Millennium Park's Ed Uhlir Speaks at City Hall

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

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!