially composer Gian Carlos Menotti started an arts festival in Spoleto, Italy in 1958, and a North American “sister city” was sought.
Charleston went courting, but some on the committee were not delighted with all 
aspects of the Italian festival – finances were described as a mess – and worried a similar event in Charleston might have a negative impact on the community and the existing arts.
Riley – backed by the committee’s 6-5 vote tabling the disbandment motion – fought for Spoletto Festival USA, “to make ourselves a stage for the arts.”
The city began raising money and cleaning up for the event.
Today, the 17-day Spoletto’s phenomenal impact on the arts and economy continues. “Spoletto began the artistic renaissance of Charleston. It’s never been so robust, but it goes so far beyond that,” he added, naming development of magnet schools for the arts at the high and middle school level.
The arts also are being used as a unifying theme to reach kids in an inner-city school.
“We are teaching everybody,” added Riley, describing the wonderful spectrum of the city.
The quality of life in Charleston also makes recruiting easier for businesses, Riley noted, with one businessman naming that asset as making it easier for him to recruit the employees he needs.
Historic Preservation
In the early 20th century, some wanted to tear down Rainbow Row, recalled Riley. “The ladies rose up, taking a stand for preservation,” he recalled.
Today, Charleston boasts the first Preservation Ordinance in America.
When the historic buildings are preserved for adaptive reuse, the structure takes on a forever aspect, according to the mayor. “You can’t create this from scratch,” he added, emphasizing the city’s historic preservation as one of the three basic reasons for its great revival and success.
Public Parks
“It is very important that there be public places,” emphasized Riley. “The more the better. The public realm is so important,” he repeated.
Vision, a hefty $750,000 private donation and creative negotiations with a property owner ultimately resulted in the city’s Waterfront Park.
“No one can imagine Charleston without Waterfront Park,” added Riley. “The community adores it. The moral imperative is that we make sure the city is an inspirational place for everyone,” he said.
The park also elevated the notion of the public realm, going to the extra effort to create beautiful places for the public, according to the mayor.
Charleston also fought for a bridge with bike and pedestrian paths, opening yet another avenue to the public, recalled the mayor.
“Great towns or cities, the size doesn’t matter, these principles are universal,” said the mayor, who speaks with almost 34 years experience as a master of transition in Charleston.
Prior to Mayor Riley’s introduction, one county businessman and civic leader observed: “I hope people can connect the dots linking the arts and the economy and ask, ‘Why not here?’”
