May 18
Pegi ChristiansenTemporary Pubic Art
Because the public art is temporary IN:SITE not only installs art, it de-installs as well. Thanks to the weather cooperating, two IN:SITE projects were deinstalled this week. However, in both cases, the art will be reinstalled.
The 16’ high and 48’ long mural, “Plant Seeds,” that has been at 34th and Capitol Drive since June of 2011, is going to a new home. Sweet Water Organics in Bay View agreed the mural’s image and message reflect the goals of this urban fish and vegetable farm. Co-founder Jim Godsil, Vice-President Todd Leach, and Associate Creative Director Jeff Redmon helped IN:SITE artist Chris Silva remove and load the 4’ X 8’ wood mural panels and substructure on a truck Monday. The plan is that the mural will be reinstalled outside Sweet Water. In the future, Sweet Water will select other artists to create new murals. Jim called this art recycling part of the “renaissance” he sees happening in Milwaukee.
Paul Peck, IN:SITE’s Milwaukee Artist Resource Network mentee, and Erin Dorbin, from Safe & Sound, came to 39th and North Avenue Wednesday assisted Eriks Johnson paint over part of his wraparound mural “Road Closed-Path Open.” Eriks originally painted it in the fall of 2008, when this section of North Avenue was torn up for repaving. IN:SITE rarely keeps up art for more than a year, but the property owner and neighborhood leaders asked for it to remain. Almost five years later, the paint was starting to peel. The property owner met with Eriks and they agreed that Eriks would repaint the North Avenue side of the mural. This will happen in a couple of weeks. Eriks said, “I’ve always wanted to do public art. IN:SITE gave me a paid opportunity to do this.” IN:SITE’s involvement is over, but is thrilled that Eriks will continue to enhance this corner. I’ll post when Eriks is finished.
Apr 16
Pegi ChristiansenTemporary Pubic Art
On March 31st I emailed the letter I posted to this blog to Lamar Outdoor and Clear Channel Outdoor. I am delighted to report that a digital billboard art initiative will become a reality in October of 2013.
Lamar immediately agreed to the Digital Billboard Art Day concept. I met with two representatives from Clear Channel Outdoor (CCO) on April 11th. They are committed as well and suggested a broader concept. They would like to see the art on multiple billboards for multiple days, in rotation with ads.
Three elements are now in play:
1) I will be communicating with Lamar, CCO, and perhaps some other independent billboard owners (like the Hunger Task Force) to develop an approach that will work for everyone.
2) At the same time, I have been putting together a national advisory team to review the guidelines that will need to be developed about the images. My goal is to have all the guidelines (including technical aspects) in place by the late summer or early fall. In this way, Milwaukee area colleges with art programs can be alerted and there could be a meeting with interested instructors and a creative director from CCO. This meeting would be dedicated to going over the project so there can be class assignments ready for the winter/spring 2013 semester. In addition, this is a project that can be duplicated elsewhere, so I want to make sure the guidelines are constructed carefully.
Right now the team includes:
Lisa Berman, chair, Milwaukee County Percent for Art Committee
Anne Bray, executive director, LA Freewaves
Nancy Heller, former Executive Director, Westport Arts Center
David Morrison, Project Manager, Billboard Art Project out of Richmond, VA
Melissa Musante, Executive Director, Milwaukee Artist Resource Network (MARN)
Karin Wolf, Friends of Blue Dress Park
Janet Zweig, artist with an extensive list of public art projects that have included both digital and temporary elements
3) I will be presenting the project to the Milwaukee Arts Board subcommittee on public art in May. In April I will get input from the state tourism department.
If you have suggestions or advice, please comment…
Apr 01
Pegi ChristiansenTemporary Pubic Art
Check out a new installation by Sonja Thomsen and Adam Carr!
The City of Milwaukee, through the Neighborhood Improvement Development Corporation (NIDC), established an outside gallery across from the Dominican Center for Women, 2470 W. Locust. This is the third iteration of art at this location, with NIDC providing funding.
It is a stunning set of photographic images attached to the easels and planters as well as to the doors and windows of a vacant house to the east of the gallery space. The photographs were taken inside houses in the area, and there is some text as well.
Sonia and Adam have a superior blog documenting the project, including audio pieces: http://heremothersare.wordpress.com/
You can’t simply drive by. The scale of the images and the way they are mounted demands that you take time to get close.
Congratulations to Adam and Sonia, as well as to NIDC and the Dominican Center for Women for their support of this project.
Mar 30
Pegi ChristiansenImportant Spaces, Temporary Pubic Art
Below is the basic email I sent to Clear Channel Outdoor and Lamar this morning, the two companies with the most digital billboards in the Milwaukee area, to advance the idea I posted about a month ago.
I’m delighted that the Hunger Task Force might make its space available. I appreciate the signers for their support of Digital Billboard Art Day.
I am eager for input/suggestions!
Below is a letter that explains the details about Digital Billboard Art Day. It is signed by 21 heavy hitters in the art community, including people from local art organizations, art schools, and museum/galleries, to Wisconsin’s only full-time art administrator, to national powerhouse Anne Bray from Los Angeles. I did not reach out to individuals, in which case I could have accumulated dozens of signers. The signers indicate the depth and breadth of support for the concept. In addition, Digital Billboard Art Day has the endorsement of Milwaukee Alderman Nik Kovac, a member of the Milwaukee Arts Board.
Art on digital billboards is a growing trend. The Billboard Art Project in Richmond, Virginia has sponsored art on digital billboards since 2010. The project has spread across the country, including Chicago last year and Detroit, Michigan this year. Project Manager David Morrison told me, “The unexpected experience of art on a billboard recontextualizes the commonplace, providing beauty and provoking thought.”
The Hunger Task Force is exploring making their digital billboard at I-94 and Hawley Road available for the project.
Sincerely,
Pegi Christiansen
The undersigned support having an annual Digital Billboard Art Day in the City of Milwaukee. One day a year, at least one company digital billboard in the City of Milwaukee would be used solely for art images. The day would be during the month of October, in coordination with National Arts and Humanities Month.
PROCESS
During 2012, an art administrator (perhaps Pegi Christiansen) would be in contact with the company to agree on general guidelines for the project, including–
–how to ensure the images would comply with highway safety recommendations.
–a content code, to address limitations about nudity, political imagery, and text.
–that the images could not contain information except for the name or logo of the institution supplying the image or the name of the artist. (For example, there could not be a message with information about an upcoming show for an art museum or the website of an artist or organization.)
–the size and location of the logo or name.
–the institutions and artists who could submit images and a general formula for the final list. (For example, 30% for art museums and organizations, 30% for colleges, and 40% for individual artists.)
–when the images would be due to the art administrator and the company.
–who would review the Call for Images (CFI) and the level of involvement by the company.
In January of 2013, the art administrator would contact the company to determine which digital billboard(s) it would set aside, the date for the Digital Billboard Art Day, how many art images would rotate, and any specific requirements for the emailed images.
In March or April (starting in 2013), the administrator would send out a CFI to a list compiled by the Milwaukee Arts Board, the Milwaukee Artist Resource Network, and/or the Milwaukee County Public Art Committee. It would be updated annually. Area art museums, art organizations, colleges with art programs, and individual artists living in Milwaukee County could submit images. The list would not include the names of individual artists, but where to send the CFI to solicit responses from individual artists.
The art administrator would receive the images and prepare them for review.
The company would provide the space for free, but the organization or artist would need to pay for any costs to prepare an image for display on the digital billboard.
BENEFITS FOR DIGITAL BILLBOARD COMPANIES
–The images would make viewers more aware of signage.
–This program could generate national media interest.
–The program could generate local interest with media reporting on the winners.
–More information about the images could be mounted on the company website, which would attract people to it and could lead to added business.
BENEFITS FOR PARTICIPATING INSTITUTIONS AND ARTISTS
–Full information about the images could be posted on the organization or artist’s website. This would generate interest in the organizations and artists.
–Per above, it might lead to media attention.
BENEFITS FOR THE COMMUNITY
–Exposure to the rich visual arts in the community.
Signed,
Lisa Berman, chair, Milwaukee County Percent for Art Committee
Anne Bray, executive director, LA Freewaves
Christine Buth-Furness, Vice President of Wisconsin Visual Artists (WVA) and Chair of the Southeast Chapter
Pegi Christiansen, chair and site manager, IN:SITE
Sara Daleiden, cultural exchange director, MKE<->LAX
Paul Druecke, Creative Liaison, Friends of Blue Dress Park
Lee Ann Garrison, Executive Director, Design Research Institute, Peck School of the Arts, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Gary John Gresl, Past President of Wisconsin Visual Artists, Founder and Former Co-Chair of the Wisconsin Visual Art Lifetime Achievement Awards
Christine Harris, CEO, Christine Harris Connections
Bruce Knackert, Associate Director, Institute of Visual Arts (Inova), Peck School of the Arts, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Mark Lawson, Director of Galleries, Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design
Wally Mason, Director, Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University
Melissa Musante, Executive Director, Milwaukee Artist Resource Network (MARN)
Claire Odishoo, Director of the Northwestern Mutual Art Gallery at Cardinal Stritch University; Co-President of the Milwaukee Art Dealers Association (MADA)
Anna-Marie Opgenorth, Executive Director, Historic Milwaukee, Inc.
Jenny Plevin, Program Director, doc|UWM, University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee
David Ravel, Director, Alverno Presents, Alverno College
Jessica Z Schafer, Communications Co-Chair, Coalition of Photographic Arts (CoPA)
Christine Style, President, Wisconsin Visual Artists (WVA)
Gary R. Tuma, Executive Director, Walker’s Point Center for the Arts
Karin Wolf, Friends of Blue Dress Park
Feb 27
Pegi ChristiansenPublic Art
In January, I posted “Follow the Money” that included information about the Bay View Art Stop Design Competition. The three finalists’ projects will be on view Thursday, April 12th, 6:00 p.m., at Bay View High School, 2751 S. Lenox Avenue.
If you want to read about the three proposals, the Bay View Compass featured this story by Michael Timm in the February issue: http://bayviewcompass.com/archives/10073
Although I want to withhold judgment until after the meeting, I have a number of concerns:
1) Bay View is one of Milwaukee’s most involved communities. The committee did not have enough citizen involvement. Paul (he did not include his last name) commented on the Bay View Compass website:
This is a great project, sadly infected with the same old, tired, political paternalism that continually poisons our neighborhood. Already, the hand-selected group of players has limited the field of projects without meaningful participation from the people who use this bus stop, [or] the citizens of the 14th [District].
He insists that there should have been representation from Bay View High School, the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, neighbors from all district demographics, and practicing Milwaukee artists.
2) As Paul notes above, how well do the proposals function? Ease of access and being able to see the buses are crucial.
3) How are these projects particular to the site? I will carefully listen to the artists as they explain their process and how the art is responsive to the location.
4) Will these projects withstand the test of time? How are they going to look in ten years? Here I do have an agenda. I believe that there could have been a bus structure developed that could have allowed for temporary activation for decades through an endowment. I worry that all of the finalist projects will look very tired ten years down the road.
5) As far as I understand it, funding has not been finalized. It is vexing that $50,000 is coming from a fund that was initially part of a 1% for Art project for the Milwaukee County Courthouse. That $50,000 should be returned to the deferred maintenance projects County Executive Chris Abele intended, including bridge work at Grant Park.
See you at Bay View High School April 12th!
Feb 06
Pegi ChristiansenTemporary Pubic Art
I have nothing against Les Paul or his Gibson guitars, and it is wonderful that the Gibson Foundation has selected Waukesha as a GuitarTown. After all, Les Paul was born in Waukesha and is buried at Prairie Home Cemetery in Waukesha. A gravesite granite memorial was dedicated last September. I want to go see it.
And it doesn’t even bug me that there are going to be ten, ten-foot tall guitars painted by local and regional artists that will be installed, perhaps permanently, in downtown Waukesha. They will be unveiled on June first, a week before Les Paul’s birthday, with Gibson Guitar officials and other notables on hand. Maybe I’ll check it out.
JUST DON’T CALL THIS A PUBLIC ART PROJECT! This is a branding project.
In a January 24th “Waukesha NOW” story, under the subheading “Building a brand,” Norm Bruce, spokesperson for the Waukesha Gibson GuitarTown Committee, says people will think, “Hey we’re the birth- and resting-place of Les Paul and we need to have that as our brand and we have to help push the Les Paul Museum.” Fine.
Having multiple artists enhance some common object and placing the enhanced objects at multiple locations for a limited period of time is not temporary public art. Not Cows on Parade in Chicago (1999) and not the Dennis Pearson Beasties in Milwaukee (2002 and 2004). Temporary public art is mounted to reveal the particular qualities of a distinct place. Those guitars have nothing to do with the suggested sites, like Lare’s Fashions or the Waukesha State Bank.
Jan 20
Pegi ChristiansenImportant Spaces, Temporary Pubic Art
In 2008, the Milwaukee Common Council approved digital billboards. What did you think when you first saw them? I was shocked. Despite the police being able to use them for Amber Alerts, I was upset by the increase in advertising I would be exposed to every month and found the eight-second ad rotation distracting. I was sure there would be a hue and cry. Uh-uh. Not even a whimper. After a month of griping, I let it go.
In 2010, I was having a discussion with Alderman Willie Wade about trying to access using vinyl Clear Channel billboards in the Century City area for art. Alderman Wade got on the phone right away and called Clear Channel. He said, “You know, there is a sunset clause for those digital billboards, and you are supposed to be providing public service as part of this deal.” Clear Channel called me the next day. Clear Channel gave IN:SITE a discount for two billboards, plus made yards and yards of recycled vinyl available that kept materials costs down. I don’t know what some of the artists would have done without that free vinyl in 2010 and 2011.
But I remembered what Alderman Wade said about a sunset clause and recently started to ask around about the date. It’s March 31st. Mark Rausch, Clear Channel Outdoor Wisconsin and Northern Illinois Vice President for Real Estate and Public Affairs, just informed me the sunset clause has been extended on an annual basis since March of 2010. Plus there is no public service requirement for digital billboards, only for bus shelters.
Along with those Amber Alerts, there are a number of things Alderman Wade likes about LED billboards:
–They are greener. There isn’t as much vinyl to recycle.
–They tend to be more attractive. There aren’t any worn, washed-out images.
–There can be lots of public service announcements. Rausch calculated that Clear Channel donates more that a million dollars of donated or discounted space to non-profits in Southeastern Wisconsin every year.
Alderman Wade, along with a number of other alderpersons, especially Alderman Michael Murphy and Robert Bauman, were careful to establish where digital billboards can be installed. They didn’t want them flashing in people’s windows in residential neighborhoods.
Robert Bryson, Chief Traffic and Lighting Engineer, is the City of Milwaukee’s LED billboards expert. He is currently at an annual meeting where he hopes to get an update about whether they lead to increased traffic accidents. Unless they do, digital billboards are probably here to stay. Since they are so profitable, there will likely be more of them in the future.
With this is mind I have three propositions:
1. I believe there should be a countywide discussion about digital billboards. Although Milwaukee County does not have any power over zoning (cities and villages do), it does not seem municipalities within the county have communicated broadly about digital billboards.
2. They may not cause accidents, but the eight-second rotation is too fast. The cycle should be slower.
3. What about having art images, with no advertising or message content, as part of the mix? It would be a visual palette-cleanser and provide an opportunity for more exposure to visual art. Rausch, in a phone conversation today, said he was open to this idea if non-profit art organizations wanted to pursue it.
If some momentum emerges to advance this idea, I will post specifics about digital art billboards.
Jan 17
Pegi ChristiansenPublic Art
Following the money backing a public art project for Bay View explains a lot about current city and county government funding for public art. In October the Bay View Art Stop Design Competition Committee sent out a Request for Proposals for the highly visible triangle at the intersection of Howell, Kinnickinnic, and Lincoln, right across from what will be by fall the Alterra Bay View Café and Bakery. The RFP stipulates the public art piece “must integrate a sheltered area for Milwaukee County Transit users.” The submissions were due January 6th.
The funding for the project in the RFP is listed as “up to” $150,000. So where is this money coming from?
$15,000 is coming from the Milwaukee Arts Board. $25,000 is currently designated in the City of Milwaukee budget annually for public art. It is all that remains of a flimsy, unmandated up to 1% for Art program established during the tenure of Mayor John Norquist. The MAB has a subcommittee, chaired by Polly Morris, that brings forward funding requests to the full board.
The subcommittee has focused on three initiatives. The first is a conservation fund to preserve public art. The second documents Milwaukee public art for the online Wikipedia Saves Public Art Milwaukee. The third provides matching funds for public art projects. In 2011, it helped support a public art project inside the new Villard Avenue Library. The subcommittee’s initiatives stretch the budget to accomplish valuable goals.
$50,000 is coming from Milwaukee County. How is this possible? County Executive Chris Abele in June stripped over $700,000 from the Milwaukee County Public Art Committee’s 1% for Art program. (I resigned from the MCPAC in August, though I was not opposed to Abele’s action.) The money was supposed to be redirected entirely to deferred maintenance projects. However, County Supervisor Marina Dimitrijevic proposed having $50,000 diverted to the Bay View “artistic bus shelter.” Abele vetoed the expenditure, but the board voted to override.
At a MCPAC meeting on Friday, the committee was chagrinned. County Director of Legislative Affairs Tia Torhorst urged the committee to take a sabbatical until fall, when Abele could consider reinstating funding for the mandated 1% for Art program, perhaps in 2014. County Supervisor Gerry Broderick pushed to fold the committee. “Otherwise, we are beating a dead horse,” he said. Broderick, who considers further work on the committee a “fruitless effort,” will tender his resignation. Chair Lisa Berman complained about the county public art program reduced to, “Random public art, not coordinated, with money flowing in dribs and drabs to little pieces here and there.”
Under its current guidelines, the MCPAC had no ability to develop flexible programming. The committee decided not to push for new guidelines while Scott Walker was Milwaukee County Executive, because the MCPAC feared Walker would disband the committee altogether. The MCPAC will meet in May to consider its future.
On Friday, the Bay View Art Stop Design Competition Committee, chaired by BYO Studio Lounge co-owner Kerry Yandell with Alderman Tony Zielinski as the other contact member of the committee, reviewed the fifteen submissions. The other members of the selection committee are Supervisor Dimitrijevic, Eric Ponto (Bay View resident), Jason Wedesky (President of the Kinnickinnic Avenue Business Improvement District), Brian Dranzik (Milwaukee County Transit System), Mike Loughran (Department of Public Works), Tom Mallmann, Amy Heart (Milwaukee Shines solar program manager), and Laura Ashleigh King (Milwaukee Arts Board).
Chair Yandell emailed, “The committee has identified up to $80,000 in funding for the project (public and private), and we are in the process of identifying and applying for additional funding to reach $150,000.” Yandell suggests the committee might be able to amass more than $150,000. This is somewhat unusual. Typically an RFP is not distributed until full funding is in place, though sometimes the selected project, where donors can see what their contribution will buy, is used to help raise money. So far taxpayers are paying at least $65,000 of the budget.
In February, there will be presentations to the public by the three finalists. As soon as I know the date, time, and place, I will post this information. Public art is public, and I urge you to attend.
Jan 11
Pegi ChristiansenPerformance Art
Friday night Theresa Columbus performed to a packed crowd of at least 75 people in the 631 E. Center 2A space. It was a first in three ways. This was the first in what is hoped to be many performance art events in the studio shared by Sarah Luther, Sara Caron, Allison Heape, Marisa Wall, and me. Theresa, in all her years at Darling Hall, never performed a night of only her work. She presented her video, “Nostalgia for Everything,” about visiting family in Crete for the first time.
The performance was Theresa in all her exuberant, vibrant, smart glory! The night before, Theresa told me the purpose of the show “is to show the potency and potential of having and enjoying your own voice.” And she did.
In the “Nostalgia” video, Theresa creates an artist statement that is a piece of art, contrasting the natural setting and intuitive movement of the camera with the frustrating task of explaining one’s art. In it she says, “Making art is really difficult because you never know when you have organized your brain enough to sense what is important for you to say. You can always decide that you haven’t worked hard enough.”
“Don’t Be Mad at Me and Other Fears” is a monolog about when Theresa was raped. It was both intensely discomforting and funny. Part of the discomfort is the humor. Is it okay to laugh? She keeps circling around to her uneasiness to talk about the rape. She is worried what she says will be used against her.
Theresa repeats “touché,” “come on,” and “I’ll be here all week” over and over in different contexts. The three all have multiple connotations that build tension. Touché means making a witty point and also refers to being “touched” when you are hit in fencing. “Come on” is any sort of allure or inducement, but also a sexual advance. Theresa has on layers of clothes and takes off one and starts to unbutton another. After the performance, Theresa emailed me, “Instead of becoming more powerful and sexy by removing clothes, I become more awkward.”
“I’ll be here all week,” Theresa explains to the audience, is what comedians say after a joke. Theresa uses this phrase to maintain, “I’m an artist and I’m continuing to make art even though messed up things do happen.” Theresa does not disclose much about the rape in the piece because it didn’t become a major factor in her life.
Theresa also repeatedly informs the audience she will sing a song about rape, but fills the piece with commentary about rape and anecdotes about other pieces she has done. The audience joins her singing the refrain, “Don’t be Mad at Me,” and Theresa late in the piece sings a song describing the day she was raped.
It happened when she was enthralled with the beauty of the world. She met a man who seemed to understand and share her rapture, and she ended up going to his apartment.
During the rape, she thought about losing her writing in her macramé bag on the floor. Afterwards, she grabbed it and ran out. She saved her voice. She didn’t let the rape define her. She defines and defies it.
The third piece, “Mega Joy,” is a video about different types of performances interacting with video. She edited together bits and pieces from past performances in Milwaukee and Baltimore (where Theresa currently lives) to illustrate how you can record performing for friends, perform alone for a camera, use the video camera as a prop, document theater pieces, or film a play.
Since many people in the audience were also in “Mega Joy,” the evening was nostalgic in a way that left me, and others I spoke with, itching to make art. First, though, many people stayed to dance for a couple of hours. I woke up the next morning knowing exactly how I will develop my next performance art piece, something that had stumped me for weeks.
Jan 08
Pegi ChristiansenPublic Art, Temporary Pubic Art
August 18th last year, I posted about Janet Zweig’s public art project, “Pedestrian Drama,” on the first block of East Wisconsin Avenue. At the time I went to see it, one of the five kiosks with three flap sign stories wasn’t in place. The kiosk needed repairs. It was returned from Italy and installed this past week.
It is a testament to the care of the entire “Pedestrian Drama” process that this additional kiosk adds so much to the entire balance of the piece. The whole is much greater than the sum of the parts.
In this returned kiosk, the one farthest east, the first story starts with two girls turning jump ropes double Dutch. It ends with a boy coming in, missing, and then running into the middle story. He jumps onto a couch a woman is trying to lift. The boy departs, in walks a man to help her, but he gets distracted and leaves to enter the third story. A woman, holding a map, needs directions. The man points her one way. She meets up with another man who points her right back to where she was.
The kiosk is a study in frustrations: lacking a skill, seeking rest, looking for help, trying to keep focus, losing one’s way, and receiving incorrect information. No huge frustrations, but they are the type of irritations that can sap our good will or waylay our attempts to complete a task. This may be my favorite kiosk now, and it speaks to the entire process of “Pedestrian Dramas.”
Zweig did so much research for these dramas and spent so much time working with a team to create them. A new five-times-three series will be filmed, edited, and mounted inside the kiosks this year. I can well imagine the many frustrations Zweig has already encountered, including fine-tuning the mechanics of the kiosks. I wish her all the best surmounting frustrations for the next set of “Pedestrian Dramas.”
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