Public Art Conference Archive—2004

Concurrent Sessions: Keeping Up Appearances: Protecting the World's Public Art

Panelists:

• Laura S. Griffith, Assistant Director, Fairmount Park Art Association, Philadelphia, PA
• Susan Nichols, Lunder Education Chair, Smithsonian American Museum of Art, Washington, DC
• Mark Weber, Technical Director, World Monument Fund, New York, NY
• Dennis Montagna, Program Director, Monument Research and Preservation, Philadelphia, PA

The following are presentation note submitted by the presenters.

Laura S. Griffith
Greetings and welcome. Thank you Mary for the terrific introduction, and to the Public Art Network, and the Americans for the Arts for the opportunity to put this panel together. The topic is timely for anyone interested in cultural property stewardship issues as we bear witness to the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afganistan, closure of the Statue of Liberty for fire and security purposes, and the installation of barriers and security checkpoints around many of our national monuments. We have a fabulous panel who will give separate presentations, followed by a panel discussion, which will also be open for questions from the audience.

Our first speaker is Mark Weber, former director of the Technical Services Center for the New York Landmarks Conservancy, and currently Technical Director of the World Monuments Fund. The Fund is an international preservation organization founded in 1965 to address the destruction of artistic and architectural treasures around the world. In 1996 the Fund established the World Monuments Watch program to attract attention and funding to imminently endangered cultural sites. With the Getty Conservation Institute they recently formed the Iraq Cultural Heritage Conservation Initiative to restore damaged sites, train Iraqi conservation professionals, and help protect against further threats. A professional conservator, Mr. Weber oversees more than 150 conservation projects in over 50 countries and will set our discussion in a global context. The Fund’s beautiful 2001 publication Vanishing Histories wisely cautions: “Intolerance, war, and politics can be as much the enemies of humanity’s inheritance as natural disasters and the passage of time. Nothing is sacred and we must be eternally vigilant.”

Our second presenter is Susan Nichols, currently the Lunder Education Chair at the Smithsonian National Art Museum in Washington, D.C. and co-chair of this conference. Many of you know Susan as the founder and esteemed former director of the Save Outdoor Sculpture! (SOS!) program, which is now part of Heritage Preservation. While at SOS!, Susan was responsible for overseeing a 2003 survey for the NEA of their art-in-public-places commissions (1967-1992). The conclusions are alarming: almost half of the NEA commissions created during that time period now require conservation treatment, and 11% have been destroyed following years of deferred maintenance. Susan will give us the details of this illuminating study that serves as an indicator of the general state of contemporary outdoor sculpture in the United States.

The last speaker is Dr. Dennis Montagna, former chair of the American Institute for Conservation’s Architecture Specialty Group, who now directs the National Park Service’s Monument Research and Preservation program. This program provides comprehensive assistance in the interpretation and care of historic cemeteries, outdoor sculptures, and monuments to the Park Service and general public. As custodian of our best-known monuments, the Park Service plays a major role in protecting these landmarks for the enjoyment of everyone. Dennis will tell us about the treatment protocol and training projects he established for over 400 monuments at the Gettysburg National Military Park, which functions as a laboratory of outdoor sculpture conservation methods and treatments. He will also tell us about the Park Service’s involvement in new commissions, including the Shanksville PA Flight 93, African Burial Ground, and World War II memorials—and their ultimate long-term care responsibilities.

Before Mark begins, I’d like to briefly tell you about some of the Fairmount Park Art Association’s public art protection efforts through a mini case study of our conservation maintenance program.

SLIDE 1—Casita, I have a story to tell you…
The Art Association is a private non-profit, founded in 1872 as the nation’s first public art organization dedicated to the integration of art and urban planning. We work to promote the appreciation of public art through advocacy efforts and programs that commission, interpret, and preserve public art in Philadelphia. The Art Association is deeply committed to the conservation of public art, and works closely with many agencies, organizations, and conservation professionals to this end. For new works we partner artists with a professional conservator to help solve conservation concerns in advance. In addition to commissioning new works—this is Pepón Osorio’s recent glass casita from I have a story to tell you at Congreso de Latinos Unidos, part of our New•Land•Marks project—since 1982 we have conducted an annual ongoing outdoor sculpture conservation maintenance program, which now includes 30 mostly bronze works around Philadelphia, initially chosen as the city’s most artistic and historically significant sculptures.

SLIDE 2 & 3—All Wars “before” and “after”
Here are “before” and “after” treatment images of the bronze All Wars Memorial to Colored Soldiers and Sailors (1934) by J. Otto Schweitzer.

SLIDE 4—Pavilion with Conservation
There are also wooden works in the program—here is Martin Puryear’s Pavilion in the Trees undergoing maintenance—as well as a few weathering steel, granite, and marble sculptures. To our knowledge, the Art Association’s annual conservation maintenance program is the longest continuously operating program of its kind in the country. Maintenance involves inspection, removal of surface grime and graffiti, washing with non-ionic water and a mild detergent, and for the bronzes, the application and renewal of a protective wax coating applied with heat, that is then buffed to bring out the highlights. This method was designed to protect the sculptures against further deterioration, improve their aesthetic appearance, be cost-effective for a large group of sculptures, and be continually undertaken by a skilled technician with oversight by a conservator.

SLIDE 5—Tom Chase in Action
In 1999 we invited senior conservator Thomas Chase to undertake an independent assessment of the conservation program and make recommendations for its future direction. He inspected the sculptures, conducted interviews, observed the program in action, and performed tests. Mr. Chase confirmed that the hot wax process followed by annual maintenance indeed arrested deterioration and was completely reversible. He recommended that we continue the program with periodic removal of the layers of wax on the bronzes, which become opaque over time due to entrapped dirt.

SLIDE 6—Wax Removal Cowboy
Here you see Frederic Remington’s Cowboy being hot pressure washed to remove many years of wax build-up. So far we have undertaken wax removal on four sculptures--it is a long-term plan that is accomplished as resources allow.

SLIDE 7—Lipchitz Spirit of Enterprise at Night
With the sculptures looking their best, we were then able last fall to illuminate 13 works along Kelly Drive to give them a second life at night through a joint project with the City’s Department of Streets and the Fairmount Park Commission, and several more are scheduled for completion this summer along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway through a collaboration with the Center City District Corporation.

It has been the Art Association’s experience that continuous conservation maintenance contributes greatly to the protection, aesthetic appearance, and longevity of public art. Yet interestingly, according to the November 2003 PAN statistical report on public art programs nationwide during fiscal year 2001, while 49% of this country’s public art projects are new commissions of permanent works, only 8% of these are conservation projects. This seems to be an extraordinarily disproportionate practice that merits examination. If we continue to put new works of public art into the public realm, we must also take appropriate measures for the long-term protection and survival of these artworks that will become part of the world’s cultural heritage. On that note, Mark Weber will now tell us what the World Monument Fund is doing to help save some of the world’s great architectural and artistic treasures.

Susan Nichols
I’d like to welcome you to APP Anonymous. We use only first names. Ours is a guilt-free policy. If your NEA-sponsored sculpture is shown here in need of maintenance or conservation…there is no shame or blame at APP Anonymous. You are among friends who understand your budgetary constraints. We’re here to discuss care of our national collection of contemporary sculpture…not to point fingers. That aside, let’s have hands for those who have in your collections permanent outdoor sculptures created with support from NEA-APP?

SLIDE: La Grande Vitesse, Alexander Calder, Grand Rapids, MI, painted steel, 1969

Firsts are important…first step, first kiss, first etc. For the National Endowment for the Arts, Art in Public Places program, this Calder stabile was the first!

It is of course the La Grand Vitesse or "the great swiftness" or "The Grand Rapids." The sculpture has become the logo for the City of Grand Rapids. Its image appears on the city's letterhead, garbage trucks, and street signs.

Through its Art in Public Places program, NEA provided $45,000, roughly 1/3 of the total cost to the City. La Grand Vitesse was dedicated in 1969. This was the first to benefit from NEA-APP.

NEA’s, Art in Public Places Program operated for 25 years, 1967-1992.

My talk concerns a search for those 460 artworks funded by that program.

I’ve dubbed my talk: Cold Case: NEA-APP.

SLIDE: Untitled, Avital Oz, New Haven, CT, 1971

In 2000, nearly a decade after the APP program closed, SOS! proposed to track down each of those public art projects. Our task? Obtain the location, current condition, current image, and background information for each permanent outdoor sculpture created with support of the NEA, APP program.

SLIDE: Turning the Feather Around, George Morrison, Minneapolis, MN, 1973

At the onset of our project in October 2001, SOS! staff pored through dusty grant files at NEA. We talked with former NEA staff. We identified 460 projects in 44 states plus the District of Columbia. Nearly 300 artists participated in the program’s 25 year history. There were more than 250 grant recipients, ranging in sophistication from county agencies and museums, to neighborhood improvement groups and community organizations.

SLIDE: Quinnipiac, Robert Murray, Amherst, MA, 1975

First, what is the universe to investigate. Next, physically, where were the artworks? Third, which ones met the chief criterion: permanent outdoor sculpture? Fourth, contact the owners to participate. Fifth, contact the owners to participate. Sixth, contact….

SLIDE: Falling Meteor, Jerry Pearl, University Park, IL, 1975

Addresses were dodgy at best. Phone numbers were out of date. The projects pre-existed email. We did a mailing with, as expected, a poor response rate. That set us up for lots of creative sleuthing—locate an owner on line, check with other agencies in the area for a lead on the grantee, call a mayor’s office, beg a colleague to drive around looking for an artwork.

We scoured Who’s Who, NEA Fellows database, and switchboard.com. We located 147 artists’ current addresses. We announced our project in print, on line, at conferences.

SLIDE: The 4^th Sign, Tony Smith, 1976

Just as with Cold Case, our search led to results:

• 19% of NEA grants were indoor, temporary or never executed
• 11% had been destroyed.
• 330 were deemed permanent outdoor sculptures and so included in our on-site inventory.
• Of those, 30% had already been reported on by SOS! volunteers.
• 10 artists completed surveys of their artworks.

SLIDE: Playscapes, Isamu Noguchi, Atlanta, GA, 1976

A playground built as part of the "Art in the Park" program. The sculpture was commissioned by the High Museum of Art as the museum's bicentennial gift to Atlanta.

SLIDE: Summer Night Tree, Louise Nevelson, Jackson, MI, 1978

SLIDE: Minneapolis Project, Jackie Ferrara, Minneapolis, MN, wood, 1978
SLIDE: Baltimore Quarters and Halves, Allen Bertoldi, Dundalk, MD, 1980
SLIDE: The Awakening, J. Seward Johnson, Washington, DC, 1981
SLIDE: Sentinel, Martin Puryear, Gettysburg College, PA, concrete and field stone, 1982 (2 slides)

Deterioration reported on 2001 survey

SLIDE: Marker for Deeds Point, Niki Logis, Dayton, OH, 1982

This sculpture was commissioned by the City Beautiful Council.

SLIDE: Dark Star Park, Nancy Holt, Arlington, VA, Mixed media, including gunite, earth, sod, plantings, stone dust and masonry, asphalt and steel, 1984

• Just across the Potomac River in Arlington is this APP project.
• The shadows cast by the spheres and poles line up with the shadow patterns on the ground at 9:32 A.M. each August 1^st. That is the day in 1860 that William Henry Ross acquired the land that became Rosslyn in Arlington.
• With the artist’s help, Arlington County completely refurbished this a couple of years ago.

SLIDE: West Sixth Streetscape, Buster Simpson, Cleveland, OH, 1986

These sculptures were commissioned as part of plan to renovate and revitalize Cleveland's Historic Warehouse District. Buster Simpson was selected from over 300 applicants in a national competition.

SLIDE: Fingerspan Bridge, Jody Pinto, Philadelphia, PA, Cor-Ten, 1987
SLIDE: The Big Wave, Tony DeLap, Santa Monica, CA, painted steel, recessed fiber optics, 1983-90
SLIDE: Flood Memorial Park, Andrew Leicester, Dayton, OH, earthwork, ceramic, stone, painted wrought iron, 1992

The work commemorates the 1913 Dayton flood, which killed 300 and caused $100 million in property damage. The park is a terraced two-acre landscaped site and six sculptural elements that are connected by pathways.

SLIDE: Los Lagartos, Luis Jimenez, El Paso, TX, fiberglas and blue tile

Assessment awards provided 67 sculptures with professional condition assessments.

SLIDE: BirdGarden, Sonja Ishii/Jim Hirschfield, Duke Medical Ctr., Durham, NC, ceramic, steel, paint, light, 1995

Windows to the West, Louise Nevelson, Scottsdale, AZ, Cor-Ten, 1973

Six NEA-APP sculptures were conserved through the SOS! Conservation Treatment Award program. Another six were conserved independently by the owners. Regular maintenance is a must.

SLIDE: Big Red, Bruce Beasley, Eugene, OR, painted steel, 1974,

The sculpture was made during the Oregon International Sculpture Symposium held in June 1974. The idea for the symposium was to give people an opportunity to observe the creation of a major artwork, how it was constructed and what the artist meant to convey with it.

Summary:

• SOS! accounted for 91% of all NEA-APP public art projects. (The high participation rate allows SOS! to extrapolate regarding the state of our national contemporary sculpture collection.)
• 1/3 were judged well-maintained.
• Nearly ½ were deemed in need of preservation.
• These conditions were very similar to the conditions for all outdoor sculpture as reported by the SOS! volunteers and confirmed by formal evaluation.
• The NEA-APP collection has been surveyed.
• Permanent outdoor sculptures have been fully inventoried.
• Phase I of a 3-phase program is completed.
• Phase I—document—results show the alarming state of our NEA-APP artworks.
• Phase II—raise awareness and appreciation.
  • Sessions like this one bring the findings to the owners and caretakers.
  • Preservation plans with professional assessments can be drawn.
  • Information about the “state of this art” can be shared with artists, fabricators, you and other owners. That can reinforce the importance of prudent choices of materials and siting, need for ongoing maintenance and conservation when necessary—and interpretation.
• Phase III—preserve significant part of America’s collection of contemporary outdoor sculpture.
  • On average, $15000 is the cost of preservation.
  • To preserve all in need exceeds $1 million.
  • Heritage Preservation and SOS! are seeking funding prospects.
  • The oldest NEA-APP artwork will be 40 in 2007. Some were created with a life expectancy of 20 years—with maintenance.
• Closing tips:
  • As you are successful with conservation of your individual APP artworks, please share the news with a Jumbotron…tell SOS!, NEA, etc.
  • Follow the excellent example of Laura’s organization. Make your maintenance a well-publicized event.
  • Lift the veil and actively invite in the public, businesses, government, other funders. They need to know about the complexities, histories, intrinsic value of these artworks. Our colleagues at the pre-conference on Arts and Education can be helpful.

Cold Case APP: Closed!