[Source: Connie Cone Sexton, Arizona Republic] — It’s been written up in Newsweek and dissected by the Sunday New York Times, and it has garnered a top-10-in-the-country kind of reputation. Phoenix’s public-art program has made its mark across the city, adorning parks, canals, freeways and street corners. Many of the projects showcase cultural aspects of the Southwest. Some are hidden in plain sight, such as the pedestrian bridges crossing the Piestewa Freeway, their jagged silhouettes mirroring nearby mountains. Since the first art piece was installed 20 years ago in a McDowell Road freeway underpass, the city has spent more than $26 million on about 120 projects ranging from murals, sculptures and photographs to textiles, paintings and glass blocks.
The average Phoenix resident probably doesn’t give the city’s public-art program much thought — until a controversy breaks out. That is what happened in December, when a public outcry rose up over a planned $2.4 million floating sculpture for a downtown park. There were jabs at the design, some saying it resembled a jellyfish. But at the heart of the debate was the city’s proposed expenditure when facing its largest budget deficit.
The public-art program hadn’t faced such controversy since 1992 when a string of large teacups and saucers were placed along the Squaw Peak Parkway, now called the Piestewa Freeway. Although some observers called them quirky, most of the calls and letters into City Hall deemed them ridiculous. A few of the pieces were vandalized and one, which looked like a commode, was removed by the city. The art program survived the “Squaw Peak pots” debacle, and it remains to be seen how the public will take to the floating sculpture once it goes up by early 2009.
As they did before, leaders are defending the public-art program. [Note: To read the full article, click here.]
Downtown Voices Coalition 