Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Public displays of art

By Adam Goldstein
The Aurora Sentinel

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

AURORA | David Griggs has monumental plans for Expo Park.

For more than a year, the Denver-based artist has been working with the city's Art in Public Places Program to build a 22-foot tall, 14-foot wide cast fiberglass and steel sculpture in the park near East Alameda Avenue at an estimated cost of $115,000. The piece is slated for commemoration in the spring, and Griggs is hoping it will serve as a visual and artistic link to Aurora.

Even with its three main aesthetic elements - towering calligraphic A's rendered in separate stages of movement - the biggest challenge of the design process didn't involve the sculpture's visible components.

Instead, the real hurdle came in its invisible element: the concrete foundation buried 3 feet below the earth that sits atop a spillway.

"Nothing above ground got modified," Griggs said. "All the design modifications are underground."

The irony is not lost on Griggs. After surviving the public-art program's multitiered review, a process that comprises approval by three citizen panels and the city council, the project got stalled at the state level.

"We needed to go through a process with the state dam engineers," Griggs said. "We needed to show them that the foundations for the sculptures would not impact the floodway. It probably delayed the project for eight or nine months, and it meant a whole other level of engineering and approvals."

According to city art program officials, such engineering issues are only one part of the challenge that comes in establishing and maintaining public art. From funding issues to questions of maintenance, a seemingly simple statue can represent a protracted effort on several levels. With a working allocation of $200,000 for 2008, the program has plans to clear the hurdles on several local projects and ramp up public support.

Drawing on similar civic organizations throughout the country as its model, Aurora formally established the Arts in Public Places Program in 1993 with an ordinance officially recognizing the body and providing criteria for commissioned art. Cultural Services Division Manager Alice Lee Main, who served on the initial wayfinding committee, said the structure of the organization was built from the example of other communities.

"It's very similar to what other cities do," Lee Main said, referring specifically to legislation in Loveland and various cities in California. "There's a master plan and we know how much money is going to be in the fund over three years. We try to spread artwork around the city."

Former city councilwoman Barbara Cleland said Aurora's art program was somewhat of a rite of passage for the growing suburb during nearly 15 years ago.

"Aurora was starting to grow up," Cleland said. "It was needed ... to help beautify Aurora."

The program draws its funding from a toll on the budgets for city construction, remodeling and renovation projects that run more than $100,000. Such construction includes projects financed by the city's capital projects, conservation trust and bond funds. Construction includes public work on golf courses, parks and fire stations.

"The funds come from 1 percent of the city construction," Main said. "That 1 percent is split into two pots of money ... 75 percent goes into commissioning, and 25 percent goes into future maintenance and administration."

For certain pieces, funding has been supplemented by private sponsors and community development block grants.

Final designs for artwork are culled from a complex judging process, an assessment that involves local residents as well as the city council. A panel of citizens narrows down initial entries, using criteria such as safety and durability of a given piece.

"After they select it, it goes to the (public art) commission. It's appointed by the city council to serve for three years," Main said. "If the cost of the piece is $50,000 or more, it goes to another appointed board ... By the time it gets to the city council, it has been through three groups of citizens."

Since 1997, when the program saw its first bronze sculpture erected at the Saddle Rock Golf Course, the organization had commissioned more than 40 pieces. Ranging from ceramic murals to fused glass, the artwork has yielded its own constant challenges in terms of withstanding the elements and fitting into its environment.

Another city-commissioned piece scheduled for commemoration later this month has had its own issues with structure and engineering. "Sun Rise," a glass-and-steel sculpture on the east side of the Aurora Municipal Center designed by Fort Collins-based artist Tim Upham, has suffered its own delays due to its open and airy design. The piece was commissioned for $215,000 and represents the last piece of outdoor artwork at the Aurora Municipal Center.

"It's been a long, drawn-out process," said former city councilwoman Ingrid Lindemann, who served from 1987 to 2005, when the "Sun Rise" plans originated. Upham said that concerns for the structure's architectural integrity and safety have stalled its completion. "The biggest sticking point is engineering. It has to pass all the tests for engineering to be sure that it's safe."

For staff at the public arts program, an underlying aesthetic concern for the artwork remains one of the most important factors in choosing a piece. Whether it's the bronze and limestone "Aurora Dawn" statue at Aurora City Center, or the fiberglass "Ghost Trolley" depiction of a streetcar on East Colfax Avenue, a concern for theme and relevance has played a part in every one of the commissioned pieces.

"You want to have a piece of artwork that fits into a particular site," Main said. "If it doesn't fit into the area around it, it doesn't make sense to accept it and put it in that place."

Aurora native Jessica Sauther was acutely aware of that connection when she worked as lead artist on the "Canopy at Fletcher Plaza" piece at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library and Municipal Center on East Colfax Avenue in 2001. A lifelong resident of Aurora, Sauther drew on her own memories of the city when she envisioned the open character of the piece, a structure that recalled a brightly colored gateway.

"There used to be this sign near Fitzsimons that said, 'Gateway to the Rockies,'" she said. "That was something that was in the back of my mind."