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The Art in Public Places Committee administers a fund set aside for creating and providing Public Art.
The funds come from a percentage set aside from each public building constructed in Jacksonville.
Millions of dollars have been collected and disbursed by the committee, of varying effectiveness and importance.
There have been a few real successes under the cap of the group, which had previously been an independent commission. This year it begins the transition into a committee under the auspices of the Cultural Council, and along with it, is subject to a different ethos and set of procedures, as well as becoming less of an autonomous body.
But hitherto, the Arts In Public Places fund has been very successful and at time very very lucky in its choices.
For example, one of the worlds most exciting sculptors is a Spanish artist by the name of Jaume Plensa. Most Americans would recognize Plensa's work in Chicago's Millennium Park. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_Fountain
His first installment in the US however, was here in Jacksonville. His glowing figures of kneeling men surrounding the Veteran's Memorial Colliseum entitled 'Talking Continents' is one of the more important public art works in the southeast. It was chosen and commissioned by our Arts in Public Places Committee.
Wesley Grissom is the refreshingly young strawberry blonde assistant director of J. Johnson, where she works for a living legend, Bruce Dempsey, under the auspices of Jennifer Johnson. (The eponymous owner of the gallery and a recognized power in the gallery business.) Of all the people present, Wesley probably has the most access to what is currently happening in the Art World. The importance of her connection to Bruce Dempsey simply cannot be overstated.
John Bunker was one of the longtime stewards of the Jacksonville Art Museum, during its sunshine years as well as the darkness that characterized it before its rebirth in downtown.
Holly Keris is the owlish, stylish young woman who has led the restoration of the Olmsted Gardens at the Cummer.
Sandra Hull Richardson is the amazingly connected woman whose nephew, Shelton Hull is familiar to many Folio readers.
Ben Thompson is the elliptical curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Jacksonville.
Bob White, naturally, is the executive director of the Cultural Council itself.
The minutes are shockingly incomplete. There is no record or example of the posters mentioned in the Kiosks. Also no copy of the referenced "Five Year Plan".
It is the highly jaundiced opinion of the writer that a public art project for the purposes of creating parking signage is a bit embarrassing. But we shall see in the coming months how this project progressed.
However this is the first time that the committee is referenced to the term "Spark", which will assume a greater importance later, as we shall see.
The following are the attachments mentioned in the meeting. They are basically one pagers of the two grants that are available to the community.
To read other meeting minutes from 2012, click the links here:
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2012-dec-art-in-public-places-meeting-minutes-january-2012
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2013-jan-art-in-public-places-meeting-minutes-february-2012
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2013-apr-art-in-public-places-meeting-minutes-march-2012
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2013-apr-art-in-public-places-meeting-minutes-april-2012
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2013-apr-art-in-public-places-meeting-minutes-june-2012
Article by Stephen Dare
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Spence
December 22, 2012, 11:10:59 PMSadly for some near me, humor and sarcasm are usually a waste in vain.
Stephen, what are you posting exactly?
How are we to be motivated to donate time, dollars, works of expression, energy and or ideas to better the public spaces chosen?
What criteria must a space meet in order to be considered ripe?
stephendare
December 22, 2012, 11:21:50 PMIn the article are the minutes of the January meeting of the Art In Public Places Committee.
Including this one, there were nine meetings altogether last year.
We will be posting the minutes of each meeting, along with notations about what happened at each, and an introduction to the people making the decisions about various projects.
But these are great questions, Spence.
We definitely need to work on improving the public spaces, and hopefully through a leveraged system of financing and works that are as amazing as the Jaume Plensa works have proven to be.
The committee, as the minutes of the meetings will show, has been at a bit of a standstill in this respect----although they are in the process of developing a few programs that would greatly benefit from a little public attention and input.
I tend to be a bit of a purist. I think that the AIPP fund should be used primarily for great works of art, or for the memorialization of our history.
duvaldude08
December 23, 2012, 01:19:49 AMStephen,
Has there been any discussion around public art in the skyway stations? Is that something you think Mr. Ford would support?
stephendare
December 23, 2012, 01:22:45 AMconsidering that hes worked in atlanta, san franciso, and new york, I think the answer would be a pretty easy yes.
I will be sure to ask him.
There really hasnt been any discussion about the skyway stations, and there totally should be.
I havent come across any in the meeting notes of the Arts In Public Places Committee either.
Right now they seem concentrated on the Main Street Pick Pocket Park.
Wacca Pilatka
January 10, 2013, 12:41:48 PMI saw a post on the Cummer Gallery's Facebook page today soliciting artists to propose mural ideas on a parking garage - was this specifically related to the Park in Spark initiative mentioned in the article?
stephendare
April 15, 2013, 08:40:57 PMWesley Grissom is the refreshingly young strawberry blonde assistant director of J. Johnson, where she works for a living legend, Bruce Dempsey, under the auspices of Jennifer Johnson. (The eponymous owner of the gallery and a recognized power in the gallery business.) Of all the people present, Wesley probably has the most access to what is currently happening in the Art World. The importance of her connection to Bruce Dempsey simply cannot be overstated.