Public Art Conference Archive—2004

Public Art Tours (Thursdsay)

Masters of the (Turn of the Century) Universe

Tour Leader: 

• Susan Nichols, Lunder Education Chair, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC

How many American sculptor "masters of the 19th universe" can you name? How many of their artworks have you seen? This tour will explore that monumental public sculpture off the Mall. Enjoy a survey of the city's knock-out collection of 19th century outdoor sculpture from a comfy bus and on foot. Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Daniel Chester French, Vinnie Ream Hoxie and Roland Hinton Perry await you, and so does Susan Nichol’s amazing and endless knowledge of sculpture in Washington.

Federal Capitol Hill/Federal Triangle

Tour Leaders:

• Susan Harrison, Director, GSA Art in Architecture Program, Washington, DC
• Barbara Wolanin, Curator, Architect of the Capitol, Washington, DC

This tour expands upon the afternoon session Public Art and the Federal Government. The tour will begin at the U.S. Capitol to view some Constantino Brumidi’s frescoes and see the in-progress conservation. We will also view murals in the Great Hall of the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress.

The tour will proceed to view some works of art from the WPA era and end at the Ronald Regan Building and International Trade Center to view three mid-1990’s Art in Architecture projects by Martin Puryear, Keith Sonnier, and Stephen Robin.

Arlington: A Public Art Walking Tour

Tour Leaders:

• Kim Roberts, Art Education Specialist, Arlington County Cultural Affairs Division, Arlington, VA
• Charlie Denney of WALKArlington, Arlington, VA.

Explore this famous Arlington County neighborhood on foot and see some of Northern Virginia’s most acclaimed art in public spaces! The emphasis of the tour will be the built environment of Rosslyn and the context for its public art, examining how the neighborhood’s history, open space, geography, architecture, and urban planning helped shape its public art and memorials.

The tour will feature the following projects:

Nancy Holt’s Dark Star Park, 1984.
Although artist-designed parks are now fairly common, Dark Star Park is one of the earliest examples, and was the first one funded by the NEA. Holt worked closely with the site architect to create an integrated environment responsive to its urban setting. Large spheres made from gunite sprayed over steel frames were designed to resemble fallen, extinguished stars. Other elements include pools of water, a tall berm of earth, plantings of winter creeper, crown vetch, and willow oak, and concrete tunnels. One section of the park contains spheres and poles with shadow-images set in the ground. Each year on August 1, the day in 1860 when William Henry Ross acquired the land that became Rosslyn, the actual shadows align with the shadow-images at 9:32 am. The aligning of the shadows has developed a cult following in Alexandria, with tens of people gathering each year to witness the event.

Ned Kahn, Liquid Pixels, 2002.
Kahn was awarded a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Grant in 2003, and this particular piece was included in the Public Art Network’s Year In Review in 2002. In a neighborhood where builders hit bedrock almost immediately, most choose to build garages above ground. This public art project provides the required venting for a parking lot and creates an appealing street-level view, with 6 panels of thousands of kinetic one-inch brushed stainless-steel disks. Responding to wind and light, the disks appear to flow, changing patterns constantly.

Felix W. de Weldon, The United States Marine Corps War Memorial (Iwo Jima) 1954.
The largest bronze sculpture in the world, Iwo Jima is also the only memorial based on a photograph. Inspired by Joe Rosenthal’s Pulitzer-Prize winning photo, it depicts the raising of a flag atop Mount Suribachi by Marines during WWII.

Other stops will include Y. David Chung’s delightful and colorful Metro mural, Scenes of Rosslyn, Chris Gardner’s enormous steel entwined arrows, Cupid’s Garden, and renowned feminist artist Miriam Shapiro’s only sculpture, Anna and David. We will also visit Chicago Titan by Ray Kaskey, who created the bronze sculptures at the new National World War II Memorial on the National Mall, and Boaz Vaadia’s Family, depicting the three Biblical figures of King David, his wife Haggit, and daughter Adoniyya, in layers of cut bluestone.

Penn Quarter and Convention Center Art

Tour Leaders:

• Vivienne Lassman, Independent Curator, Washington, DC
• Joel Straus, CEO, Joel Straus Consulting, Chicago, IL

This tour will explore Washington DC’s Penn Quarter and the dynamic art work commissioned for the city’s new convention center. Featured stops on the tour include:

• A visit to the National Academy of Sciences, where we will be met by the NAS curator John Talasek and sculptor Larry Kirkland who will discuss the complex iconography which was developed for the grand entrance lobby. We will view the monumental suspended sculpture in the multi-story interior atrium and the Don Merkt sculpture on the exterior of the building and discuss their conception-installation process.
  
• Flashpoint’s executive director Anne Corbett will lead us through this arts incubator established by the Cultural Development Corporation for nonprofit arts organizations. Flashpoint provides services and training for arts groups. Located in a renovated historic building it contains: an art gallery, a performance “black box”, a dance studio, office space and workstations, shared office equipment and meeting space. In addition we will be able to visit artists who have live/work space in the building.
  
• Joel Strausand Vivienne Lassman, curators of the art collection at the Washington Convention Center will lead the tour. The art works range from monumental suspended sculptures to intimate photographs giving a human scale to this extraordinary building. The Washington Convention Center Collection highlights the works of renowned artists such as Sol LeWitt, Pat Steir, Donald Lipsky, Costas Varotsos, Sam Gilliam and Larry Kirkland. This is an opportunity to discuss the complexities of planning the development of the program, selection, and interaction with all the agencies involved.

Following the tour, it’s just a quick walk across the street to attend the opening preconference reception at the City Museum of Washington, DC.

National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden and Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

Tour Leaders:

• Sculpture docents from the Museums
• with Jenjoy Roybal, San Jose Office of Cultural Affairs, San Jose, CA

This tour explores two sites which are the most prominent locations for contemporary art on the National Mall.

The tour will begin at the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, where you will learn about the history of the museum and tour the collection in the plaza, redesigned in 1991 to create six "rooms" of inviting, verdant space for the display of a selection of large–scale contemporary sculptures, and the gardens, located on the National Mall halfway between the Washington Monument and the US Capitol. The Sculpture Garden provides a contemplative haven for viewing over 60 works of art. The works exemplify a wide range of styles, from Rodin to di Suvero.

After your visit to the Hirschhorn, you will walk across the mall to the National Gallery of Art, where you will tour Sculpture Gardens.

In 1791, when Major Pierre Charles L’Enfant created a plan for the new city of Washington, he designated a landscaped park in the north side of the Mall at 8th Street to emphasize the important north-south axis in the city’s design. The same site is the location of the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden, which opened to the public on May 23, 2999.

Located in the 6.1-acre block adjacent to the West Building, the elegant yet informal Garden includes new plantings of native American species of canopy trees, flowering trees, shrubs, ground covers, and perennials. A fountain, which serves as an ice rink in winter, is at the center of the Garden, and walking and seating areas offer visitors a chance to rest and reflect on the works on view. The Sculpture Garden is enclosed by a decorative metal fence with marble piers and plinths, designed to reflect the historic character of the West Building.

Your tour of the garden will include works by artists whose careers have spanned the museum world and public art commissions, including museums and public art commissions including Magdalena Abakanowicz, Louise Bourgeois, Scott Burton, Sol LeWitt, Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen and Roy Lichtenstein. Also included is An Entrance to the Paris Metropolitain, by architect Hector Guimard, a leading figure of the Art Nouveau movement in France who was responsible for the design of the Paris Metro system. The Art Nouveau movement in Paris also became known as “le style Métro” and “le style Guimard.”

Public Art + Architecture: Ronald Regan Washington National Airport

Tour Leaders:

• Wendy Feuer, Public Art Consultant, Brooklyn, NY
• Airport docents Susanne Joyner, Claire Lent, and Mary Lonam

For many, the thought of traveling by air elicits emotions of dread—long security lines, delays, gate changes, windowless corridors. What a change from the early days when air travel elicited emotions of excitement, expectation and romance and terminals were at the cutting edge of architecture.

Now, airports are coming back! Airport managers and airlines realize that more people are traveling by air more often and, because of security and plane changes, are spending more time in terminals. They are responding by once again creating well-designed terminals that often include art. Airports around the world have permanent art and changing exhibits in the corridors, as well as arrivals and departures areas. Local musicians and other performing artists are invited into terminals on a regular basis at some airports. With upscale retail shops and restaurants, these amenities are not only for passengers, they are part of a trend to re-invent airports into destinations for non-passengers as well.

The Ronald Regan National Airport is a prime example of the contemporary approach to airport development. A beautifully designed terminal by Caesar Pelli includes art by 30 different American artists, both well-established and emerging, on the floors, walls and windows.

Wendy Feuer will provide an overview of airport developments focusing on current efforts and different approaches to including art. Her 30 minute talk will be followed by a trip out to Ronald Regan National Airport where Susanne Joyner, Claire Lent and Mary Lonam—docents at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Airport—will take the group on a tour of the artwork and architecture of the airport.