Ars urbi serviat - Public Art in Winston-Salem

New Public Art Tweet for this Blog

2011-01-13T06:15:00.000-08:00

We've decided to continue this blog in 2011 after some soul-searching. It will not be directly following the work of the Creative Corridors Coalition, other than an occasional comment as warranted. Even though much of the theory behind their initial planning is discussed here in our earlier articles, if you are interested in that effort, we encourage you to follow them on their website.

We do think there remains a need for a public art advocacy in our town independent of the Arts Council and our traditional local arts patronage structures. I am a historian by training, and a community advocate by interest and passion. I am an admirer of the arts and quality urban design by acculturation and experience. I want our town to have a public arts commission: to involve, by citizen representatives, the whole community in the selection, creation, and enjoyment of public art works. That's infrastructure building, and value assessment, by a community. We're not there yet. I'd like for us to be.

To that end I have, after ending our "arsurbi" Twitter account, begun a new "arsurbi2" Twitter feed where, a couple of times a week, I will highlight stories from the web about public art and its appreciation, creation and struggles from our state, region and the world. We live in a place of information overload. But we also live in relevant-information decision-making deserts sometime. Maybe the Tweets and this year's blog will help our community with that. That's the hope anyway. More next week.
Photo of Northumberland sunrise from FreeFoto.com

While You and I Are Waiting for Business 40, Let's Help Design It

2010-11-17T18:09:00.000-08:00

If you have not expressed an opinion about proposed Business 40 changes to bridges, interchanges and road design as presented at three NCDOT public meetings in mid-October, please do so soon, and contact NCDOT and City Council members with your ideas.

Although the timetable is not firm for when the work will be done, decisions are being made now on what will be done when it starts. One proposal for saving money and changing traffic is to close the bridge at 4th Street connecting the West End to Peters Creek Parkway, making a cul-de-sac there passing right in front of
Hawthorne Art Gallery. Please check the pdfs listed below to see all choices proposed for the several bridge interchanges, and a link to a pdf of the comment form you can print and send to NCDOT.

Sadly, the Winston-Salem Journal did an unusually and truly terribly inaccurate job both in advertising and in reporting on the details of what actually was shown to the public at these October meetings (using graphics from the January 2010 Old Salem meeting on their website links still, for example). And NCDOT at their Business 40 site (www.business40nc.com) has not yet updated it with these new choices as they told me they would be doing to allow further informed citizen input. Then again, they haven't really updated citizen info online since 2008. They do seem to staff a public meeting well (though I've yet to get an email from them after signing in with an email at every one of the half-dozen events I've been to).

Here are links to online copies of the very informative packets NCDOT provided at these public meetings:
An Overview of the Business 40 Project Thru October 2010
Detailed Design Drawings of the Alternatives at Each Interchange
Working Groups Plan for the Future and Contact Info to Share Your Opinions With
Public Comment Sheet

Coda: "Creative Corridors" Receives NEA Funding Endorsement

2010-07-16T09:42:00.000-07:00

From an Arts Council press packet: "[Yesterday] the National Endowment for the Arts announced a $200,000 matching grant to The Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County and The City of Winston-Salem as a result of a joint proposal made to its Mayor’s Institute on City Design 25th Anniversary Grant program. Randall Tuttle, Chair of the Coalition, can be reached at 336.725.4411 or rtuttle@tradestreetcap.com . Christine Gorelick, Vice President of External Affairs, The Arts Council, can be reached at 336.725.2585. cgorelick@intothearts.com. Creative Corridors Coalition has reserved the Web site www.creative corridors.org, which will be operational soon."

The NEA award shows national acknowledgment of the merits of the ideas for Business 40 improvements advocated here by your author and by the Arts Council's Public Art and Design Committee for over two years now. The ideas still need ongoing local support: vocal, financial, and inspirational. We refer you to the Corridors group website for their further development and ask you to stay involved with their plans. - JEE

The end of a blog and paths forward

2010-05-18T12:48:00.000-07:00

Looking west from County Kerry, Ireland. By Stefan Tarzan.

A local issues blog like this one is, at its best, a reflection of things current, an agitator and encourager for things better, and a celebration of those better ideas made elsewhere concrete, all brought together with zeal and synergy by the blogger as he recruits fellow believers in the one quality humanity should never hoard or put a price on - hope. My initial hopes for this particular blog were to get other friends excited by the possibilities for better quality of life, economic development, and civic pride by having a more aesthetic and artistic design in the re-building of the Business 40 interstate corridor through Winston-Salem. This interstate idea had been bandied about among the dozen or two folks who made up the Public Art and Design committee of our local Arts Council; but as we lacked funds and interested partners in the public arena to champion the idea in 2008, I suggested that we could at least post some news on a blog and keep people informed.

Thirty months later, after public education meetings and slide shows by committee members; after a contest run by two art administration students to showcase "what-if" ideas; after public speakers and artists and architects were brought to town by local cultural institutions; after residents sent me and others stories and pictures of their holiday travels; after internet visitors from every continent with highways visited this site (occasionally with words of support and inquiries of our efforts); after a separate "Bridges" group was formed last summer by representatives of the Arts Council and the local Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown Partnership, the City Appearance Commission and state and local transportation officials; and after representatives of fifty-plus business and community organizations endorsed the idea of requesting better, more aesthetic, more memorable design in a meeting in November with three State Cabinet secretaries (Commerce, Transportation, and Cultural Resources), the announcement of a new non-profit "Creative Corridors Coalition" is at hand. Thanks to a gift of funds by Winston-Salem Foundation award-winner and PA&DC member Doug Lewis, the Coalition even has seed money for its work. The task for which this blog was established, to grow friends for an idea and pass it on, is now complete. A thank you, heartily and happily, for all who have helped in that goal.

Frank Gehry's BP Bridge, Millennium Park, Chicago. From iamhydrogen on Flickr.

Now I am well aware that the tasks of getting attention and of getting results are two different things. After so many words here, it may help to remind all of the result that this particular writer wants out of a Business 40 re-build for our city: a top-quality functional roadway (I drive the route often, in traffic), made architecturally and artistically distinct (I'd like my visitors to want a poster of it), economically inviting (I'd like it to say "can do" in a way that invites business folks to move here and help us grow our economy), and - since I think I pay enough taxes - I'd like for this to be done at no additional cost to the taxpayer. I'd like the design team to figure out how "better" and "prettier" and "cooler" can be done cheaper. After surveying through this blog the experience of so many around the country and world, I am convinced that the only way to get all of that is to bring in "fresh design eyes" - outside design and artistic advice - for the whole corridor at the beginning of the design project.

NCDOT Business 40 presentation in winter 2010. By your blogger, before this.

But because it hasn't happened here before, there are dangers on the pathway to "creative corridors" (an idea which, if modeled in implementation along Business 40, might travel well around the city). The biggest danger may be in shortchanging our possibilities from the outset. We don't dream big enough, long enough. Tonight was to be the next meeting of a NCDOT working group on the Business 40 project. There was same day public notice of this meeting in the paper, and though there is a brief notice on the project's website, that site has not been seriously updated since 2008. Unofficial word from one DOT representative said that tonight would be a discussion of “concepts” for the Business 40 bridges project that, due to time constraints, would discuss which bridges “we’ll do and which ones we will not.” Now amongst the four major groups making up last summer's discussion of the highway work, there was some discussion of limiting which of the bridges to be replaced in the project might get extra attention. But that is the exact wrong approach at this stage of planning. It is a remnant of the typical contracting process for building roadways - assigning a portion of a project or a bridge at a time (on the current stretch of Business 40 moons ago, each bridge was done by a different contractor). The goal of our PA&DC original proposal was not to add new "art and design sprinkles" to an existing construction cupcake, but to challenge our road-builders and our community to come up with new ways of expressing something about our place with its highways while ensuring the task of our safe travel.

New tasks require new thinking. And not just from transportation officials and potential subcontractors. Politicians, who locally have shown innovation and political risk-taking on other largely private investments - the baseball stadium's multi-million dollar loan and today's news of another $200,000 grant to the downtown biotech park - have yet to champion in their official capacities this effort or have the city establish a needed community-wide citizens' commission to give advice on the planning, purchase, and maintenance of public art projects. A $200,000 grant would have surely helped us secure top-flight national or international design advice - but the taxpayer in me would be happy if our city and county leaders just formally resolved that this issue was important, and organized a government body for ongoing public art and design issues. Winston-Salem has been blessed with a few special individual benefactors to guide our cultural investments. But given that our local economy is no longer as centralized as it once was, citizens shouldn't have to depend solely on private largesse for enhancements to our economic and cultural investment in the arts. The Corridors Coalition presents business and philanthropic leaders with a new kind of project (hiring of expert design advice) - one which may not offer its benefactors any direct perks of privilege, and which may in fact only succeed as more community stakeholders without financial investment are invited to share thoughts on design and its impact with the design team. Finally, average citizens have to think anew about what is wisdom in how we spend scarce tax dollars - a creative thinking, that doesn't reactively shy-away from all spending but demands of needed investments that they be done better and with a goal of multiple impacts.

Those who support these ideas for better transportation design, be vigilant of distractions, but be encouraged. Those who question their feasibility or wisdom, engage with your neighbors in a debate about your questions and ways to make our place better for all, realizing we can use both the talents that are unique to this place and talents of others that are uniquely skilled in place-making. There is a faith quote that says when the Spirit is on the people, the old shall dream dreams and the young shall see visions. And, as the Cardinal once said, "Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true." Winston-Salem, "ars urbi serviat." Let art serve your city.

-J. Eric Elliott, 18 May 2010

Ten Changes for a Creative Highway Overpass

2009-10-07T12:30:00.000-07:00

Highway engineers have a tough job to do as is, especially when traffic flow and geography don't mix well. Many of us have marveled as we visited bigger cities at the mix of concrete and spaghetti bowl that is used to channel traffic in, out, and through an urban area (if you don't know your cloverleaf from your "spooey," check out this "field guide" to the interstate). In Winston-Salem, Business 40 and US 52 frame our downtown in ways that are not as demanding on creative engineering necessities as in our most crowded cities, but they can give rise to other creative opportunities for highway designers over the next ten to twenty years. Are there ideas others have tried elsewhere that might help us as we creatively re-design our major roadways, to make them stand out in the driving experience of our guests and residents? What follows is my list of ten things you can do with a highway overpass - in addition to its traffic engineering necessities - to help it give our town a distinct sense of place. Please click on any one picture for a larger view.

Color
Albuquerque, New Mexico uses two simple colors in its major overpasses, salmon pink and turquoise. The "Big I" interchange - where I-40 and I-25 meet - is pictured above. The colors become a branding of the area, as they mimic both earth and sky in the desert Southwest and are prominent in local Native American art. The colors are applied as paint in some locations and are integrated into the concrete of these overpasses. Color change does have some practical limits - as Albuquerque efforts to change street signage are showing. But color change can do more than just brand. Designers of the Lynn Cove Viaduct here in North Carolina used pigmented concrete with another goal in mind - to blend their highway bridge into the granite landscape in which it sits.

Texture
This Route 28 bridge over the Little Delaware in Bovina, NY was a Federal Highway Administration Excellence in Highway Design merit winner in 2002 because it used the same kind of stone in its construction as did a church next to the bridge. Rather than having the roadway intrude into the traditional architecture of the neighborhood, the designers sought to integrate it into the landscape with the use of textured stone.

In North Carolina, we are most familiar with this technique along our mountain parkways. In the picture here, an overpass on the Tennessee side of the Smoky Mountain Parkway is built of the same stone as its surroundings and overgrown by plantings as if it were an outcropping of the mountain on which it sits. Currently Business 40's corridor has several outcroppings of rock visible near the three bridges near Cherry Street. What would bridges styled off of that natural rock look like? How about a brick bridge mirroring the old-fashioned brick styling of the new downtown ballpark at the Peters Creek overpass?

Landscaping
Business 40's rebuild will have to follow roughly the same corridor in which it currently inhabits - no widening. So where are there opportunities for creative landscaping? At the underpass near Corpening Plaza, perhaps? Berkeley professor and former North Carolina resident Walter Hood created Oakland, CA's Splash Pad Park alongside and under the I-580 freeway. Sidewalks crossing the park play off the freeway's pylons, and arching benches and grassy mounds and plantings segment the space into a multi-purpose urban oasis with even a lively farmer's market. It's part of a body of work that has just won Hood the 2009 National Design Award in Landscape Design from the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. Business 40 itself covers old Bellews Creek Street, and a number of side streets mask water features. Plans for the Piedmont Triad Research Park at US 52 and Business 40 include a rainwater catchment basin that will afford us a significant roadside aesthetic opportunity.

Lighting
Plans for an I-95 redesign through Pawtucket, RI include serene blue-and-white LED lighting alongside and under a bridge that serves as both a highway overpass and a river crossing. Many bridges are illuminated in colorful ways over water around the world, playing off the reflections below.

Noted highway aesthetic designer Vicki Scuri placed ethereal metal willow lights along the Douglas Avenue bridge in Wichita, KS, inviting you to feel the wind rushing through a town noted for its aviation history. But fewer highway overpasses take advantage of distinctive lighting either of the overpass itself or of the street it carries.

The street lightings above greet users at the light rail station in the midst of Portland, OR's high-tech "Silicon Forest" business district - artist Brian Borello likewise calls these illuminated whimsies "The Silicon Forest." These "trees" generate their own electricity through solar panels which branch out at their tops. Imagine a comparable iconographic and green-friendly lighting on the bridges framing our downtown biotech research park.

Regional Iconography
No surprise that the Lone Star state likes to use the Lone Star symbol on its highway bridges, is it? Texas highways make the regional brand an often-integrated part of their overpasses. Buck Scott's Scott Systems firm used elastomeric-urethane formliners to cast the gold star above into the overpass support. And Lone Stars augment with distinctive color banding the pillars of the "everything-is-bigger-in-Texas" experience that is the I-635/US 75 "High Five" interchange north of Dallas.

Many smaller highway overpasses in the state serve as de facto city signage, embossed with a state outline and a distinct artist's illustration for the locality hosting the bridge. Winston-Salem has two distinct city symbols, I'd argue - a Moravian multi-pointed star and that tin coffee pot of hospitality. Either could find its way around our highways more often and be seen by more than passersby of Baptist Hospital or an Old Salem traffic island.

Landmarking
Although they're on a pedestrian overpass bridge on Interstate 705 in Tacoma, WA, there's no mistaking once you see those large Dave Chihuly glass sculptures foisted skyward that the city's Museum of Glass is at hand.

Yes, you can simply slap a logo on an overpass, as here at Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ; but why not creatively show folks "this" is the exit, "this" is the spot you drove to see. Old Salem is not located next to the highway - could sculpted images of frilled Moravian candles bookend the proper exit overpass instead?

Storytelling
The highway overpasses of New Mexico and Arizona are among the most celebrated in the country (yes, hard to believe that's true, for those of us used to concrete slabs). Why? you might ask. Because they tell you something about the place you're traveling through, vistas which might otherwise be sparse. Be it in the symbolism of the Native American designs in this New Mexico bridge above, or the stairstep geometry of its bridge abutment mimicking adobe housing, they fix a place in your memory.

Along a six-mile stretch of Pima Freeway in Scottsdale, AZ, a section known as "The Path Most Traveled," artist Carolyn Braaksma cast concrete reliefs and textures to place symbols of the desert landscape on otherwise unsightly overpass and sound barrier walls. Plantings and pathways along other stretches of the highway soften the disconnect between the land and the inhabitants of motorized vehicles. In 2003 Braaksma completed a commission ("The Green") for a park fountain in Charlotte, NC.

In Seattle, WA architect and "art practitioner" Alex Young placed a salmon run over a highway, jumping painted bronze fish along the walls of an I-90 HOV access ramp and leaping them occasionally even over the guardrails of the overpass. Did salmon once traverse the highway? No (though there are some in a nearby creek). But it is part of the distinct story of the Great Northwest that visitors expect. Everyone knows of Winston-Salem's tobacco heritage, one that has been tough to discuss but which is a distinct part of who we are. Could a Peters Creek bridge by the ballpark, nearly straddling the dividing line between old Winston and old Salem, artistically celebrate the blending of tobacco and textiles in the two towns with its new anchors in the arts and innovation? Could a bridge over US 52, a historic dividing line between our black and white citizens, celebrate struggle and triumph and hope with an imprint of Winston-Salem resident Maya Angelou's words, "Still I Rise"?

Multipurpose Design
This photo of the wilds along the Trans-Canada Highway shows an overpass whose primary function is not auto transport but animal transport. The edges of the overpass are fencing hidden by landscape trees and bushes, coupled with barriers to otherwise crossing the highway, corralling area wildlife to flow from one side of the highway to the other with minimal interruption. I use it as a reminder that highway bridges often break up urban space unnaturally. A bridge that crosses a natural barrier like a river is often praised as a blessing for development and livablity on both sides of the divide. A highway overpass, however, too often cuts off previous human traffic flow between areas except by vehicle. Making overpasses accomodate happily motorized and pedestrian (and bicycle) traffic is a goal our city transportation officials are already examining, including the possibility of a greenspace park as a potential part of any 3rd-4th-5th Street overpass rebuild on US 52.

Pattern
When in town last fall, bridge architect Fred Gottemoeller (whose design for Greenvile, SC's Reedy River footbridge made it a city icon) pointed to an interesting model for the replacement of multiple bridges with a shared vista, an opportunity we have for the bridges of Business 40. Look at the series of arched overpass bridges on eastbound US 59 entering Houston, TX.

As I've looked at the photos of the place, the nesting effect of the arches in a driver's sight line serve to announce the coming of downtown, something special. Announcement by pattern is nothing new: ancient Babylon announced the Ishtar Gate with an avenue adorned with a gold-on-blue repetitive lion motif.

One need not go archaeological to confirm the practice. Almada, Portugal also marks its city's presence with a pattern of distinctive design in the overpass bridges that serve its citizens. I'm not sure if the elevated central support shown above is an allusion to an arrow or symbol of the city or simply a whim of the bridge designer.

Instead of a repeating and building pattern in the distinct shape of the city's bridges, you might create a repeating and building pattern of symbols or structures along the roadway as you near the city center. Visitors to Los Angeles Airport are greeted by Paul Tzanetopoulos's series of glass pylons along their roadway approach, illuminated in LED colors from Angstrom Lighting at night. If you saw the changing LED light display at the Millennium Center here last fall, you know the enchanting potential for such devices. Here, one might build in intensity a forest of double helix or something as you approached a new 52 and 40 interchange, or repeat some "arts and innovation" symbol around innovation gateways throughout town, from Baptist's research hospital to the Arts District to our local universities.

Architectural Showpiece
A step beyond a pattern dictated primarily by aesthetics, not engineering, is what I'm calling the architectural showpiece - a roadway that funnels you into and through such a distinct design that it would create a detour-inducing "I'd like to drive through that" experience. Frank Gehry designed the amphitheater at Chicago's Millennium Park only after officials agreed also to let him build this over-the-highway connector. The serpentine BP Bridge is, for pedestrians and those driving underneath, a "full-metal Gehry" experience, not just a simple way to cross the road.

Imagine the driving experience going through the Clyde Arc, the Glasgow, Scotland landmark known to locals as "the Squinty Bridge" because of the tilted angle of its asymmetric tied arch. Here's a daytime view. Yes, this is a bridge going over a river, not a highway overpass. But you could create the same kind of driving experience going over the extended elevated highway section of Business 40 in front of Corpening Plaza. It takes advantage of the intimate view of Winston-Salem's living room that is afforded in that stretch of road, and "Squinty" isn't too different from an arch span design proffered by one team of local designers for that spot in last October's Creative Bridge Design exhibition. Likewise, the same driver's vista would be appealing alongside the Piedmont Triad Research Park - not that different from the Santiago Calatrava bridge I Photoshopped into downtown a few years ago.

Authenticity, and "the Gambler" rule
In designing a creative highway overpass, it is possible to use any combination of these creative attributes here listed or others, limited only by an artist's, engineer's, or architect's imagination. I would only add two aesthetic caveats of my own to their use - I'm sure the money folks and others will find more. It seems to me the best regarded works shown here are authentic both to their place and to their purpose. The creative additions in design are celebrations of real things in the location or its spirit. For example, to me, the Hakim Expressway Overpass above in Teheran, Iran has many interesting things in it: but as an outside visual visitor, it also strikes me as being less authentic to its place and more a zealous banquet of stylistic tweaks. Then again, I freely admit that, having seen Babylonian blue bricks from the Ishtar Gate, I feel incongruence when I see Williamsburg brick in the land of ancient Persia.
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Lastly, given the number of overpass bridges we will be replacing in a short stretch in Winston-Salem, there probably should be either a measured restraint in the variety from any one overpass experience to the next or at least hints at stylistic consistency throughout. To that end, the Arts Council's working group committee has these last few months already noted that some of the bridges to be replaced lend themselves to extra design opportunities more than others. To me, it brings to mind the judiciousness called for in the old Kenny Rogers' song, "The Gambler" - "you've got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em." Just because you can make every bridge a work of art, a light show, and a fountain - and, yes, Nanhu Bridge above is a nice bridge in Nanning, China - it doesn't mean you have to or ought to.

Many of these images of bridges were posted by Flickr users in public topic forums. Since clicking on an image here in Blogger will only lead to a larger image hosted on this site, I have listed the source link and poster of the original image in the "title" tag visible when you hover your mouse over an image. I have not seen a cataloging done of transportation designs by the kind of aesthetic category I have tried to do here (let me know if you know of one). Yet an inspiration for me and the PA&DC remains Dian Magie's book On the Road Again: Creative Transportation Design, which catalogs examples by function of project rather than by the aesthetic element creatively altered. -JEE

Bridges - and Public Art - Update

2009-10-07T07:43:00.000-07:00

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.

If life is a blank book, shouldn't we put art in it?

2009-06-09T13:03:00.000-07:00

That's the idea being brought to the community by the Forsyth County Public Library in its new collaborative book art project, "Leave Your Mark."

Modeled after Portsmouth, England's Visual Libraries project, the local effort begins this weekend for teens and kids as part of the June 13 kickoff of the county library's Summer Reading Program, and starts later this month for adults. Librarians Audra Eagle, Candace Brennan, and the library staff have created several themed folios of pages which patrons can check out of the library and to which they can add their individual art drawings and materials to the folio book's theme. Themes for adults include "Memories," "Mountains," "Winston-Salem," "Dreams," "Love," and more. You can then "Leave Your Mark" by writing, sewing, drawing, painting, or adding photographs or stickers. Check out a themed book from the Humanities Department at the reference desk in the Central Library on Fifth Street and let it be your journal, notebook, sketchbook, or craft book. Books can be checked out for two-week intervals (no renewals) and can also be put on hold and sent to other branches for pick-up. Patrons are asked to avoid adding bulky art and to not disturb the work of other contributors. Return your book to the library and watch as your art becomes part of a community expression on the theme, shared with and then added to by others - all ages, backgrounds, and talents that we have in the Winston-Salem area.

As of right now, the project is seeking to partner with local art organizations to expand its scope to other branches and promote itself to the larger art community and public. Library organizers also hope the project grows into a future art exhibit: you'll likely see them at future Trade Street "gallery hops" this summer. If your organization is interested in participating in this project, please contact Audra Eagle or Candace Brennan at the Central Library, or visit the Forsyth County Public Library online for further information.

Photos are from Portsmouth, UK's Flickr feed of highlights of their project.

Would you sign on?

2009-05-31T12:47:00.000-07:00

"I/We, ___________, advocate the use of distinctive architectural design and public art in the renovation of our major downtown transportation corridors as a way of branding and communicating the city of Winston-Salem as a place of creative commerce."

How many institutions, civic groups, neighborhood associations, business groups and individual citizens could we get to sign on to such a simple declarative statement as a way of telling political and transportation leadership that this issue and opportunity is important?

Fill in your name. Get groups you belong to to agree to this modest proposal as well. Share the signed statement with area elected officials, city transporation and planning departments, and the state DOT. Share a blank one with friends and neighbors. Moneys will be set aside to be spent on our thoroughfares. This is about how, not how much. Add your support before old habits are in place.

More Public Art news via Twitter; Blog Update Schedule

2009-05-21T09:45:00.000-07:00

You'll notice if you are a regular browser of our blog that we recently added a Twitter news feed at right on our full screen pages. Why did we add the feature? It's a way for me to post links to stories that will be of interest to you if you like public art, but which are on topics that were either too short to expand upon - as Goldilocks would say, they were already "just right" - or the topics were not directly relevant to current work in Winston-Salem. They were just...interesting. Idea generators.

What have you been missing if not following our Twitter "tweets"? Recent posts include: "CNET's recent list of 'Top 5 Hi-tech Public Art Masterpieces' (with another five thrown in for good measure...)." "Love and Public Art in the Time of Budget Cuts (apologies to G.G. Marquez): How St. Lucie County FL is coping." "See how this Plensa piece in downtown Des Moines perks up the skyline." "Congrats to 4 in NC listed; but no Winston-Salem? AmericanStyle's Top 25 Arts Destinations: Asheville #2 small city." We will try and post something new twice a week to our Twitter account on Sundays and Wednesdays (though we won't be chained to an update if our personal travel schedule makes us late a time or two). Point is, there is much to see and learn from out there, and we want to keep you interested in this topic as we wait for more local leadership on the issue. If you'd like to follow us directly through your own Twitter account, our account is @arsurbi. Otherwise, just check our Twitter RSS feed updates here regularly.

Finally, to date, most of our blog posts have been events-driven, not calendar-driven. As summer is usually a slow period in our town, I'll be trying to post new blog entries once a week or so on the weekend. Again, the goal is to keep you abreast of news in the development of public art ideas locally, and the best in public art practices in other locations around the state, nation, and "planet Earth." Quentin Tarantino said at his Cannes premiere this week that he doesn't make "American" movies, but "movies for the planet Earth." It was movie promo hubris - and Cannes organizers loved that they were the place to go to be seen by "planet Earth" - but as art goes, it was the right kind of hubris. Public art may have local ties in Winston-Salem, but quality art has a language understood by "planet Earth."

Art needing tending by YOU - Small Plots

2009-05-08T07:12:00.000-07:00

A new public art show needs your participation this weekend in Winston-Salem, as Greensboro experiential artist and UNCG professor Lee Walton brings real-time performance art to the streets and gathering places of our town. The next installments of his interactive series, Small Plots, are tomorrow: "Too Many Oranges" at 2pm at Mooney's Mediterranean Cafe at 101 W. 4th Street downtown; and "Lost Business Man" at 3pm on the open lawn at Trade and 4th Streets in front of One Park Vista. Other shows and locations are on Sunday afternoon, and following Saturdays and Sundays throughout May.

From Walton's own well-crafted website, this next installment of SECCA's Inside Out public art series uses "parcels of Winston-Salem as the platform for short vignettes snatched from everyday life. As such, everything from street corners and park benches to supermarkets, shopping malls and residential neighborhoods become potential stages...." "The beauty and magic of these acts is thus, that – somewhere between social experiment and staged event – the very distinction between life and theater grows dim. Instead, the city and people of Winston-Salem are activated as players on a shared stage where no one is entirely sure of the parameters." Audience members should come prepared to be "play"-ful participant observers.

A complete schedule of all venues and times for the six different 30-minute performances can be found on the SECCA website. You can preview the setup in each performance, and get cues on when and how to interact with the actors, by visiting Walton's website. The artist and actors would love to see you there this weekend. And remember: there are no small players, only "Small Plots."

Our Fermata Cantata

2009-05-05T09:56:00.001-07:00

I am often asked "where are we on the Business 40 bridges project?" "what's going on with public art?" "what we can we do to help get it going?" And I must say, big-picture wise, regarding public art in Winston-Salem, the image that flashes in my mind, and catches responding words in my throat when asked such questions, is the symbol above.

For the musically challenged among us - and yes, I once pronounced the phrase "treble and bass" as if I were describing fishing adjectives for "hook and boat" - here's a nuanced description from the site www.bach-cantatas.com. "A fermata is the musical symbol of a semicircle (facing downward) with a dot inside it. In some music, it means we should hold a note longer than we would normally. In other music, it simply marks the end of a phrase (e.g. in a Bach chorale) suggesting a lift or a breath, with or without extra time; or in some other situations it merely marks the end of a whole piece, meaning 'don't bother turning the page, you've reached the last note.' Some people automatically assume that it means the first thing; others take it situation by situation. It's important to think about, anyway."

I think giving birth to a sustained public art effort in Winston-Salem is a bit like listening to a "fermata cantata." There are many beautiful voices - artists, institutions, politicians, administrators, advocates. I hear some intriguing melody lines - new bridges defined by creative art and design, a centennial to be celebrated with art placed joyfully around town. Efforts at a basso continuo - a city-sponsored public art commission, maybe, eventually, with common folk involved in the claiming and proclaiming. There are performing stages (though to date they change with each movement of the work) - Arts Council, SECCA, NCDOT, private developers. But there's just a lot of fits and starts that are hard for people to follow. Even for someone as dedicated as I am to the promise of public art, it takes a lot of effort to believe there is a unity to all these staccato bursts, a product that will sound as sweet as I believe it will when we look back on what we've done here.

The fact is, in music, you have to have a conductor, a leader, to tell you how long the fermatas are. The conductor tells you when to stop, but when to get going again. The conductor has to have a baton everyone can see and acknowledge from their point of view, not just a soapbox to stand on. For our public art effort, that baton-wielding conductor could be a political leader, a sustaining benefactor, or both.

I'd like to tell you when this "fermata cantata" piece will be set, when everyone will heed their cues, when unity of purpose will make a beautiful public art music we can all see with our eyes. I can promise you, though, that the more who advocate for public art from the city, who say they want "a ticket," the sooner the performance will be underway again. And at the end of that day, I'll say "Bravo!"

Silhouetted Skaters Enchant in New Public Art

2009-04-17T12:05:00.000-07:00

In the storefront windows of Winston-Salem's historic Loewy building, 500 W. Fourth Street, downtown restaurants' evening patrons, our RiverRun Film Festival guests, and anyone with an interest to come and see can enjoy Anna von Gwinner's second local video installation, Minus 8, as part of SECCA's ongoing public art exhibition, Inside Out. The installation is on view April 15 - 30, nightly, from 7 pm to midnight.

Inside the Loewy Building, von Gwinner projects silhouettes of figure skaters practicing their routines. Watching these figures glide and soar, viewers can project their own escape from the expected in the urban landscape, and, in the words of SECCA's website, see "hints at Winston-Salem traditions of theater, athletics and ghost stories." It's also just cool to watch. You can dial 336-201-0681 and hear podcasts with more about the artist and the creation of this work.

Von Gwinner and the buildling's namesake would have had an affininty for each other's work. Raymond Loewy (1893-1986) left his mark on hundreds of products and businesses still in use today as one of the last century's premiere industrial and graphic designers. In 1949 Loewy Associates was hired to expand and remodel 500 W. Fourth (then the Thalhimers department store) with his distinctive streamlined design. His was a constancy of aesthetic vision across a variety of material mediums.

Anna von Gwinner studied Fine Art at Goldsmiths' College in London and Architecture at the UdK in Berlin. Her experience in a successful architectural practice for several years informs her talent in exploring and manipulating spaces withing the urban landscape. Her short video loops, all imaginary moments in the life of a city, show a constancy of aesthetic play within a variety of architectural shapes.

Loewy Building photo from Downtown Winston-Salem Association website; Loewy photo from Raymond Loewy on the web. A word of thanks: "Inside-Out: Artists in the Community II" is supported by a grant from The Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that "a great nation deserves great art." In-kind support is provided by Sundance Plaza Hotel, Spa and Wellness Center; AdColor of Winston-Salem; and Moore's Self Storage.

Millennium Park's Ed Uhlir Speaks at City Hall

2009-04-13T07:12:00.000-07:00

The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, the Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County, and Mayor Allen Joines are co-sponsoring a lecture by Chicago architect and public design innovator Ed Uhlir on Tuesday, April 21, at 7 pm in the second-floor City Council Chambers of Winston-Salem's City Hall, 101 N. Main Street. Uhlir is the Executive Director of Chicago's Millennium Park, and is responsible for the management, maintenance and improvement of this world-famous center for art, music, architecture and landscape design.

Millennium Park is the result of a unique partnership between the City of Chicago and its philanthropic community. Among works featured in the 24.5-acre park are the outdoor concert venue designed by Frank Gehry, the Jay Pritzker Pavilion; Gehry's brushed stainless steel walkway, the BP Bridge; the video interactive Crown Fountain, by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa; and Anish Kapoor's liquid mercury-inspired Cloud Gate sculpture on AT&T Plaza. The lecture is yet another part of SECCA's Inside Out: Artists in the Community II exhibition series.

The lecture is free and open to the public, but seating is limited, and RSVPs are required. To reserve your space at the event, please call 336.397.2109 or e-mail SECCA here. Image from the Millennium Park website.

Arts Council Funding New Public Art Commissions

2009-04-01T10:33:00.000-07:00

The Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County today announced its commitment to spend up to $100,000 in commissions for two public art projects at the new Downtown Center for the Arts. The Council has begun a renovation and enlargement of its former headquarters at the historic Sawtooth Building in downtown Winston-Salem, and construction should be completed by fall 2010. Two locations at this site, home of the new Downtown Center, have been selected for placement of specifically commissioned works of art. Professional artists or teams of artists nationwide may submit qualifications for the two projects up to the submission deadline of May 15. Information about the art locations and the full Request for Qualifications ("RFQ") can be found here at the Arts Council website; and artists with additional questions may email the Arts Council's Rebecca Parker. Three cheers plus for the Arts Council's leading by example, investing in our city's public art landscape!

Random Acts of Mind-Bliss

2009-03-31T10:30:00.001-07:00

SECCA and Winston-Salem welcome German artist Anna von Gwinner to town this week as she opens the first of a two-part exhibition of her work in SECCA's "Inside Out: Artists in the Community II" series of public art. Her first work, "in flight," is on display this weekend only, April 3-5, from 7-10pm nightly at a most unusual location: an RV storage container at the Moore Self-Storage facility in an industrial park off Stratford Road, 3935 Westpoint Boulevard (see directions here).

Von Gwinner is known for her use of video projections, taking short video loops of everyday objects and silhouettes and placing them in surprising encounters of scale and place that get viewers to re-imagine their experience of the urban landscape. In this new work the dislocation of placement space mirrors the dislocation of our economic environment these days. And her imagery, balls of all shapes, sizes and colors speeding through the frame without ever fully revealing their path -- well, the feeling of disconnect from cause and effect should be familiar to anyone watching the fall of their blue-chip 401k portfolios this last year....

The folks at SECCA invite all to come take a view of this playful yet thought-provoking complement to our built environment. And if you come early there is an additional enticement: the first 300 visitors to the projection will be eligible to win an Apple iPhone 3G (no usage contract, just the phone). Drawing registration will take place April 3, 4 and 5 during show times. Images courtesy of the SECCA website.

Public Art Party-Planning

2009-03-25T08:14:00.000-07:00

The United Kingdom is using public art to celebrate an important event in the life of the nation: the upcoming London 2012 Olympic Games. As part of a Cultural Olympiad which celebrates the other unique attributes of the sporting event's host country, UK Arts Councils and partners are sponsoring the "Artists Taking the Lead" project, bringing artists together with local communities to create twelve major pieces of artwork for the nine regions of England and one each in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. With a budget of $7.9 million - up to $731,000 per commission - they are "encouraging artists to use the nation as a blank canvas and showcase the UK's creativity to the world."

Even if we lack their budget, the process and goals of the UK plan are instructive to how Winston-Salem might use public art in its centennial party-planning for 2013. In the spring of 2009, UK artists are being solicited to submit 400-word proposals for ideas for an artwork. To be considered, the works must 1) be original; 2) reflect, and be inspired by, the location in which they will take shape; 3) leave a legacy for artists and communities beyond 2012; and 4) celebrate London 2012 and reflect the values and vision of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. One could imagine similar criteria for art here. It should reflect the neighborhood or cultural community in which it's sited - Buena Vista, Waughtown, Reynoldstown, Southside, and Mineral Springs all have a different feel than the Central Business District. The artwork should be of long-term value to the city by showcasing its appreciation for, and attracting further, quality art. And each piece of art could celebrate an aspect of Winston-Salem's story, qualities, or aspirations.

By this summer, four finalists for each of the twelve projects will be chosen in the UK and awarded $7300 to flesh out their ideas into formal proposals. Proposals will be chosen this fall for work to be finished by 2012. That's a four-year lead time from idea, to formal proposal, to selection, to installation. And the money for their work has already been pledged and is in place. In Winston-Salem we have four years until 2013. We have no monies assigned - yet. We have no public or private organization able to sponsor, or gather artist ideas and community feedback, or help with siting and red tape - yet. But if we could get just one new transcendent symbol for our city out of a process that asks artists to envision with us, we might indeed become not just a place best known for its quality product vices - both glazed and filtered - but also, without hesitation, "that City of the Arts."

Photo from London 2012 website. Thanks to SECCA's Mark Leach for the tip on public art work for London 2012.

Rise Up Winston-Salem

2009-03-11T11:14:00.000-07:00

Congrats to artist Charlie Brouwer, SECCA, Old Salem, and our community for contributing to the successful creation of Winston-Salem's newest work of public art, "Rise Up Winston-Salem," on display now through April 12 at Tavern Meadow on Main Street in Old Salem.

Building off a recurring theme in many of his own early sculptural works, Brouwer began creating his "Rise Up" series in 2002, using ladders as a representation of the notion of "rising up:" in the words of the SECCA description of his work, "translating the human impulse to strive for something higher into a form of community building." The SECCA website features podcasts of interviews with the artist and a fascinating time-lapse film of the creation of this work. (Acknowledgment should be given, too, to the Moravian blessing upon the weather for this installation - it was a gorgeous early spring day.) In a further nod to community building, the artist and SECCA have recorded stories behind a number of the ladders lent for the creation of this project - including one accidental memory attached to Mayor Joines' ladder - and those are accessible on site and remotely by calling 336-201-0681. The picture above and other photos of this installation can be found at SECCA's MySpace photo site.

If in Hickory, Clayton, and Asheville - why not here?

2009-02-10T10:20:00.000-08:00

An editorial last week reported that the city of Winston-Salem is currently debating a structure for formally supporting public art in Winston-Salem, and that members of city government and the Arts Council's Public Art and Design Committee have varied ideas about how best to do that. The editorial endorses some form of support for public art, but shares others' worries about costs in these tight economic times.

According to this survey from the North Carolina Arts Council, there are already in the state a dozen different established programs for the procurement, siting, and maintenance of public art. Chapel Hill, Asheville, and Charlotte have a "percent for art" requirement in different public works that creates an income stream for public art acquisition. The North Carolina Zoo, Charlotte and Triangle transit authorities, Raleigh-Durham's airport and Greensboro's Public Library System have their own public art programs with varying budgets. The City of Hickory and the Town of Cary each follow a public art plan, and rely on occasional public and private grants to fund commissions.

Though some government entities have designated income streams to fund public art, most do not. But not having a dedicated fund for art doesn't mean that many cities in North Carolina aren't better prepared than Winston-Salem to accept the gift of public art when it is made. According to the state Arts Council, "The municipalities of Durham, Greensboro, Burlington, Concord, Davidson, Hendersonville, Hickory, Kinston, Rocky Mount, New Bern, Smithfield, Clayton, Salisbury, Waynesville, and Wilson, do not, as yet, have formal public art programs, but do have public art boards that commission public works of art on a project-by-project basis."

Why can't we have at least that in Winston-Salem, the self-proclaimed - with some justification - "City of the Arts" in North Carolina? If "chance favors the prepared mind," doesn't it make sense that a more beautifully adorned streetscape is favored in a city prepared to make it so? Shouldn't we organize for good things, gifts, opportunities, public art beauty, when times are lean, so that when times are right we will be prepared to "seize the day"? As a cheerleader for this effort, let me offer a sports analogy. If they had stopped preparing when the prospects looked bleak, would last season's Arizona Cardinals ever have become this season's opportunistic Arizona Cardinals? (as painful as that is to think about, being a Carolina Panthers fan...)

Yes, it would be great to have in place everything on a public art civic wish list: money to spend, professional leadership attracting top talent, organized community support and participation, and a shared vision for a city enriched by public art. Agreeing on the importance of that vision and beginning to organize for it are steps we can take now as a city. These are more character decisions than economic ones. For what do we wish to be known, to ourselves and others? Winston-Salem has been blessed to have many art resources - schools, galleries, an art district with shops and eateries - most of which have happened through the hard work and the philanthropic largesse of private individuals. It's time we took ownership as a city of a part of their gift. What's important to us as a community will be known by where we act, and where we fail to act.

The mission of the North Carolina Arts Council is to make North Carolina a better state through the arts. The council nurtures and supports excellence in the arts, and provides opportunities for every North Carolinian to experience the arts. A division of the Department of Cultural Resources, the Arts Council serves as a catalyst for the development of arts organizations and facilities throughout North Carolina with grant funding and technical assistance.

Raising Arizona - and Winston-Salem

2009-02-10T08:02:00.000-08:00

Imagine driving down an expressway and, within the space of just a couple of miles, three different pedestrian bridges turn your head because of how different each is from a normal concrete span and from each other. Such was the experience of local Arts Council Public Art & Design Committee Chair Thorns Craven last week on a trip to Scottsdale, Arizona - and here are his photos of the pleasant driving surprise.

Winston-Salem resident Ruby Bailey read about our PA&DC's efforts in the paper last summer and called me to talk about how she loves driving when she's visiting her daughter out in Arizona for the same reason. It's the unexpected surprises of her driving trips, the care of placed beauty that the locals give to you to help you remember and appreciate the space. Ruby sent me some materials about the "petroglyphs" incised along the retaining walls and bridges of some Arizona highways that mimic other area rock writings, both at historic Native American sites and those incised in the modern landscape. She sent along drawings her family and friends there secured from the Arizona DOT as a way of encouraging us locally in our push to get our downtown Business 40 done in an artistically distinct manner.

Other government agencies have been impressed how transportation officials and artists and designers have raised Arizona highways to a special level of excellence. Seattle transportation planners have reprinted an article featuring the Arizona success story in a three-part manual they had artist Daniel Mihalyo create as a guide for urban design - scroll down this page of the city's public art plans to the section on the Seattle Department of Transportation. You can read that article, "Road Work," by Harriet Senie originally in Public Art Review in the Spring/Summer 2002 issue, on page 135 here of the Seattle design "toolkit."

All three parts of Mihalyo's Seattle toolkit make important reading for anyone interested in better transportation design through public art. Keep lobbying NCDOT and local elected officials if you think this effort is important. Rock art from City of Phoenix website.

SECCA Steps Up: "Inside-Out"

2009-01-26T05:56:00.000-08:00

Great news to start a year of public art. SECCA, Winston-Salem's Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, is sponsoring a series of seven prominent exhibitions of public art in the city in 2009. As the Winston-Salem Journal's John Railey noted in a recent editorial, SECCA is itself closed for all of 2009 in order to undergo major renovations to its building, and could have been forgiven for staying out-of-sight for a year as it revamped. Instead, they have boldly announced a plan to broadcast their mission of engaging the community with best in current art by turning their museum "Inside-Out," the title of this series of shows. You can hear SECCA's Curator of Contemporary Art Stephen Matijcio and Curator of Education Michael Christiano talk with WFDD's Bradley George about the concept for the series in this Triad Arts Up Close radio/podcast interview.

First up in the SECCA lineup is wood artist and sculptor Charlie Brouwer, a Radford University art professor. On the last two weekends in February, Brouwer will invite the town to lend him its old wooden ladders - and any war stories attached thereto - for a month-long show at Tavern Meadow at Old Salem. Brouwer has wonderful gifts for pulling beauty and meaning from woods, from intimate carvings to large assemblages. In Winston-Salem, he'll use the familiar, the community meeting ground of Old Salem and your own garage artifacts, to present an installation of new meaning and depth by which to welcome spring. We'll post more details here on Brouwer's wants and display dates as they become available.

What a nice connection between the craft traditions of Salem and the art aspirations of our modern town - thanks, SECCA! All images from Charlie Brouwer's website.

Proof Everything Ends Up on the Web Eventually

2009-01-22T17:51:00.000-08:00

For those who want to imagine a different driving experience on Business 40, I offer a palpable reminder of what it currently is like. An unknown YouTube poster, "linesinthesand," has posted an extended video from his dashboard as he cruises from the west side of Forsyth County, first on US 421, and then to the east along Business 40. The real-time driving experience of the bridges in the planned Business 40 reconstruction begins at 5:19 into the clip at Fourth Street, and ends at 6:28 of the clip at Church Street. Good music here, too, though I personally prefer ZZ Top's "La Grange" as a soundtrack when motoring for pleasure. The groove in this video takes me back to days patrolling Gaston County in the late '70s in a mellow cream-yellow-and-tan Cutlass Supreme. "Opera windows:" now that was public art!

Guess Which City

2009-01-20T12:55:00.000-08:00

Here's a job advertisement just received from public art advocates in a North Carolina town looking to build on its cultural advantages. Take a guess: where in North Carolina might such an effort exist?

"X" seeks an entrepreneurial and visionary leader for the position of Executive Director. In fulfillment of its mission to “promote, inspire, encourage and support visual arts for uplifting the human spirit in the community,” "X" commissions public art, organizes exhibitions of public art, presents educational art programs, and supports community arts events with investments of artistic, financial and volunteer resources.

The Executive Director will provide vision for the fulfillment of our organization’s artistic mission. In collaboration with our Board, the Executive Director will identify and prioritize opportunities for new art commissions and programs; identify and recruit artists to participate in competitive selection processes; recruit financial and human resources; and implement commissions and programs. Experience in the management of public art projects; recruitment and organization of volunteers; and fund-raising through grants, contracts, and personal solicitations are required.

The Executive Director will work with the our Board to develop and implement a strategic plan that will address the opportunities and challenges of a community experiencing dynamic growth, one that values its history while welcoming national acclaim as one of the best places to live in the United States. The Executive Director will develop creative partnerships throughout the community – with the town government, private corporations, schools, and non-governmental agencies – to engage personal participation and financial investment in the visual arts.

Now one might think that such an endeavor would be happening in a town many call a "city of the arts," a town that hosts the flagship arts educational institution in the state's university system, a town that boasts the newest member of the state's art museums and another facility hosting a premier collection of American art. The fact that same town has a thriving downtown arts district with galleries, lofts, shops, and restaurants - and is home to the first local arts council in America - would have you nodding affirmatively that that surely sounds like something a town like that would be doing.

But that's not happening in my town, Winston-Salem, the fourth-largest in the state. Instead look to Cary, which a generation ago was a 10,000-person one-stoplight bump on the back-road trip from my dorm in Chapel Hill to see friends in Raleigh. Cary is the fastest-growing suburb in the state, so fast in fact (over 120,000 now, half a Winston) that not too long from now folks may talk about flying into Raleigh-Cary, not just Raleigh-Durham. Befitting a town that sees its best days as both now and in the future, Cary - with a public art plan and the help of Cary Visual Art, Inc., the group in search of a Director in this ad - is intentionally planning beauty and inspiration as part of its rapid growth and ongoing community re-imagining.

In Raleigh-Cary, each community, Raleigh and Cary, has an organization and a plan to accept, site, acquire, and maintain public art. In Winston-Salem, neither Winston nor Salem do. What we are left with here is the "-". Would that we could fill in this blank.

Showing Pasts and Aspirations Along a Highway

2009-01-20T11:42:00.000-08:00

Artist Janet Echelman was one of the presenters at the Public Art 360 symposium in Chapel Hill last spring. In browsing through YouTube for public art ideas, I ran across this sculpture of hers done a few years ago for the culturally rich city of Porto, Portugal. After opening with a quick overview of the artist's other works, the video takes you through five years of development and installation on "She Changes," a signature piece which captures the city waterfront's heritage as a fishing community and puts it in the sky above a highway where imaginations and the wind can play with it. The video shows how drivers approach the work, measuring 160 feet tall and 300 feet wide, and then how pedestrians enjoy it as well.

On the YouTube site the comment section under the video is half-filled with snarky comments about the work, half-filled with serious ones (heaven help those who try to please the tastes of the drive-by verbal assassins of the net). The piece was not inexpensive. I don't know how much of its 1.6 million dollar cost was paid for with private funds and how much with public; nor how much of its costs were for land acquisition, or materials, or construction. But as a piece of inspiration, and an authentic jumping-off from a community icon - the fishing net - it works for me.

Art doesn't "work" for everyone in the same way - as the sampled audience in the video shows. Really good works assuredly don't. But what an aspiring, confident statement. I lift a glass of tawny Oporto product in admiration....

Top image from Sculpture.org website, courtesy Florence Lynch Gallery; photo by Joao Ferrand and David Feldman.

20+C+M+B+09: A Year of Public Art?

2009-01-15T09:12:00.000-08:00

This year, while taking down the Christmas stuff, I discovered a note which I had somehow overlooked the previous two weeks. The unusual source of the note and its topic make it germane to this blog, and I reproduce it below. My kids have often left notes to Santa. This is the first time Santa left a note about something other than the milk and cookies; and although the envelope was addressed to me, the note inside was to my town....

Dear Winston-Salem:
You have had a good conversation about public art in 2008. I've read your blog and the stories in the papers. I've seen some good ideas, and watched a few cheeks get rosier as visions of public art sugarplums danced in your heads. Why that misty November light show at the old post office got me as joyful as that Tanglewood display always does. Now Santa doesn't do this often...but I really think you can help me give a great gift to yourselves and all who visit you, if you will take a few "next steps" in 2009. You deserve it, Winston-Salem. But even with all my magic, I can't deliver this gift to you without your help. Will you do these five things for me in 2009?

1) Have your city start a public art and design commission. Santa knows it's hard to keep track of goodies unless you have a stocking to put them in. It doesn't cost money to have a place to park and grow place-making ideas with good art and design. But it's hard to grow them, or talk about them, without a place to gather the whole community's wish lists. There, too, you can inventory what you have and take ownership of that idea of yours to be a "city of the arts." Santa's been around. It's hard to be a "city of the arts" if your city isn't organized to make art an intentional part of public life.

2) Hire a nationally-known public artist or architectural design consultant to help do your big transportation projects. Yes, I know you just made a wish list of things for your new president to do with his economic stimulus money. Yes, I know this was not on your list. But think bigger, Winston-Salem. Don't look for new money to do needed things like Business 40 in the old ways. Look for new money to do needed things in better ways. Santa asks for lists for a reason (and no wisecracks about my age). I want to give you what you think is important. If being distinctive, innovative, creative, joyful, and remembered in the way you present yourself on your thoroughfares is important - ask for what you need to make it happen. I always have to remind my older list-writers: dare to believe!

3) Give your first public art gifts to those you see everyday: your neighbors. Santa likes your public art work so much because it is a gift that can keep giving joy and inspiration and specialness every day. (We work so hard to get folks to share that feeling year-round, you know?) You have a centennial celebration coming up in 2013. That's five years to gather ideas, money and talent to make place-making art a part of the landscape in each ward of your city. In the scheme of things, it's like the candy canes on the tree - not a lot of cost, but what a wonderful taste it leaves on the palate. Trust me. It will make you happy.

4) Don't wait - make 2009 a year of public art! Just like my annual visits cause excitement because people know I'm only physically there for a brief time (though I know whenever you've been bad or good, John and Zach), public art can cause short-term excitements. It can be on the streets for a season, and then it will linger as a happy spot in our memories. (Hmmm, I remember first meeting Mrs. Claus at an apple festival. The moment I saw that woman in red, I knew she was for me.) Too often people think of art as tied to an institution or the gallery that exhibits it. Invite some artist folks to town and celebrate with something new every few weeks. You do it every year or so at River Run with films, and at West End's ARTSfest in the fall. Now take the joy to the streets: and just like those wonderful bell-ringers do for me, seasonal public art will cause people to turn their heads, and look and feel better inside.

5) Start a German-style Christmas Market. Okay. This one is personal, I admit. But I look at a place with a pedestrian-friendly arts district and a trail-way to historic Old Salem. I see a community founded by a group of German-speaking immigrants. I know you like to eat (Santa knows his calories). Why not on one or two weekends every Advent have a downtown Christmas market? With outdoor crafts booths, musical performances with UNCSA-types and local choruses, food delicacies Moravian and otherwise, and lay claim city-wide to your distinctive arts, crafts and cultural heritage? You could have tents and booths and stages from Old Salem up to the Arts District. Maybe it's just me - and smelling all those Mrs. Hanes' Moravian cookie crumbs in my beard for six months every year. But if any place in the South could take the holiday experience to - as my younger elves like to say - "a whole 'nother level," it's you, Twin City, it's you.

Well, I'm long-winded and have to scoot. Places to go. Cookies to eat (thanks for yours, btw.). Remember: Santa loves you no matter what. But give some gifts to yourself this year, will you? S.C.

N.B. In south Germany, where I spent a beautiful winter in 1988, the locals write in chalk over the door a New Year's greeting as the old year ends and the new begins - the initials of the three wise men (Caspar, Melchior, Balthazar) in the middle of a "numbering out" of the year arriving. When Epiphany and the wise men get here, down come the letters with other decorations until next year. It's a blessing of the year ahead by the same stewards of good tidings and joy as two thousand years ago, and a tradition I've started doing at our house. (Nice Santa photo by Winston-Salem Journal's David Rolfe.)

Lucy's Gone Away

2008-11-21T12:56:00.000-08:00

On this chill of a day, a blustery afternoon after the first dusting of snow of the year, it might be appropriate to pause and remember part of Winston's public art past. In the mid 1970s neighbors in the revitalizing West End part of town contracted with an artist to gift to the city a work that seemed to symbolize the emerging yet unfinished rebirth of their own historic neighborhood. The artist, a young Thomas Sayre, placed the work in the woods-encircled natural amphitheater that is northeast Hanes Park. In a moment of unintended prophetic irony, the artist called the walled edifice "Lucy's Gone Away." Though not everyone appreciated the symbolism of the work, no one thought its presence in the landscape was in jeopardy. But, not many months after this picture was taken, a landscaping crew damaged part of the work while mowing. When someone asked what to do about it, no one in the city quite knew how to "fix it;" and, not long after that, one day the work was simply torn down. Lucy went away.

Public art is a mix of things large and small, temporary and permanent. But it almost always is intentional in its appearance in the landscape. The lesson of Lucy is, if a community is not intentional in preserving and maintaining public art in the landscape, it will disappear. Let's hope we've learned our lesson in Winston. Photo courtesy of Thorns Craven.

A Light in our Piazza - Tonight thru Saturday

2008-11-13T12:50:00.000-08:00

Following on last month's Stevens Center performance of the Adam Guettel work about Winston-Salem folks on Italian holiday, tonight through Saturday night you can see the Millennium Center's piazza in a whole new light. Literally. Every thirty minutes, from 6:30-11:00pm.

As Ken Keuffel reported in the Winston-Salem Journal last Sunday, lighting students of Norman Coates at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts have teamed their design talents with lighting industry leader and masterclass teacher Paul Gregory to add a definite new spark to the public art scene in Winston. Underwritten by the founding owners of Lucifer Lighting in San Antonio, UNCSA supporters Gilbert and Suzanne Mathews, the show at 101 W. Fifth St. will have plenty of attention running concurrent with the annual Piedmont Craftsmen's Fair in town. It's just the kind of creative flash the town needs more of. Thanks to all involved in this project - perhaps something permanent is on the way soon?

Photo, from UNC School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, shows how one of six different designs has been planned for the building - here by Michael Kohler and his team of Alex Bright and Kyle Grant.

Video of September 16 "Creative Bridge Design" Exhibit Opening

2008-09-21T19:37:00.000-07:00

Triangle Neighbors Paint the Town

2008-09-18T05:40:00.000-07:00

Or at least one whole street of it.

groundSPARK, the Raleigh Street Painting Festival, will be held September 19-21 in City Market, Moore Square Art District. Sponsored by Visual Art Exchange, this free and open-to-the-public event is part of SPARKcon, both a local talent showcase and a series of workshops to capture ideas about the creative future of the Triangle area of North Carolina.

The event won't just involve letting the kids loose with those oversize pastel chalk sticks on the asphalt (though they'll be a space for that, too). City Market will be filled with over 400 artists actually painting the street, using Martin Street in Moore Square as their canvas. The artists will have only 27 hours to complete their work and will work alongside graffiti artists, fashion designers and musicians to transform Downtown Raleigh into a work of art.

The Raleigh event reminds us in Winston that while we're unafraid to boldly dream of bridges and immovable legacies through public art and design, public art can also be joyously immediate and celebratory, even for a brief moment of time and space. It's a reflection of life - a mix of poof and gone, treasured and transcendent.

Attend a Community Forum During the DADA Creative Bridge Exhibit

2008-09-17T17:13:00.000-07:00

Last night's "Creative Bridge Design" exhibit at the DADA Center was a wonderful introduction to the possibilities that the renewal of our transportation infrastructure can bring. Twenty-two local architects and artists have works displayed, and we will try to post some examples of their conversation-starting work here in future posts.

Because the exhibit space does not have regular hours but is usually available by appointment only, members of the general public will want to stop and see the showcase of Business 40 brainstorming during a series of one-hour community forums these next three weeks. The forums for discussion and presentation of design successes from other states will be led by members of the Arts Council's Public Art and Design Committee. Forums take place from 6:30-7:30pm at the DADA Community Center Gallery on 526 N. Liberty St in Winston-Salem on the following three nights: Thursday, Sept. 18; Thursday, Sept. 25; and Tuesday, Sept. 30. A final forum will take place during the October DADA Gallery Hop from 7:00-9:00pm on Friday, October 3.

If you are unable to come during these forum times and would still like to see the works before the end of the show, contact Sandy Romanac at sromanac@triad.rr.com to arrange a time for a peek.

The above photo of Fourth and Main from Liberty Street in Winston is by NCBrian and found here at flickr.

Bridges to Somewhere

2008-09-16T13:57:00.000-07:00

In a guest editorial published over the weekend in the Winston-Salem Journal, Russell DuBois, a staff architect in facilities planning for the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, argues that NCDOT replacement of the Business 40 bridges will provide downtown with architectural possibilities.

DuBois notes: "With the price of gas rising and the economy hurting, some may scoff that the last thing we need is to drive up the cost of the bridge replacement by incorporating a bunch of design frills. But it is a hallmark of great architectural design that it is often no more expensive than the run-of-the-mill alternative. And remember, this is an opportunity that won't happen again for decades. Surely we as a community can agree that any nominal extra costs would be more than made up for by the added value these designs would provide to our built environment and how it is perceived by visitors as they drive through."

Words well said.

Photos above are of the Juscelino Kubitschek Bridge, Brasilia, Brazil, as seen on the website Nine Amazingly Unique Bridges, recommended to this blogger by Katie Gunter.

Seeing Our City

2008-09-16T09:29:00.000-07:00

Under the title "Seeing our City: The Art of Defining a Place," Reynolda House is hosting a series of free public forums, with talks by leading experts and local leaders, on three successive Thursday evenings in October. The forums are in conjunction with Reynolda House's new exhibition "Seeing the City: Sloan's New York." John Sloan's paintings present a unique opportunity to promote discussion about what makes a city interesting and beautiful. Is it the variety of people that make up its residents? Is it the architecture? Is it the natural parks and places where people can relax by the water, or artists and their creativity that add an indefinable spark to a city? Support for this series is provided by the North Carolina Arts Council and the J.C. Tise Fund of The Winston-Salem Foundation.

Members of the audience will be encouraged to ask questions and contribute to the discussion. Forums begin at 7pm, and a reception follows each forum. On October 9 the forum's topic will be "The Face of Our City: Architectural Characteristics, Unique Assets, and Conscientious Development." On October 16 the focus turns to "The Heart of Our City: Downtown Living, Diversity, and a District for the Arts." The speaker that night will be Dr. James Johnson, a fellow of the Urban Land Institute, director of the Urban Investment Strategies Center, and professor at the UNC-Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler School of Business. Johnson is a nationally recognized authority on urban development and social justice. A panel discussion that night will include representatives from Goler Community Development Corporation, the Downtown Arts District, and the Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership.

Finally, on October 23 the series closes with the topic "Transforming Our City: Bridging Public Art and Public Works." The featured speaker this evening will be Frederick Gottemoeller, an architect, engineer, and author of the classic study Bridgescape: The Art of Designing Bridges. He is recognized for generating significant public involvement in conceptual engineering for major public works projects around the country. In 1998 Mr. Gottemoeller co-organized "Thinking Beyond the Pavement," the national conference that initiated the Context-Sensitive Design Movement. The evening's discussion panel includes representatives from the Public Art Committee of the Winston-Salem Arts Council, the Community Appearance Commission, and the Business 40 Project.

Eyesore to Eye Candy

2008-09-16T09:04:00.000-07:00

An exciting overview of trends in public art placemaking, Roberta Smith's article in the August 22 New York Times is well worth reading. As she notes, "over the past 15 years public sculpture — that is, static, often figurative objects of varying sizes in outdoor public spaces — has become one of contemporary art’s more exciting areas of endeavor and certainly its most dramatically improved one." For those who want to get excited by possibilities, Smith's piece is a good place to start.

The picture above of Anish Kapoor’s “Cloud Gate,” nicknamed by locals in Chicago "the Bean," is by Peter Wynn Thompson for The New York Times.

Creative Bridge Design Exhibit Opens Today, Through October 3

2008-09-16T08:42:00.000-07:00

The art exhibit "Creative Bridge Design" will take place Tuesday, September 16th and run now until October 3 at the DADA Center at 526 N. Liberty St. in the Downtown Art District in Winston-Salem.

The art exhibit is to inspire and motivate both the Winston-Salem Community and funders of the Business 40 Project to incorporate public art and creative design into the Business 40 Bridges. The presenting of local artists’ works and examples of innovative bridge design will be among the first visual models presented to the public and NCDOT for the Business 40 Bridges. It will be part of a dialogue in which the community, the Arts, and the State can work side by side on a large scale project that will heighten the city’s development and identity as the “City of the Arts”.

For further information on Creative Bridge Design art exhibition contact Katie Gunter at gunterk7@gmail.com

"Seeing the City" - Exhibit and Forums Offer Fresh Perspectives

2008-07-14T09:58:00.000-07:00

Beginning this fall, Winston-Salem's Reynolda House Museum of American Art will present “Seeing the City: Sloan’s New York,” a traveling exhibition of John Sloan’s images of New York City, which presents both an in-depth view of the artist’s time there and the effects of the city on his art. By bringing together numerous images in all media from 1904 through the 1930s, “Seeing the City” is the first major traveling exhibition to focus on Sloan’s depictions of New York and the first since the 1970s to present significant new scholarship on the artist. By cataloging in words and pictures the vast changes in the city during his time, Sloan (1871-1951) created a "pedestrian aesthetic" which helped define New York in the popular imagination. The exhibit will be on view from October 4, 2008 through January 4, 2009.

Those interested in the "pedestrian aesthetic" in Winston-Salem will also find of interest a series of public forums accompanying the exhibit. As the Museum's press release notes, "John Sloan’s paintings present a unique opportunity to promote discussion about what makes a city interesting and beautiful. Is it the variety of people that make up its residents? Is it the architecture? Is it the natural parks and places where people can relax by the water, or artists and their creativity that add an indefinable spark to a city?" The Reynolda House forums, with talks by leading experts and local leaders, will be held on three successive Thursday evenings in October. October 9, 7–9 p.m. - The Face of Our City: Architectural Characteristics, Unique Assets, and Conscientious Development. October 16, 7–9 p.m. - The Heart of Our City: Downtown Living, Diversity, and a District for the Arts. October 23, 7–9 p.m. – Transforming Our City: Bridging Public Art and Public Works.

Thanks to Reynolda House for expanding both the conversation and the venues for discussion of how art might serve our city. Top illustration is by John Sloan, "Spring Rain," 1912. Original is oil on canvas, 20 ¼ x 26 inches, at the Delaware Art Museum, a gift of the John Sloan Memorial Foundation, 1986.

Celebrating with Creative Beauty

2008-07-07T03:37:00.000-07:00

The Winston-Salem Journal was kind enough to post today a guest editorial on a fine way to celebrate Winston-Salem's centennial in 2013: with the creation of a Centennial Public Arts Commission and public art works in each ward of the city. I have been involved with how to create and care for beauty in public space since leading an effort to raise funds for a Millennium Clock in Grace Court in 1999. It was certainly very much a community-building effort in my neighborhood, and I highly recommend such efforts for public beauty to others.

Value Added? At What Cost?

2008-07-06T09:49:00.000-07:00

Even if life isn't "all about the benjamins," tough economic times remind us that money is a scarce resource, and that communities - like households - should prioritize their expenses. When Mary Giunca wrote today about the effort to beautify a new Business 40 with the aid of counsel from the arts and design community, an online reader posted this response: "No one will argue that beautifying our roadways is nice, but at what cost? We need to be careful how much this could end up costing because it is always easy to spend other peoples' money."

One of the attractions of the Business 40 project to those like myself interested in investing in public art and design is that monies for this project will be spent on beautification of the roadway no matter what. If they are not spent in small part on the advice of an artist or a designer, something else will be coded as "beautification" and the money will be spent. Failure to spend it on this kind of enhancement will not save taxpayers money - it will just be spent on something else to meet the federally mandated expenditure. But why would you pay money for outside advice on how to spend money? What is the "value added" of hiring design and aesthetic expertise like this for our city?

Last fall the City-County Planning Board celebrated its 50th anniversary and invited Ed McMahon of the Urban Land Institute to speak. As reported in a story about the visit by Giunca, McMahon said that Winston-Salem had made a good start in downtown revitalization, but "the city must continue to distinguish itself from other places, push for new construction that adds local character and be creative in telling the area's stories. The choice is not schlock or nothing, which in the South is what we've always thought it was." Later Giunca notes, "Another critical part of McMahon's message was the importance of seeing the connection between development, good planning, an attractive community and sound economic policies.... The more Winston-Salem comes to look like every place in America, the less people want to visit, he said."

Seattle is asking for design advice at the cost of $60,000 for a $75-100 million dollar bridge project (see the blog entry at right "I'll have what they're having"). You might call that a ball-park figure for nationally recognized expertise on distinctive place-making. The cost of not being distinct is lost business - a high "lost opportunity cost" indeed.

At a 2003 Philadelphia conference sponsored by the Social Impact of the Arts Project, Lynne Sagalyn, a city planner, spoke on "the arts as an urban development strategy." While she focused mainly on cities creating arts districts, she notes: "Arts-based strategies are different from other types of economic development in several ways. Arts-based development must be based on local cultural resources. The current wisdom is that successful local economic development cannot be based on imported cultural resources....Arts-based development is not tied directly to increasing the city's tax base. Tax increases are dependent on multiplier effects--i.e., the number of patrons who eat in restaurants or shop, ride in cabs or park in lots.."

So does that make an aesthetic improvement just too wishy-washy to measure? Actually, no. Giunca quotes McMahon's telling of the experience of one small town's "multiplier effect" with art on its streets. "Gettysburg, PA, had a problem with tourists coming to the Civil War battlefields and then leaving without ever visiting the city's downtown. Gettysburg researched the history of the battle, which had come into downtown, McMahon said. It painted a mural and installed a sculpture of Abraham Lincoln that tourists often pose with. Three years later, sales taxes and other forms of revenue had increased 20 percent in downtown."

The Lincoln Fellowship of Pennsylvania raised $100,000 to cover the costs of the Gettusburg statue of Abraham Lincoln (no federal monies for that investment), and the statue was placed in 1990 near the Wills House on Lincoln Square. In sculptor Seward Johnson, Jr.'s statue Abraham Lincoln stands with his hat pointed toward the Wills house (where he spent the night in town in November 1863): a contemporary American with a map is with him. Johnson is known for his realistic portrayals, and attempted to transport the figures in time beyond time. I can report I stood next to Abe in 2001, pleased that, absent his hat, we were about the same height. I can also report that, without knowing I was supposed to, Abe got me to look around downtown, to spy an ice cream and soda shop, and to buy my souvenirs in town rather than at the battleground. I could point him out to the kids and talk about that town as a memorable place. Would that just the casual driver discover a "memorable place" thanks to a drive through our downtown boulevard, Business 40.

Our Rivers Running Through It

2008-06-16T08:34:00.000-07:00

Many cities are built near the intersection of waterways with transportation corridors. Historically, the two - water and transportation routes - were often one and the same. Hence many memorable urban vistas today are framed by water. In earlier times water was a source of factory power and a crude discharge route for commercial waste. Waterfronts were not the most scenic vistas of a city. Now cities are attentive to the enjoyment of waterways, and their attractiveness as much as their necessity. Tourism and community identity are often tied together with the embrace of the water by a city - I think of Wilmington, NC's Cape Fear River alongside downtown, or Shockoe Slip along the James in Richmond, VA, and San Antonio, TX's River Walk. A regional town well-admired (if not outright envied) is Greenville, SC, which took the falls of the Reedy River - the power source of a century ago - and made the area around it into a wooded park, an urban strollway, the venue of their performing arts center, and the site of a dramatically designed pedestrian bridge which celebrates the possibilities of place.

I have often thought it would have been nice had the Moravian founders of Winston-Salem located the main town of Wachovia settlement along the banks of the Yadkin rather than on one of the three forks of Muddy Creek. I think that way until flood season, of course, when I'm reminded that topography can make not all rivers equal blessings to their neighbors. Unusual Iowa floods this week show that some floodplains are just too easily breached to make of waterfronts a full community embrace. Levees and floodwalls have to trump aesthetics. My vacation memory of Columbus, OH will be of an impressive city hall statue of the city's namesake overlooking what appeared to be a large concrete culvert snaking through town. I didn't know at the the time that floods had been such a problem on the Scioto River that the 1993 floodwall had been hailed as rescuing the development prospects of the westside Franklinton neighborhood. I only knew the 2003 drought made the concrete-lined riverbed a disruption to a pleasant urban sunset.

Winston-Salem's downtown has two main transportation arteries running through it: the north-south US 52, and the east-west Business 40 interstate. These roads frame the downtown view for guests and residents. We can treat them with utility in mind only, as our forefathers did once out of necessity with rivers. Or we can fashion transportation corridors for both beauty and utility. More easily than with a natural riverbed, we can alter topography on a roadway, predict and channel traffic flow. And if the general boundaries of where our roadways will be are set, their presentation through our urban heart is not. The first two photos of Greenville's Reedy River Falls are from the Falls Park website, as recommended by friend and former Greenville reference librarian Bill McRee. The Columbus skyline, along a more full Scioto River, is from the City utility department's Franklinton floodwall page. The Ponte Vecchio, below on the Arno, is both a place of maximized utility and a lasting symbol of beautiful Florence, Italy (and it's near, btw, both a great history of science museum and the restaurant where this southern blogger first tasted tortellini in 1982, long before it was an item in the local supermarket...)

Where to Lobby for Better Business 40 Design

2008-06-13T12:15:00.000-07:00

If you've been to the Business 40 project website, you'll see that the feedback form provided is limited to polling the public on the six-year versus the two-year closure plan. You can leave more general comments online at the Communications Office of NCDOT, or write these transportation officials directly with your thoughts.

Mr. John F. Sullivan, III, PE
Division Administrator
Federal Highway Administration
310 New Bern Avenue, Suite 410
Raleigh, NC 27601

Mr. Lyndo Tippett
Secretary of Transportation
North Carolina Department of Transportation
1 South Wilmington Street
Raleigh, North Carolina 27611-1501

Ms Nancy W. Dunn
District 9 Board Member
North Carolina Department of Transportation
Aladdin Travel
485 Shepherd Street
Winston-Salem, NC 27103

Mr. S. Patrick Ivey, PE
District 9 Engineer
North Carolina Department of Transportation
375 Silas Creek Parkway
Winston-Salem, NC 27127

Mr. Ed Lewis
Public Involvement and Community Studies Supervisor
North Carolina Department of Transportation
1583 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-1583

You may also contact city and county officials to lobby federal and state highway officials on this issue. And, as turnabout is fair play, if anyone has any comments about this effort, feel free to contact this blogger at this email or the snail mail below.

J. Eric Elliott
1219 Forsyth St.
Winston-Salem, NC 27101-2403

Photo Essays Show Local Bridge Details, Public Art

2008-06-13T10:30:00.000-07:00

Winston-Salem Journal photographer David Rolfe posted this week a photo slide show of aging bridge constructions scattered around the city. With voice commentary by the City-County Planning Board's LeAnn Pegram, the feature follows on the celebration of this resource by the Historic Resources Commission during Historic Preservation Month this last May. A print story by Rolfe appeared in the paper last Sunday. The Wachovia Historical Society and the county will soon release a survey of 45 bridges built in the county from 188o to 1954. I doubt there are many streams in the country crossed by a road bridge supported by hidden fluted columns!

David Rolfe and the Journal have also created a community art map online highlighting the locations of major public art works currently around town. Take a walk online - then take a walk on the streets and see the works yourself. If you know of other works of public art that should be on the map, send us a picture (or tell us where to take one) and we will add to our online inventory! Winston-Salem Journal Photo by David Rolfe.

Of Legacy and Livability

2008-06-13T09:12:00.000-07:00

Why take extra time, spend money, on making the design of Business 40 better, more attractive? It's actually something many communities have found helpful when they update their transportation corridors and assess the impacts of construction projects. Since 2001 Forsyth County and its eight municipalities have been evaluating growth and construction in light of its Legacy Development Guide. One of the ten guiding principles of Legacy is to "Promote Design Excellence": encourage high standards of design in new development and redevelopment that create distinctive places and a sense of community. As the first three principles of Legacy are to "develop vibrant city and town centers," to "create pedestrian-oriented neighborhoods," and to "provide real transportation choices," the Business 40 corridor reconstruction can certainly demonstrate the impact of Legacy in the choices we make in 2008 and beyond versus those made nearly sixty years ago.

The American Institute of Architects Communities by Design "10 Principles for Livable Communities" are an even broader statement of best practices from the national design community. "Design excellence is the foundation of successful and healthy communities." Haphazard urban sprawl tends almost always to look similar. Places with distinctive urban landscapes - the recent heatwave here makes me think of Savannah's stately urban squares - were designed and have been preserved by intention.

And now on video...

2008-06-09T15:49:00.000-07:00

WGHP Fox 8's Brent Campbell reported on the advocacy of the Public Art and Design Committee and the Business 40 project in tonight's six o'clock news. You can watch the report here [Link expired 6/20]. A nice nearby example of extra attention to the details of functional bridges is the Innis Street bridge in Salisbury, featured in the report. We'll leave posted (as long as they are active) this link and other video feeds about public art and design in the city in a sidebar on this blog. This also gives us a chance to re-post a video report about the earlier community meeting in April that was originally only referenced in a blog comment.

"I'll have what they're having": Here's my ask for NCDOT and the Community

2008-06-09T12:41:00.000-07:00

Arriving in today's email is this news from the city of Seattle: 4Culture and the King County Department of Transportation Road Services Division are seeking a United States artist as design team member on the South Park Bridge Replacement Project. The qualified applicant will have experience working in design team collaborations for large, transportation infrastructure projects and or specifically bridge projects, with additional experience working with Landmark structures. The selected artist will be asked to realize innovative solutions respectful of local historic context within a culturally and economically diverse community. The selected artist shall receive a Design Contract for $60,000. Upon proposal review and approval the artist shall be awarded a contract for Commissioned Artwork for $240,000 plus applicable construction credits. King County is considering a replacement bridge that would cost in the range of $74-$90 million.

Folks ask me what should we ask for, aesthetically, on this Business 40 project. It would be nice if the City of the Arts had the trifecta in place for all its public art opportunities: a steady funding stream (filled in many arts-conscious communities by a percent-for-art program); a professional process for the hiring of public art and design talent and the strategic siting of their work (filled in many arts-conscious communities by a paid public arts administrator or public design commission); and a governmental process for airing community hopes and concerns for the public art and design projects that share their space. The City-County Planning Department has just started such a citizen committee to review public arts gifts after my neighborhood, West End, offered a sculpture to the town at the conclusion of the city's last ARTSfest celebration jointly with the event's other co-sponsors. But, the truth is, we just do not have all the parts of a long-term process for public art and design in place in Winston-Salem; and they may not be in place before Business 40 plans need to be set.

The Business 40 project, however, affords a way to meet all three of those public art process needs itself, and can serve as a catalyst for finishing local long-term process considerations. A dedicated portion of federal highway monies (1-2% of an estimated $100 million) must be spent on beautification of the route, and hiring design and artist advice at the beginning of the roadway process can be a more effective way of creating beauty than adding shrubs, doo-dads, and light fixtures at the end of the process. Secondly, NCDOT already has experience working with outside consultants on other transportation projects around the state to improve their aesthetics, if not yet in Winston-Salem. And finally, NCDOT already has scheduled the forming of community bridge design teams to gather input on the layout and appearance of the roadway bridges from citizens. The current Business 40 project is already setting a high bar for effort in gathering community concerns; adding community aspirations shouldn't be that difficult. The process elements are here, folks, if we will just ask for them. I'm asking NCDOT that they make a national search for an artist to be an integral part of the design team of this roadway from the start. By adding an experienced transportation corridor artist/designer to the Business 40 team, NCDOT can offer the community some aesthetic choices for the new roadway, not just alternative bypass routes. I want our place to give itself the chance to see some of what's possible within a budget. And what's more possible if we as a city find ideas worthy of extra funds.

What might come of the effort? A postcard-view bridge opportunity at Peters Creek, with stadium and skyline in the background. A chance for a fun pedestrian bridge at Green Street. A way to knit back neighborhoods torn apart by the initial build of the road nearly sixty years ago. Symbolic reminders of things found in our place shown right along the roadway. Showing travelers that they are driving on a dash that separates old Winston from old Salem. Or a corridor driving experience that in its styling and details will feel different in such a way as to mark our place special.

I'm no artist. The choices in my brain only mimic other places in the way ideas for interior design at Home Depot and Lowe's always fall in certain style baskets. But if I want my house to reflect me, my priorities, and sense of style, I'll hire a professional designer, and not just order from the catalog.

Even in the City of the Arts, which so values design and creativity in many ways, we do not live in a perfect public art world. Let's not make the perfect the enemy of the better. Let's ask for more than interchangeable interstate concrete. Let's support transportation engineers doing their work with design and art professionals adding their talents as well. Ask for more from our transportation and community leaders - not more money, but more design and artist input. I confidently expect that NCDOT will deliver us a good roadway. But I want us to ask for something better, something more. I'll have what they're having.

The Gifts of Art and an Artist

2008-06-09T12:03:00.000-07:00

Tuesday night, June 3, Winston-Salem's newest work of public art was unveiled to an audience of friends and supporters of Senior Services, the area's leading provider of assistance and programming for the elderly. The trustees of the agency tapped local sculptor Duncan Lewis to create a unique work honoring the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Tab Williams, Jr. and Family, whose philanthropy and leadership have made the Senior Services Center facility at the corner of Shorefair Drive and 30th Street a reality. Titled "Second Blooming," and placed invitingly before the building's entrance walkway, the upwardly reaching blossoms of this twenty-foot high piece open themselves "to the spirit of compassion that lies at the heart of the mission of Senior Services."

The agency and Director Richard Gottlieb could have properly honored its benefactors with a plaque or designation in the interior of its space, or certainly in a less symbolic fashion. Instead, with this piece they have created a new community gift themselves, making a welcoming space accessible to the general public that shares in the feelings of renewal and hope this wonderful place is host to every day.

Duncan Lewis' skill as sculptor can also be found inspiring and iconographicly reflecting the work at another Winston-Salem institution: downtown's Piedmont Triad Research Park. He has proven a unique set of talents - artistic vision, community listener, craftsman's touch - common to all who successfully create public art. Our community thanks go for the art and the artist, and the benefactors who made the project happen. Duncan's dad took the shot of the piece being hoisted by crane into place, and Duncan provided the photo above in situ. The photo below of "Triple Helix" at PTRP is by Greg Kiser from AOL Journals Photo Trek blog.

Carpe Viam

2008-06-02T10:35:00.001-07:00

Probably the most famous bridge in the state of North Carolina is the Linn Cove Viaduct, a serpentine embrace of the slope of Grandfather Mountain installed along the Blue Ridge Parkway in the early 1980s. Although the technical challenges of traversing the site could have been made easier with road cuts and strategic mountain blasts, the bridge designers, Figg Engineering Group, seized the opportunity to make an aesthetic statement with the highway and to work with the landscape rather than simply conquer it. Blending iron oxides into the concrete, the team even "painted" its building materials to more closely resemble the granite of the rock face on which the bridge rests.

The city of Asheville sits in a high valley surrounded by mountain crests. When the I-240 thoroughfare into the city was completed a few years back, engineers sacrificially blasted through one wall of mountain encircling the city. But the highway awkwardly merged with the town's main east-west local street. The subsequent completion of north-south Interstate 26 offered the city a chance to connect the two interstates near the French Broad River running through town, relieving pressure on downtown traffic. The initial drawings from transportation officials for the I-26 connector offered several options to the city. But to many in the local design community, the plans were unnecessarily complex and wasteful in their use of city space, as well as being visually unappealing.

A local group of architects and design friends, aided by a grant from the American Institute of Architects 150th Anniversary Celebration, pooled their talents and formed the Asheville Design Center. They rented a downtown storefront, offered volunteer hours, canvassed community concerns, created a three-dimensional model where citizens could visualize alternate routes, and came up with their own set of technical concerns and aesthetic opportunities they wanted the project to address. The biggest concern was to reduce the amount of scarce lands lost to exit and entrance ramps in the official plans. When locals suggested a double-decker roadway in strategic points and a single bridge instead of two, area friend Figg Engineering Group (of Linn Cove fame) offered up a design for a two-story bridge that will solve the technical needs of the I-26 Connector and give the city a beautiful new postcard view, uniting river, mountains, and city skyline with a stylistic statement that will say that place does things differently and more beautifully.

Asheville's experience on the I-26 Connector has changed the way dialog about transportation projects and potentials is approached in that community. Both transportation officials and community leaders have new insights on the benefits of working together. NCDOT is already making great efforts in Winston-Salem to collect community concerns in the upcoming Business 40 project, and our strong local transportation and planning agencies are anxious to put their good talents to the technical challenges ahead. But Winston-Salem has yet to pull together its creative design resources, its priorities for beauty and self-statement, in addition to those technical requirements that a new urban roadway must meet. The picture below shows the new downtown baseball park just to the west of Winston-Salem's skyline, alongside the Business 40 corridor (at photo right) that will soon be re-designed. We have an opportunity to add beauty as well as improve the function of this roadway. Will we as a community "seize the day" of this opportunity? Will we, in essence, "seize the roadway," and make it uniquely our own?

Corridor-Wide: Next Round of Business 40 Meetings to be Held

2008-06-02T10:13:00.000-07:00

The first set of corridor-wide meetings for the Business 40 project has been scheduled. Corridor-wide meetings will be conducted at major project milestones or for specific topics and provide opportunities for the community to interact with the project team and discuss project issues and recommendations.

The dates, times and locations are as follows:
Tuesday, June 10; 5-8 p.m.; Anderson Center at Winston Salem State University; Reynolds Park Drive, off MLK Jr. Drive.
Wednesday, June 11; 11 a.m.-2 p.m.; Sawtooth Building Amphitheater in Winston Square Park*; 226 N. Marshall Street. *If inclement weather, the meeting will be moved to the Ballroom of the Sawtooth Building adjacent to the park.
Thursday, June 12; 5-8 p.m.; R J Reynolds High School Cafeteria; 301 N. Hawthorne Road.

Call for Entries: "Creative Bridge Design" Art Exhibition in September

2008-06-02T07:21:00.000-07:00

The art exhibit "Creative Bridge Design" will take place Tuesday, September 16th and run until September 30th at the DADA Center in the Downtown Art District. The art exhibit is to inspire and motivate both the Winston-Salem Community and funders of the Business 40 Project to incorporate public art into the Business 40 Bridges. The presenting of local artists’ works and designs of innovative bridge design will be among the first visual models to present to the public and NCDOT for the Business 40 Bridges. It will be a chance for the Community, the Arts, and the State to work side by side on a large scale project that will heighten the city’s development and identity as the “City of the Arts”.

This community arts project is open to local artists, architects, engineers, and designers that are 18 & older ("local" meaning Forsyth County and other artists who are able to "hand deliver" their artworks matted or framed to DADA Center by the 5th of September). Artworks will range from drawings, both artistic and technical, painting, watercolor, photography, graphics, and 3D. Artwork should illustrate in some form a cultural connection to the Winston-Salem community. Imagine new symbols and artistic expression to represent Winston-Salem. Final deadline will be September 5th. Purpose of exhibition will not be to sell artwork, but inquiries may be made and passed onto the artists. The "Creative Bridge Design" art exhibition is the continuation of the Community Arts Forum held April 22, 2008 at Green St. United Methodist Church with guest panelists Thorns Craven, Eric Elliott, and Mark Leach discussing public art’s impact on community and city development.

Additional information on the Business 40 Project and Public Art can be found at http://www.business40nc.com or http://winstonsalempublicart.blogspot.com. For further information on the "Creative Bridge Design" art exhibition, contact Katie Gunter at gunterk7@gmail.com

A Next Chance to Talk Possibilities

2008-05-30T12:42:00.000-07:00

At the June 3 meeting of the West End Association, Public Art and Design Committee member Eric Elliott will present a brief 15-minute slideshow highlighting national "best-practices" in the use of bridge design and public art in the creation of transportation corridors. The meeting begins at 7pm and will be held in the community room of the Central Family YMCA, accessible through the entrance of the Y at Glade St and West End Boulevard. For more information on its meetings, visit the Association website at www.historicwestend.org

Introducing the Public Art and Design Committtee

2008-05-30T09:58:00.000-07:00

The Public Art and Design Committee has been working within the Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County since 2004, first under the leadership of art professor David Finn and currently led by attorney Thorns Craven. It follows an earlier Mayor's Task Force on Public Art assembled in 2000, led by neighborhood advocate Eric Elliott. The committee has worked to add new public art in the downtown landscape; assisted Wal-Mart as they worked with a local artist in the production and installation of sculpture and a gazebo at their Peters Creek location; and is investigating possibilities for funding and processing art acquisitions by public and private entities in the area with the assistance of Chapel Hill's Gerald Bolas, past interim director of SECCA. Though the group lacks a formal budget and depends on volunteer time, they are knowing and active advocates of the value of a better-designed cityscape, of which the insights and inspirations of public artists can play an important part.

The re-design of the front room of our shared Winston-Salem house - the renewal of our downtown transportation corridors - is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make improvements both functional and aesthetic to our town. When you re-do the interior of your home kitchen, you want all the function a kitchen needs. But because you live there, you want it to be a place of beauty as well. Why not add beauty to the function of our city's major roadways? The current committee consists of: Thorns Craven, Chair, Attorney, Mediation, Inc.; Nick Bragg, Former Director, Reynolda House; Eric Elliott, Past President, West End Association; David Finn, Artist and Professor of Art, Wake Forest University; Tripp Greason, Attorney, Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice; Glynis Jordan, Deputy Director, City-County Planning; Mark Leach, Director, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art; Carroll Leggett, Ralph Simpson & Associates; Doug Lewis, Southeast Gateway Council, and Past Chair, Community Appearance Commission; Duncan Lewis, Sculptor and Adjunct Professor, Salem College; Leo Morrissey, Assistant Professor of Art, Winston-Salem State University; Mary Elizabeth Parks, Executive Director, North Carolina Stroke Association; Milton Rhodes, President and CEO, Arts Council Winston-Salem/Forsyth County; Sandra Romanac, Calibre, Inc.; Greg Shelnutt, Director of Visual Arts, North Carolina School of the Arts; Ralph Simpson, President, Ralph Simpson & Associates; Carol Strohecker, Director, Center for Design Innovation; Belinda Tate, Director, Diggs Gallery, Winston-Salem State University; Bill Watkins, Architect, W. R. Watkins Architecture; Keith Wilson, Architect, Calloway Johnson Moore and West.

Creating Cultural Icons with Public Art

2008-04-27T15:23:00.000-07:00

The very first speaker at the recent "Public Art 360" Conference in Chapel Hill was Winston-Salem native Glenn Weiss, a leading critical voice in the field of public art and guide at the helpful blog Aesthetic Grounds, which both samples his critical eye and provides some of the best web trails at the nexus of disciplines and interests that converge in public art projects. Glenn has also pulled together videos of successful public art installations and events (Newcastle-on-Tyne's "Nocturne" bridge illumination project is featured in a video on the sidebar on this page), and offers photos of his visits to installations around the world.

One of Glenn's photo albums is actually a presentation of his on what makes successful "Icons in Public Art". Interestingly, he begins the presentation with the happy accident of the tin coffee pot, the unofficial hospitality symbol of his hometown, Winston-Salem. The over-sized coffee pot was an advertising gimmick, suspended in front of a store along old Main Street, and now sits in a grassy median island at the northern edge of Old Salem. Though it is a sentimental favorite of locals, I think it has surpassed the possible kitsch of its advertising origins by reminding residents and guests of something about the value of memory and hospitality in the town, not to mention the taste of the special coffee that is a part of Moravian Lovefeast traditions. In his Chapel Hill talk recently, Weiss noted that while critics often evaluate the success of public art based on a vocabulary of professional art criticism, communities consider public art successful if it becomes a cultural icon, or a photo opportunity; if it makes enjoyable a pedestrian space; or if it solves some other non-artistic problem for the area. The transportation corridor work coming to Winston-Salem offers plenty of opportunities both for "problem-solving" and successful place-making - in the eyes of the local community and of professional art critics. We've added this week a number of links to Public Art sites on the web that Glenn and others have suggested, as well as a sample of other helpful local links to those thinking about public art in Winston-Salem.

Welcome to the Conversation!

2008-04-22T17:56:00.000-07:00

Thanks to those who took part in tonight's conversation at Green Street United Methodist Church about the possibilities for public art and enhanced design in the Business 40 bridge project. As tonight's panel discussion showed, the potential to re-imagine and re-present our city with the aid of transportation corridor renovation exists both along US 52/future I-285 and along Business 40, and helping create an infrastructure to address those opportunities will likely be a part of the future work of the Arts Council's Public Art and Design committee. But we'd like you to be part of the conversation now with us. How?

--Leave a comment here on your ideas for what's possible - what's exciting - what's important to say about our place in such a venue. Showplacing the work of well-known artists and designers? Integrating stories and symbols of what makes this "our place"? Brainstorm with us on how can we use art and design to make the necessity of transport corridors into opportunities to celebrate and build and reflect community. Is there a cultural icon or got-to-have-photo-opportunity down the road in this project?

--Participate in local bridge design meeting groups sponsored by NCDOT over the summer and insist that the talents of artists and designers be included in the plans for the corridor from the start, not after the fact. Keep in touch with plans for these sessions at the Business 40 website.

--Lobby regional and state leaders at NCDOT to include consultation with artists and aesthetic design teams in the earliest planning of the project.

--Stay tuned here for updates on future events promoting the opportunities of this project and other public art work. And tell your neighbors you want them to join in "this vision thing," too!

Special gratitude to our hosts at Green Street United Methodist Church for being yet again a great place for community building, and to Salem College Arts Management Students Sandy Romanac and Katie Gunter for their good work in promoting the Business 40 corridor opportunity.

Community Arts Forum on April 22

2008-04-20T12:51:00.000-07:00

Titled "The Integration of Public Art into the Bridges of Business 40," this panel discussion, idea slideshow, and community inspration-sharing session will be held Tuesday, April 22, from 7:00 - 8:30pm at Green Street United Methodist Church (639 S. Green Street, Winston-Salem – Phone: 722-8379). Panelists will include: Thorns Craven, Attorney and Chairman, Arts Council’s Public Art and Design Committee; Mark Leach, Director of SECCA and Member, Arts Council’s Public Art and Design Committee; and Eric Elliott, West End Association Past President and Member, Arts Council’s Public Art and Design Committee. Hear business, arts, and community perspectives on the opportunities for our city hidden in Business 40 highway renewal project. A question and answer session to follow with refreshments. For additional information, contact organizer Sandy Romanac. This forum is presented in conjunction with the Public Art and Design Committee of The Arts Council of Winston-Salem & Forsyth County.

Public Art 360

2008-04-20T12:34:00.000-07:00

North Carolina is blessed with a number of examples of cities who follow plans for the intentional integration of public art into their landscapes. A gathering of folks from those cities and from places interested in public art throughout the southeast, and of nationally known experts in the field, attended a fascinating and insightful conference last week in Chapel Hill. "Public Art 360" was a series of panel discussions on best practices and challenges in public art creation, siting, and management from the perspectives of seven different "publics": artists, critics, governments, architects, private developers, landscape architects, and communities. We'll be posting information gleaned from this event over the coming weeks. The event's website remains open for information and inspirations.

Attending a Business 40 Project Public Meeting

2008-02-28T14:58:00.000-08:00

The second set of public meetings sharing results of neighbor surveys on the upcoming Business 40 reconstruction proceeds this week. Please attend one of these sessions if you can and show your support for the project and the design possibilities it affords our city. Here's a report on the Business 40 Improvements Neighborhood Meeting held February 19, 2008 at Reynolds High Cafeteria for the West Highlands and Buena Vista neighborhoods.

The first impression one had was of forty smiling people decked out in orange welcoming you to the event: at four check-in stations, at easel displays around the room with color graphics of survey results in each neighborhood, and at a delicious buffet spread, the latter (for this event provided by the Arts Council of W-S/FC) included chicken pie, cake and salad, as well as beverages. I felt like I was a guest at a restaurant or an art gallery rather than an attendee at a public meeting. As first impressions of hospitality go, this one was impressive.

The room was organized for a PowerPoint presentation by DOT and survey group officials, with two microphones for use by the public in a Q&A session, a court reporter transcribing the session, and a gentleman summarizing points made by the audience on a flip chart. The first 15 minutes of the presentation by Jumetta Posey were about process steps, including a review of the household survey and various stages for public input thereafter (neighborhood meetings being the first public meetings). Then DOT's David Spainhour reviewed the engineering challenge of the project. First, to bring Business 40 up to today's standards for pavement and bridges. It was built in 1955 before interstate standards were set as a crosstown parkway (like Silas Creek and Peters Creek would later be) and was never meant to be an interstate. In fact the eleven bridges that have to come down (eight overpasses, three underpasses, not all overpasses may be rebuilt) were built by different contractors and represent eleven different bridge designs!

The second goal of the project is to improve safety and roadway conditions, primarily through improvement of ramps and shoulders. Interestingly, DOT does not have room to expand the highway much beyond its current width, and so at the end it will not look like Bypass 40 interstate - but just a newer narrow Business 40. Were it not for the extra prestige (and some highway dollars) that some attach to the business interstate designation, Spainhour said it would be a better road as a limited access parkway as initially designed. [Ed. Perhaps here's an opportunity to call the thing the "Wachovia Parkway" (whether we keep the Business 40 designation or just leave it as US421), reclaiming the Wachovia name which publicly left town displays with the bank, and bringing it back as the land identifier for here that it once was.]

Ms. Posey reviewed the results of neighbor surveys as posted around the room. The showcase statistic was that most people favored closing the road completely for two years rather than leaving it partially opened for six. But that statistic was shown somewhat hollow in the Q&A period. Neighbors wanted to know which roads would be alternate routes, and the one helpful survey question on this point (which other routes would you use were 40 closed) was not summarized and graphed. Ms. Posey said they would try to have that up at future meetings. Neighbors expressed concern about a complete shutdown of Business 40 absent details which of their traveled streets might be impacted. DOT's Spainhour said the normal construction time for a bridge reconstruction project like this would be 4 years, so 2 years would already be an ambitious cycle, requiring 24 hr construction schedules [Ed. No survey questions asked how neighbors would feel about construction noise in the middle of the night for two years.]

Before any shutdown happened, several years worth of improvements to alternate routes would be done first - including possible extension of MLK across 8th/NW Blvd to hookup with Reynolda as an alternate around downtown route. Several people expressed their disappointment that the public meeting was not a chance to hear more details from DOT on alternate routes and actual inconvenience costs of the project. Posey and Spainhour said those details would be forthcoming after all neighborhood review meetings were held, and there would be a chance after that time for more public meetings on specific issues: bridge design, alternates, etc.

Several people spoke up requesting that DOT include considerations, in addition to the safety and standards upgrades, about the design and aesthetics of the roadway project. First brought up by Eric Elliott of the Arts Council's Public Art and Design Committee, Katie Gunter at Salem College said she is doing a senior project on possible bridge designs as part of her Arts Management degree. Another Salem Arts Management student, Sandy Romanac, spoke of her excitement about the potentials for the area. Neighbor David Wallace mentioned the ARTS Council email he received about the meeting and asked DOT to please consider the aesthetic and design opportunities. Afterwards, Cuban artist Raul Montero was introduced to Eric Elliott by Que Pasa Carolina's Adolfo Briceño, and seemed excited about the community building aspect of the project.

The meeting was unique in its hospitality, daunting in its challenges for the city, but optimistic in that folks seem ready to pull together for a project that can help our town tremendously. - Eric Elliott, West End Association Past President, Arts Council Public Art and Design Committee member. Photos courtesy of www.business40nc.com

Business 40: Our Workhorse, also Our Canvas?

2008-02-07T08:01:00.000-08:00

Business 40 has been the workhorse thoroughfare of commuters and visitors to Winston-Salem since being built as our "downtown expressway" in the 1950s. The planned rebuilding of eight overpass bridges at the heart of this roadway gives us a unique opportunity to design not just a functioning roadway but also a new series of vistas and impressions about our place and its sense of self. Community meetings about the rebuilding will be held starting in 2008, as neighbors along the route share their hopes and concerns for the project. You can find updates on the public meeting schedule at this website.

We hope that neighbors and other community members will ask transportation and political decision-makers that the project be designed both for engineering traffic needs and for its artistic impression-making potentials. "A thing of beauty is a joy forever."

Connecting Community Identities

2008-02-07T07:28:00.000-08:00

From architect Keith Wilson and Committee Chair Thorns Craven - Tacoma, Washington is home both to internationally known glass artist Dale Chihuly and to the Museum of Glass: International Center for Contemporary Art. The Chihuly Bridge of Glass, commissioned by the Museum, was gifted to the city of Tacoma in 2002. The span is a 500-foot-long pedestrian bridge linking downtown to the city's waterfront. Conceived by Dale Chihuly, and designed in collaboration with Arthur Andersson of Andersson·Wise Architects, it is a display of color and form soaring seventy feet into the air.

The Chihuly Bridge crosses Interstate 705, linking the Washington State History Museum with the Museum of Glass. The design phase of the bridge began in 1994. Chihuly and Andersson initially proposed that the bridge feature five small structures, inspired by glasshouses, each containing an installation of Chihuly's glass. As the project developed, Chihuly became more interested in large-scale sculptural installations. The collaboration between artist and architect evolved, as did their thinking of the size and character of the bridge installations. According to architect Andersson: "Dale and I studied the great bridges of the world. We discovered they all had one thing in common: they all spanned a river, gorge, or some other natural obstacle. Our context is different: our river is a river of cars and trains; our gorge is a gorge of concrete and metal."

Imagining with an Overpass and a Fence

2008-02-07T06:20:00.000-08:00

From committee advisor Kevin O'Dwyer, internationally known silversmith and director of Ireland's Sculpture in the Parklands project - In 1997 artist Laurie Lundquist worked worked with SVR Inc. Engineering to develop the Mountain Pass Pedestrian Bridge for the City of Phoenix and the Arizona Department of Transportation.

Located over State Highway 51, the Mountain Pass concept was inspired by the jagged profile of the nearby Squaw Peak range. The design uses the flexible qualities of chain link fencing both to meet the safety requirements for pedestrian bridges and to achieve a sculptural likeness to the mountains. Three hundred feet long, sixteen feet high, the creative bridge design uses only materials typically found on such a project: concrete, steel, and chain link fencing.

Bridge Architecture as Public Art

2008-02-01T08:22:00.000-08:00

From Public Art Committeee member Keith Wilson, architect at Calloway Johnson Moore and West - I have included here a few images of Santiago Calatrava bridges that I like. I'm not suggesting that we try to have our bridges looks like any of these - it would be quite expensive to try to do something like that. This is merely to demonstrate how a bridge can become an icon image for an area or a city. These bridges generate revenue for their cities because people will visit just to see them. I include them merely to get people to start to see what a bridge can be.

Structurae is an excellent site with thousands of images of all styles of bridges. But I don't think we should get too caught up in what the bridge should look like. The important thing to focus our attention on is the desire to make these bridges into something more. Hopefully we will find a designer who can provide that vision for us, and the funding to make that happen.

At the Asheville Design Center website, there is also quite a bit of information on bridge projects and several examples even take you through the process.

Place-making with Public Art in our City of the Arts

2008-01-29T08:37:00.000-08:00

This blog will serve as a spot for ideas and inspirations. How we as a community can better claim for ourselves and our visitors the title "City of the Arts." How we can demonstrate the qualities of life and priorities that makes Winston-Salem a place apart. How we can show an appreciation for the insights and pleasures and aspirations that the arts community offers to all. How we can make it more obvious that in this place "ars urbi serviat": "art serves the city." A Public Art and Design Committee at the Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County has been meeting for some time now trying to strategize how we can better intentionally design and showcase a City of the Arts.

A wonderful opportunity to show the value of art to our city is in the upcoming redesign of the Business 40 highway right through the heart of our town. Imagine if we could take a necessary engineering improvement and simultaneously intentionally design it with a sense of place unique to Winston-Salem - bettering the function of the roadway and also its form and beauty. We wouldn't be the first place to try it, as later posts to this blog will show. Those localities which take the time to do something more, to make special with art and design that which might otherwise be bland and homogeneous, have found rewards in community pride and increased visitor interest. And the costs for major improvements in aesthetics are comparatively small. Above, Earline Heath King's Barbara Smitherman statue in Grace Court.