Can I Interest You in a Piece of Public Sculpture?

Persistent?  Incorrigible?  Suit yourself.  If there's a problem, tell me what it is.  One Commission agreed to accept a gift of public sculpture for the Village, and a very different Commission agreed to accept another.  Now, I'm on the trail of a third, which I'll come to shortly.

For an important piece of perspective about what probably appears to be my project, between the first piece and the second, Gage Hartung suggested a sculptor of whom I had not known.  I found the sculptor, and I met with him.  He was a very interesting guy, and his sculptures were magnificent.  They were also very pricey.  So much so that there was no chance we (a few donors) could raise that kind of money.  So it was a great idea, but I couldn't make it work.  As I was wrapping up raising funds for the second sculpture, David Tunnell said he preferred something more "organic" for the Village.  His image was something maybe made of stone, with a rounded contour and an abstract representation. I don't know of such pieces, and I asked David to find one, or to help me find one.  He did not get back to me.  So I can understand why it seems like I'm driving this bus, but I'm going to plead not guilty.  I would be more than delighted to have someone else take over the choosing and the fund-raising.

Cecilia Lueza painted our new mural at the recreation center.  If you go to her website, lueza.com, you will see other murals she has painted.  You will also see paintings intended for indoors.  And you will see outdoor sculptures.  As it happens, I saw a series of her sculptures last year at Art Miami (the design district/Wynwood branch of Art Basel).  I didn't know they were hers, and I had never heard of her before.  They were very captivating pieces, however, and I recognized them instantly when I saw her site.  They are the series of three face profiles.  Now that I've seen her site, I can say they are not at all the only pieces I think would be great in BP.

Here's an example of what I have in mind.  I've spoken to Cecilia about this, and she's offered us a discount.

The sizes and materials are 8 feet aluminum, 11 feet aluminum, 10 feet aluminum and urethane, 8 feet aluminum and urethane, over 8 feet aluminum and urethane, and 9 feet aluminum, steel, and urethane.

These are not easy, although $5000, the price for the third one down, is what we paid for the second sculpture we got.  So not out of sight for "Ascending."  My favorites are the two "Diversity," or triple faces, series.  The "Tower of Seasons," the ones with the colored circular discs, are appealing, and the shorter one may be accessible, cost-wise.  I like "Dual Nature," the multi-colored head, very much, but it's expensive for us.  Cecilia has more.  These are just the ones I liked best.  Go to her site, and see if something else appeals to you.

When I ask "Can I Interest You..." I mean would you contribute to paying for these.  I have every reason to assume the fund-raising for another sculpture would be the same as it was for the other two pieces.  As you know, I'm running for Commissioner, and I will promise you I would never make a move against the Village coffers to pay for something like this.  What I absolutely would do is canvass the neighborhood and the Commission, and place the matter on an agenda, or better yet, a workshop, to see if BP residents would like to pay a yearly assessment for public art.  Just to remind you, it would cost about $1.66 (that's one dollar and sixty-six cents) per person in BP to collect enough money to buy a $5000 piece of art.  For a $10K piece, it's about $3.35 per person.  Once, or once a year.  So we're talking about meaningless amounts of money.    If we wanted to skip the concept of counting heads, and just go to households, we could call it $5-$10 per house, and we collect about $6K-$12K.  If we got really ambitious, and collected $20 per house, we would have a very nice public art program pretty quickly.

So let me know what you think.  Do you like the idea?  Do you happen to like these pieces?  Do you like the idea, but you have some other pieces in mind?  Tell me about them, and where they are, and how much we would have to pay for them.  I'll go inquire, or haggle.  Or you do it, and tell me how I can help.