Our Fermata Cantata

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!"

Public Art Party-Planning

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.

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

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.)

Celebrating with Creative Beauty

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.