Bridges - and Public Art - Update

A few years back, before a redo of Business 40 was in the conversation, I wrote a piece about how Winston-Salem needed a signature structure to help brand itself and make it a place so distinctive that people would want to come and see. This was a result of a brainstorming session held by the Winston-Salem Visitor Center - a group which needs community support now more than ever. I suggested a national contest for a signature bridge design and Photoshopped a Sergio Calatrava bridge right in front of an artist's rendering of the planned downtown research park as a way to say "new," "cool," "groovy," or whatever positive you wanted to say. Mainly you just would want to see the thing (click on the small image for a bigger one to better see the "harp string" cables).

This summer, I stepped away from a few meetings of the Arts Council's Public Art and Design committee and this blog - a family member's illness and an unexpected denouement to my role on the local elections board kept me away from monitoring their conversations and, frankly, lessened my enthusiasm for community involvement. In the process I did learn, however, that wordle.net does give you an artistic way to deal with news you'd rather not use.

But interesting things have been happening, and I thought I'd let you know. Over the summer several members of the PA&DC began discussions with members of the Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership, the Community Appearance Commission, the Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce, NCDOT, and a few other individuals about the issues raised and opportunities presented in creative highway design enhancement - i.e., better architectural design of highways and bridges, and more aesthetic attention to the same (through public art, materials, lighting, etc.). The group has even looked at potential for LEED-type efficiencies in highway design (including recycled and local-produced materials and rainwater catchment issues), even though there is no LEED certification program for highway construction - yet. Most all of the tweaks involve a change to current NCDOT practice but it is change that other states have modeled can be done, and done cost efficiently (see several posts on the blog you are reading). Anyway, many of these ideas local DOT leadership is open to exploring. These "working group" meetings could be the beginning of concrete steps to go from fifteen minutes worth of Photoshopping to true creative destination placemaking in our major transportion corridors. The deadlines for serious involvement in design changes are probably no later than 2011, though competing state priorities with scarce DOT funds could push local projects farther out than that. But I wish them well as they seek to build better, and more beautifully.

The Arts Council's PA&DC having split off its ideas on the Business 40 bridge design redo to a separate group, the committee has returned to its primary work promoting and assisting public art installations in the city. Several of the committee members aided the Arts Council in selecting the artists whose work will be displayed in public areas of the new Sawtooth Center. I missed SECCA's public art event during the National Black Theatre Festival (Kianga Ford's oral and aural interpretation of Winston-Salem's history - "34 x 52 x 40" is still accessible here). But I did hear SECCA-sponsored Mark Jenkins talk about his work at Reynolda House the last full week of September. That week, indeed, was probably as big a week as public art has had in the city this year. On Monday, Jenkins' first public work was taken down within hours of its placement in a kerfuffle over the failure to give a heads-up to officials over its location and purpose; Tuesday saw Jenkins speak on his evolving philosophy of public art at Reynolda House before a packed audience of art students and the public. On Wednesday the Arts Council board met to decide its public art contest winners, and on Friday the Enrichment Center opened its loving new public art sculpture garden. On that Saturday the 26th, West End hosted its ARTSfest, where, among a variety of media represented, you could buy sculpture for your own public art.

All the while that week, construction was resuming on the city's biggest investment in its skyline, the baseball stadium. Let's hope that in all the cash invested and to be spent in this project that the city and owners will abide by their commitment to have the developer spend $10,000 for public art installation. If Charlotte can do one percent for city buildings on public art, and Greensboro can have a community public art foundation lead in assembling monies for art, surely the City of the Arts can abide by a 0.0212765957 percent investment in art in this important public work.