Public Art Conference Archive 2003

Study Session: Creating Fertile Ground: Community Design and the Creative Process
Friday, June 6, 2003 2:15–5:30

Presenters:
Kristin Calhoun, Regional Arts and Culture Council, Portland, OR
Barbara Luecke, King County Public Art Program, Seattle, WA
Sheila Levrant De Bretteville, Artist, New Haven, CT

Session Notes by Jayne Scott, BeavertonArts Commission

Kristin Calhoun’s Introduction
Kristin presented the list of questions that the panel intended to address from the perspective of an artist, an arts administrator and one who wears both hats.

• How do we allow the unexpected to happen and get beyond formula in public art?
• How do we create fertile ground for the artists to make their best work and for the community to have a role in the creative process? What is that role?
• Is there a way for a site and public art project to continue to develop? The notion of continuity is often not accommodated in public art projects.
• How does temporary work add to or change these discussions?

The tour portion of the panel was designed as three case studies of project/programs managed by Kristin, rather than a quick look at many locations.

A presenter asked the following questions of those in the room (approximately 75-100) in attendance). How many are artists? How many are art administrators? How many are working in public art programs that are over 10 years old? In the room there were approximately 10 artists. The majority in attendance were art administrators who worked in public art programs that have been in operation more than 10 years.

Barbara Luecke’s Presentation
Barbara discussed her work with the Fremont Arts Council, in SeattleWashington. She titled her portion of the talk Art + Community = Strength, the strength to define who we are, express who we are, and defend who we are by overcoming the past and shaping the present. Her shared philosophy with the Arts Council and experience making things happen in Fremontas a community activist has informed her work as a public administrator with KingCountyin Seattle.

Barbara co-founded the Fremont Solstice Parade, an artist celebration with four basic guidelines:no printed words, no motorized vehicles (except wheelchairs), no animals (except aide dogs) and no weapons. The result is an exuberant expression of the community’s collective unconscious. The event is created in a non-competitive workshop environment. People come to the Arts Council with a vision, and are given skills, space and materials to create. By working collaboratively to achieve a difficult task they discover a sense of accomplishment and frequently a sense of belonging. The audience that comes to this spectacle receives their own sense of ownership.

The energy that has resulted from the parade has enlivened a neighborhood by-passed by gentrification until recent years. Development has now begun, partially as a result of the vitality the arts activities have generated in the neighborhood. The Arts Council has become a key stakeholder in negotiating with developers coming to the neighborhood. On three occasions the Arts Councils has been able to force developers to include public artwork in their projects, and to modify their designs for less impact to the community. The concerns now are: Will artists be able to live there with the increased property values and the impacts of changes in the neighborhood’s character? Can development and an open, art atmosphere live together?

Barbara reviewed a few of the public art projects she has administered.

Gateway project: Art was used to heal negative feelings in the community left behind when 1000 families were relocated after the airport expanded. Issues: People can fear art. People can be stuck in a painful past.

Welcoming Figureart project: Art was used to recognize the Native American culture, and to get various tribes to work together to outline what they would like the project to accomplish. Collaboration and communication are important in the public art process.

Fremont Troll project: An 18 feet high troll was created under a bridge. This was a controversial project, but the neighborhood identified with it in the face of coming development. The Troll has become a rallying cry for the neighborhood.

N Fremont and N 34^th StDevelopment project: The challenge continues to be getting business, artists and community to work together. Negotiation is important. Experienced artists were linked with the developers to incorporate art into their buildings. Negotiation is needed to allow the community to help share their community space. A contentious relationship still exists between the new development and the community. Some newly developed property lays vacant because of economic downturn. The artist-designed public space created as mitigation is slowly being used because it is in the middle of the vacant out-of character buildings. Many artists can no longer afford to live in Fremont. Artists and art administrators need to use their influence to shape community spaces. The City got involved by requiring developers to incorporate art into the building design and involve the community in the process. The community feels that Fremont is a state of mind not a zip code. The parade is a celebration of that community feeling. How do you know if a public art project is a success? Ask yourself these two questions:

1. What are you going to do next year?
2. Did the project create an atmosphere where romance thrives?

Sheila Levrant de Bretteville's Presentation
Sheila described community as a much abused term. She prefers the definition that sees community as a body of individuals having common or equal rights and rank, and tries to visually give form to this polyglot democracy in her work. Sheils sees everyone wherever her work takes place as a producer of knowledge–the people on the street, in a hallway, a subway mezzanine and trains, in a high school and at a Department of labor and training. This artists's role is shaped by her profound desire for social cohesion at the same time as she works to leave gaps... contradictions and ambiguities alive...

Before focusing on similarities in the differences and the differencesin the similarities and how she accommodates this diversity within her work, Sheila addressed two issues from the morning sessions. There are times when permanence matters! When who and what is being represented has been overlooked denied and under-represented making the people voices public and known deserves more than temporary representation. And while it is true that permanent work takes time and resources and may be understood differently decades late, rolling the images and texts into materials already at or being added to the the site and leaving ... gaps between the diverse parts can make it possible for the work to resist becoming wallpaper

She posed the question, “How do we allow the unexpected to happen and get beyond formula in public art?”

Getting beyond' formula involves getting beyond what an artist is known to do. Despite her inclination toward who and what tends to be overlooked, Sheila would prefer that we not assume she will do precisely what she has done before in terms of form or content. She enters each new situation not knowing precisely what she is looking for,confident that she will know when she sees and hears it by asking questions, listening as openly as possible to the similarities in the differences and differences in the similarities of what is said, awaiting that fortuitous repetition across differences. she spends alot of time with the people at every site and researching who was there before what histories have been overlooked.

She often works in communities of people in which she could be considered 'other' by virtue of her gender, ethnicity, age or class. Her assumption, which so far appears true, is that communities need commentary or voices as distinctly different as their own as a way for various audiences to have a continuing part in the process of making meaning from the work, and for continuity and change to occur in a neighborhood.

Sheila presented just three of her projects to show the way gaps enable open endedness to exist within permanence. An ellipses . . . and any kind of space between images, between texts expresses absence, means something is missing. But at the same time it makes a kind of place out of absence, gives a concrete location to lost meanings or lapsed connections and leaves room for the viewer to add their meanings. Over time, a blank not only invites new content and meanings, it continues to express a lack without falsifying it, can make it tangible without inserting some possibly wrong story or presence in loss's place.

In her Take the A train project "At the start... At long last... " the ellipsis seems to her to have to do with a voice trailing off and, in the viewer's or reader's imagination, carrying on. In the magenta terrazzo floor pieces at the entrance/exits, and in mirror mosaics on the walls the "At long last... " phrase trails off, and so anyone who encounters it either fills it in or asks the question–"At long last... what?" In this way these permanent texts offer a host of possible temporary answers since a community changes, as practically all the quotations recognize, and since communal change results from a lot of individual actions. In that project there are three kinds of ellipses, trailing-off voices, to hear in that project, aren't there?First there are the literal ellipses in "At long last... " and "At the start... "

Then there are the voices of the neighborhood, the quotations in the squares which are printed speech, spoken language of the kind usually not preserved in writing by people almost never listened to or heard from in public.. So we imagine voices as we read them, we imagine delivery and tone and so forth - and perhaps on any given day someone listens!.

And they're elliptical too because they're each a tiny part of a much larger experience we conjure up, fill in, imaginatively augment. And then, third, there is Take the A Train, which she always hears as delivered on the _Ella Live_ CD but which has been recorded by lots of people and, I suppose, quoted by even more. So one hears that too, but hears it in the inner ear.

In the Flushing New York Library project Search: Literature the gaps are between the individual titles inscribed into the library stairs. In a community of the largest number of the newest immigrant groups in New York City, many come from places with no public library and could be intimated by this new large building, not knowing they were welcome to enter and use it. Searching for a metaphor that joined emigrants and libraries. Sheila chose,titles of stories–folk tales, epic poems, essay, oral traditions, novels and short stories –in which there is an element of searching for something you do not have at home. Instead of famous names of people on high, this project at the base of the library has thirty one titles in English and the language in which the story was originally told each with a large gap between them. Not only are these not the only stories inside the library these will not be the only groups who will finally come to live in Flushingand use the library.

In the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training [project too, there are multiple possible readings, and ellipses. The changes can be read from above and from the ground differently, and at the lazy Susan table 10,000 possible open ended sentences can be created by the three rings. the first ring is easy to move and has the beginnings of a dozen sentences such as I: If workers... If visitors... If managers... The second ring is a bit harder to move and has continuing phrases such as, would only ask... could just go shopping... and the last ring which requires two to move has a dozen more possibilities such as then I would, then we will....


Questions from the audience

Q: Sheila, what has been the response to your work?
A: It is an amazing and overwhelming experience for people to see their words and thoughts embedded in concrete, baked into ceramic tiles....

Q: Sheila, do you always use full names?
A: It is important to know who said this as these are the people not heard from....

Q: Barbara, can you compare the impact on the community of the annual event (parade) to the public art as a vehicle for the community to know themselves?
A: The parade is participatory (though the parade has developed a very large audience overtime). The event has a transformative nature. Generally people are participating in the event for themselves. Permanent public art and a temporary, participatory parade hit different buttons in people.

Q: Barbara, can you define community?
A: People with shared history.

Q: Barbara, is there any effort to keep artists in the Freemont area?
A: As a result of the revitalization and development artists can no longer afford to live there. Some artists no longer want to be there as a result of the changes in the neighborhood.

Q: Sheila, describe your artistic process?
A: I don’t come with an idea to the public art process. I need to got into the community and do research and the idea originates through that process.

Q: Sheila, do you have any trouble with people editing your work before it is embedded?
A: It is usually not a problem. At least not yet. In the subway proiject I had to have a lawyer t negotiate this for me to have only 80% of the 207 quotes have signed releases. I interviewed and quoted street people and illegal people who agreed to have me use their quotes but could not sign and so the agreement was that if anyone did not like their text up there it would be my responsibility to remove and replace the tile. I am currently working with a High School Principal who is requiring sign off on all the texts in addition to the city requiring a signed release.

After the Q&A, session participants embarked on a tour guided by Kristin Calhoun.

1st Stop: 3rd & 4th Avenue Streetscape Project, an in-process infrastructure project with the Portland Department of Transportation (PDOT)

Presenters: Bill Hoffman, PDOT project manager, James Harrison , Artist, Lloyd Lindley, Urban Designer.

Kristin introduced the project and players noting that James had been selected using the RACC Design Team roster. The roster was invited to submit a letter of interest, those artists works were review by the rest of the project team as well as two community steering committee members. James was selected.

Bill Hoffman
Bill talked about the public involvement in the planning/design process of the 34th Streetscape ( Portland , OR ) project. It is an old area of Portland with a rich history tied into the Willamette River . There are lots of communities with history in this area – shipping industry, Japanese, Chinese, Jewish, and African American. It was the original melting pot. It is an area that was struggling economically with a large number of social service agencies. Property owners were reluctant to invest in the area.

Through an intensive community visioning process, plans for the revitalization of the are were laid out. Many of the items had to do with economic revitalization and elements of social change that need to occur. One of the most tangible elements was the need for streetscape improvements. Enter PDOT. The streetscape improvements will include sidewalks, curbs and trees. The mo

re important question was: How will these improvements reflect the culture and history of the area? The answer: Bring in an artist.

Lloyd Lindley
The issues of this “Jewel Box” project: melding history and culture; technical issues; more “gates” into the area were needed; geographical relations (East-West = environmental/river, North-South = commercial).

All the elements of this project were put on a grid. The elements create parallels (culturally and historically) generating stories.

James Harrison, Artist
His role was to dream out loud. This neighborhood has meant a lot to a lot of people. He went to find, unearth the good stories. He presented many of the ideas he’s been working on. Admittedly, many of them will not be built but for this design phase of the project, idea generation was his main task. Light and the use of lanterns, has become the major element that he has brought to the project, as its use and meaning is share by many different cultures.

Questions from the Audience

Q: What is the funding for this project?
A. Tax increment districts.

Q: What was the inspiration to bring an artist on board?
A. It makes a project richer. The project had some design challenges and the project manager was struggling with tension between history and culture.

Q. What is the population of Chinatown?
A. Single occupancy, low income. There is an imbalance of high and low income housing. The hope is that the streetscape will catalyze market value housing.

Q. What is the role of the community?
A. Community was involved at every stage. Advisory committee, bi-lingual (Chinese) outreach efforts, community bulletins, website, community tea house meetings. It is significant that 20 people from the community presented this project to the City Council.

Q. For Those just starting out, how do we secure advocates (in City/County planning departments) for our public art projects?
A. Get politicos excited about the project and they will set policy that will make staff more cooperative toward public art projects.

2nd Stop: Jamison Square
Presenter: Kurt Lango, Landscape architect

This is the first of three parks in the a master plan for the new River District. San Francisco landscape architect Peter Walker created the plan and the design for this park. Portland artist Kristy Edmunds was part of his design team. Kurt was the local lead and the project manager hired by Portland Parks. The parks were developed as through an extensive community involvement process in which current and future residents helped to envision the uses and qualities that they wanted to parks to reflect. Jamison Square was designed to be an active, arts focused park and was named after a gallery owner/arts activist who died of AIDS. Each of the three parks will have three common elements. First, a boardwalk/esplanade begins at this park and will continue the length of 10th Avenue all the way to the Willamettte River . It will be an element of all three parks as well as any other development (housing/commercial) that is built along 10th. Each park will also have a series of water features and stone “aquafirs”. The pedestrian gallery in Jamison Square was designed as a fairly open pallet where temporary work could be installed and the water feature can be turned off, creating an amphitheatre.

Issues: How people use space may be different than intended. In this case, the fountain has created much more non-neighbor use than was originally intended. Also, there has been more “swimming” by both people and dogs, causing parks to have to change some of the flow design of the fountain.

When the park opened in 2002, RACC helped to celebrate it by siting two in situ PORTLAND projects there: Slips by Malia Jensenand The Humming Bee Project by Jon Hammer. Both were featured in the Year in Review. For this tour, the Humming Bee Projects did a revival installation and tourees spent some time both spinning and making Humming Bees.

The Alexander Libermann sculpture in the pedestrian gallery was a gift to the city from a neighbor, given in honor of his parents. Along the west side of the park are Tiki Totems by Kenny Scharf. They were placed by the Pearl Arts Foundation, a now defunct arts organization, founded by the main developer of the area. Who will now take ownership and maintenance responsibility for them is now an issue.

3rd Stop: A Lot
Presenters: Kristin Calhoun, Stuart Horodner, Visual Arts Curator, PICA

A Lot, an in situ PORTLAND project at Third and Taylor done as a collaboration with PICA (Portland Institute for Contemporary Art) and PDC (Portland Development Commission).

The purpose of in situ is to “place challenging temporary artworks in the public realm that will serve as a catalyst for dialogue about art and/or community issues.” Kristin explained that the program has collaborated with PICA for the last three years. She started this relationship because she saw it as a mutually beneficial way to expand the presence of artists PICA was already working with either through residencies or gallery shows.

The PDC came into discussions on the project because they own many of the vacant lots within the downtown core. They have provided the use of the lot and the signage for the projects. A Lot was a series of three projects over this past year curated by Stuart using a vacant quarter block at the corner of 3rd and Taylor. That evening, William Pope was to begin a two-day performance piece, Candy Mountain: Dancing for/on Democracy, as the third and final project. The exhibit space at PICA was holding a retrospective of wiliam’s work. The two previous projects were Golems Waiting, by Daniel Duford, an onsite firing of four large ceramic golem figures; and E-Z Maze:Right Angle by Charles Goldman, a “Permahedge” maze installed on the site for 3 months. Tour attendees were invited to return for William Performance piece and to use their conference badge to visit his retrospective at PICA.

Fore more information about most of thepublic art work seen on this tour, including project budgets and locations, read the the public art fact sheets in the public art section of the Regional Arts & Culture Council's website, www.racc.org.