Fresh Loaf

All day Sunday, a small cadre of local artists and arts lovers gathered at Eyedrum to kick off the first phase of a grassroots project to add a touch of art to the Beltline — and to make more people aware of where it is.

The project, which has been months in the making, involves creating more than 100 artful signs to designate where the 22-mile smart-growth project crosses public streets.

Angel Poventud, one of the project’s co-organizers, says WonderRoot staff spent $400 on wood on Saturday night. The next day, artists brought whatever materials they had — oils, pastels, even house paint — and got to work.

“It’s hard to believe you can pull off a project like this for less than a grand,” Poventud says. “But it’s all about the passion. And it’s here.”

The group plans to install the signs along the project sometime this week. After the jump, more photos from the event.

(more…)

Bookmark It

Beltline Arboretum

Trees Atlanta has selected local artist David Landis to create the first piece of public art for a planned arboretum, or tree museum, along the Beltline.

Once completed, the arboretum will circle the entire 22-mile loop of parks, trails and transit, and be one of the largest tree museums in the United States.

Landis was selected from a field of 20 applicants. His sculpture, which will be inspired by residents’ memories of trees and the historic West End community, will represent the first of 14 tree and plant collections along the smart-growth project.

Trees Atlanta says the sculpture will be designed to be a “landscape in motion” and will be installed in the West End’s Rose Circle Park early next year. The work is made possible by a grant from the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation.

Landis, who created the Butterfly Pavilion at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, has also shown work in Minneapolis, Albany, Ga., Toulose, France and throughout the metro region. A graduate of the University of Georgia and Georgia State University, he’s also taught at the latter and Dunwoody’s Spruill Center for the Arts.

Beltline and community officials will celebrate Landis’ selection on Thursday, July 9 at 7 p.m. at the Hammond House. The event is free and open to the public.

This post has been altered to fix a typo of the artist’s name.

(Screenshot courtesy of Trees Atlanta)

Bookmark It

In addition to its tree-planting project with Brown Middle School along the Beltline, Trees Atlanta is requesting artist proposals for public art in a southwest Atlanta segment of the 22-mile loop of parks, trails and transit’s southwest segment.

Debbie’s got the details over at Culture Surfing.

Bookmark It

STIMULATE THIS: 'Stan,' from Matt Haffner's Serial City project

Earlier last month, critic Jonathan Jones of The Guardian joined several other journalists and arts aficionados in calling for a stimulus for public art in his native UK. But instead of simply parroting what we’ve already heard, Jones makes an inspired, though unorthodox spin on the argument: Why not fund genres outside of the mainstream, including graffiti?

We are primed as a nation for public art. All over Britain, a huge variety of imagery has been erected in the boom years. There must be more funding for public art, not less – but obviously the money can’t just go to famous individual artists. Instead, it has to be redirected to provide creative work for the young unemployed. And so, the state should pay the young to graffiti our streets.

(Let’s not forget that the UK is the home of Banksy, arguably the world’s most daring street artist, whose work now fetches record prices at international auctions.)

Atlantans feel strongly about their graffiti — both for and against. Mara Shalhoup’s story in CL last summer, for instance, received a lot more comments than you’d expect. Local artists such as Matt Haffner (featured on the cover of The Atlantan’s Arts and Power issue in December) work in traditional fine art circles as well as on the street. And Haffner is no stranger to grant funding: His work was chosen for ACP’s very first public art project. So, could you imagine seeing new, large-scale graffiti works by Haffner or other Atlantans — financed by grant money?

Of course the funds wouldn’t necessarily come from tax dollars. Last week’s groundbreaking Artadia announcement shows that there are still foundations out there willing to invest in Atlanta art. Coupled with ACP’s public art announcement, I wonder: Have foundations like Artadia considered street art as a grant-worthy alternative?

(Photo courtesy Wooster Collective)

Bookmark It

NEUROMANCY: Beth Lilly can photograph your future.

Last week Atlanta Celebrates Photography announced the selection of “Gifted,” a proposal by local artist and photographer Beth Lilly, for its next ACP public art project. More details will solidify as “Gifted” marches toward completion, but for the moment, this much is clear: The project will involve the literal gift of 1,200 limited-edition prints, distributed to the public for free during ACP’s citywide festival in October.

Beth Lilly (aka the Oracle @ Wifi) specializes in collaboration — that is, she creates art by embracing and reworking the social networking trends of our digital media-saturated society in surprisingly novel ways. Lilly’s Oracle @ Wifi series, for instance, is an ongoing, improvisational performance-meets-photography project. On the seventh day of each month, Lilly invites the public to call her with a “question for the Oracle.” Basically, you can ask her anything, so long as the wording is tasteful and involves a future event. Over the past three years, the Oracle has fielded queries as specific as “Will I get into law school and become a successful lawyer?” to such fantastic head-scratchers as “What do I really really really want?” and “Are my family and me moving to the United States?” The Oracle’s response comes in the form of three photos, taken at whatever location Lilly may be, which are then randomly assigned to each caller’s question. As in other forms of divination, the meaning of these “image-fortunes” is a matter of free association.

(more…)

Bookmark It

Local grassroots arts organization Idea Capital has tapped Shana Robbins, Jason Kofke and Rory Golden as its fall 2008 awards recipients. Robbins will receive a cool grand, and Kofke and Golden will get $500 and $250, respectively, to pursue experimental art projects.

From today’s press release:

Ms. Robbins will use the cash to fund a multi-media performance-based work
dealing with the “Monstrous Feminine,” while Mr. Kofke has proposed a city-wide
street art campaign titled “Everything Will Be OK,” which includes both permitted
and guerilla art tactics. Mr. Golden will create a fictional visual narrative
installation titled “You Think I Can Eat All That Chicken Here?” which includes a
150-year-old ex-slave, food addiction, and an extreme religious conversion.

Idea Capital was founded by Susan Todd-Raque, Stuart Keeler, Pam Rogers, Louise Shaw, and Cinqué Hicks “to encourage experimentation and investigation with funds designed to give artists permission
to pursue new ideas.” Visit the group’s website for more info on membership, donations and future grants. See examples of their art below.

Full disclosure: Hicks is CL’s freelance visual arts critic.

Bookmark It

After months of not much going on with Atlanta’s public art program – otherwise known as the red-headed stepchild of the parks department – suddenly City Hall has announced a list of new projects that will mean work, and income, for more than a dozen local artists.

At a time when frustrated arts advocates are threatening to sue Atlanta for mismanaging its own program, does the city’s announcement represent a craven attempt to buy off the arts community with public funds?

First, some background. As attentive CL readers know, we ran a story in October about a long-hidden study done by City Hall in which bean counters estimated that Atlanta’s public arts program might have been shortchanged as much as $3.6 million over the past few years.

In response to that revelation, a group of arts activists decided to file a lawsuit to force the city to account for the uncollected public arts money and to self-enforce its own percent-for-the-arts ordinance from now on.

The new public art projects include multidisciplinary works for 12 city parks; “gateway” sculptures for several Atlanta neighborhoods; and a mural design for the MLK natatorium.

“I’m pretty excited that they’re looking at putting art in parks around the city,” says activist Bill Gignilliat, adding, “But I’ll believe it when it actually happens.”

Despite the timing, Gignilliat doesn’t believe the city is trying to placate artists with the prospect of work. City Hall just doesn’t move that fast, he says.

Even if that were the intention, it doesn’t seem to be working. This week, both the Eyedrum artist co-op and Public Space Initiative, an advocacy group, announced their plans to become plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which is likely to be filed after the holidays.

Bookmark It

A group of artists and arts advocates meeting at Eyedrum arts center Monday night agreed that legal action is needed to force the city of Atlanta to implement its own percent-for-the-arts program for public art.

The question, however, is: What arts organizations will be willing to put their local grants on the line and sue the city?

The issue has heated up since CL recently reported that an in-house study shows that, over the past four years, the city has collected only $1.7 million for the program while letting additional millions go uncollected. Under a longtime ordinance, the city is required to set aside 1.5 percent of the cost of new construction projects for public art. But the city’s own report estimates that as much as $3.6 million has gone uncollected because no one at City Hall seems to be enforcing the ordinance.

The report was completed last fall and kept under wraps until activist Bill Gignilliat recently gained a copy through an open-records request, but the city still has apparently done little to rectify the problem.

The goal of a lawsuit by arts groups would be to push the city to account for the money that should have been collected and to put a system in place to make sure the percent-for-the-arts money is collected from now on.

Arts advocate Evan Levy announced that he had spoken to several local attorneys interested in taking what could well be a high-profile — and easily winnable — case. The trick will be finding arts groups willing to sign on as plaintiffs, since most receive some funding from the city’s Office of Cultural Affairs.

Eyedrum, which currently gets about $5,000 a year from the city, could become the lead plaintiff if its board gives the go-ahead in coming weeks, says Chairwoman Nisa Asokan.

“We could be shooting ourselves in the foot,” she says, “but if not Eyedrum, then who else?”

Bookmark It