Public art

I had a solo show down there, a museum.

Uh, the museum there is beautiful and currently under the guidance of an amazing New Yorker named Daniel Palmer, Daniel S. Palmer, who used to do the Public Art Fund here, worked at the Jewish Museum, uh, and an old, old friend of mine.

So it was not only an incredible honor to have artworks in a museum, it was an incredible honor just to be around old friends.

It was, uh, life-affirming.

But I get somebody who might walk by and say, "I hate Weimaraners, man.

They're so messy and loud.

Get that out of my taxpayer public art scene." And, uh, shout-out to Daniel S.

Palmer, the curator of my show, who dealt with the Public Art Fund and what people, what was the, the labyrinth of public art.

I'm sorry.

Yeah, no, I just wanted to add that we've been doing public art for 20 years since our first exhibition was in 2005 with Tom Otterness.

And most of our art shows have been three-dimensional sculpture, very large sculptures.

And we were... you know, thrilled, you know, we went to an event at the Hispanic society.

It's a free event at Five Flies.

We want to inaugurate this as a series.

Because we were able to bring the cost of public art on the malls down significantly and we can reuse the artwork, it lends the ability for us to take the art from the outside inside and also help local businesses like Five Flies.

which is, it's very exciting and also give prominence to, it's more accessible to local artists.

Time and exposure to the elements played a part in the sign's deterioration and need for restoration.

City funds to protect public art were used to commission Mark Jacobson of Sun Signs to restore this piece of Sedona's artistic and welcoming history.

Originally created by artists David Platt and Lauren Fancher and installed in 1996, the sign has a stone base with steel, copper, and painted components.

It is one of three Sedona entry signs, which are part of the city's public art collection.

I am excited to have our Sedona entry sign looking like new again.

Mark did an amazing job brightening the lettering and restoring richness to the copper and steel.

It's a pleasure to drive into West Sedona now and admire the care he put into breathing new life into this historic piece from our city's public art collection, said Nancy Lattanzi, arts and culture specialist.

When asked about his role in the project, Mark Jacobson said, In the mid-1990s the Sedona's Art in Public Places Committee sent out a call to artists for three entry sign designs.

I mean, I think that's lovely.

You also work a lot in public art.

Yes.

And public art is complicated, isn't it? People have big feelings about public art.

What makes successful public art?

when it becomes known as part of the building.

So when people say, oh, you know, you did that building with the man out the front, or you did the building with the white twirly piece at opera, they start to know the building by the artwork.

But I started to do it because it's a way you can change artists' lives.

As always, links to more information are on the Friday Live page at NebraskaPublicMedia.org.

Omaha's Central Public Library put out a call to enrich the space with public art.

Out of the 240 local artists who applied, 16 were selected to create work for the new building.

We'll hear from two of those Omaha artists today, starting with Fibra artist Peyton Pearson, whose passion for textiles began at the Omaha Public Library.

And then afterwards, I sit down and look at it and figure out like, well, how on earth am I going to weave

this? I got to figure something out.

I think public art is so, so crucial.

I mean, it really shows the people of a city that we are worth investing in and receiving, experiencing these works.

That's right, and if you enjoy us talking about things like haircuts...

Public art and manscaping, all covered in today's episode.

Oh,

baby.

It's

a good idea.

But we're talking about public art, basically.

Public art, yeah.

I would like it to be much higher, but then again, it's very expensive to produce off of the cuff.

Um, I w- I am hopeful that as things continue along the line that they have in Baton Rouge, that we'll end up with more of a focus on public art, particularly, particularly freestanding sculpture like they've done in Lafayette.

Um, I do have a public art piece in Metairie that was part of the Jefferson, The Beautiful, um...

I can't remember the collector who sponsored that, the majority of that.

But anyway, there's several sculptures up in, all through, uh, Lapalco and Veterans and whatever.

And they've clearly touched a nerve because this isn't really a Lewisham problem.

It's a question for everyone who's ever commissioned, designed, funded or fought for a piece of public art.

Who owns it once the launch photos are taken? Who maintains it? And what happens when nobody left in the room remembers how it works? Mark Davey, welcome to Detailer.

Thank you very much.

And I'm an active member of the community.

We are heavily involved in the local park, volunteering and putting funding in and so on.

But also, I wrote the original cultural and placemaking or public art strategy for what is called Renaissance, which was a development by Barrett London, or Barrett, I don't know if they were Barrett London at the time.

And the key architects were LA Architects, with Mike Lawless was the principal, and a sale with Russell Pedley.

They're sharing their work.

And then the work is then featured in these 19 public art pieces.

And we're seeing them all over the place.

This is Lucas Grindley from Next City, a show about change makers and their stories.

Truth is, there are solutions to the problems of pressing people in cities.

If you're listening, I hope it's because you want to spread good ideas from one city to the next city.

What do you think of when you hear the phrase public art? Maybe it's a sculpture in a park or a mural on the side of a building.

maybe even chalk drawings or graffiti.