I had a feeling that list was around here somewhere, and I found it.
We were talking in a recent comment section about public art, and how we acquired it. Chuck Ross brought up the matter of public sculptures, of which the Village now has three major ones, and some very minor ones along the walkway to the recreation building.
Chuck's assertion was that the projects were mine, and even that I personally paid most of the cost for one of the sculptures. I admit that the idea was originally mine, but I did not pay most of the cost for any of them. I, and Chuck, and a few others of us, agreed on what sculptures we thought might go well in the Village, and we took up a collection. For the first sculpture, I think there were only six donors. I wasn't sure how many donors there were for the second one, but that was the list I found. There were 30. For the last sculpture, for which Chuck might have the list, I think there were about 50 donors. We didn't cover the whole Village, but we went partially door to door for that one.
Not everyone donated the same amount. We just asked for donations, and we didn't request a specific amount or donation level. One person -- I think I was with Chuck, and that he would remember this -- gave us pocket change, which he then increased when his wife scolded him. Some gave us notes (10s, 20s). Most gave us checks. And we asked donors to make the checks to the Village, with a memo of "sculpture," or some other obvious identifier. No one asked for a receipt, and we didn't offer any. We were all neighbors, and it was an honor system.
I laid out the money for the first two sculptures. They are Bilhenry Walker's "Triax Alpha V," which is the smaller metallic-colored one in Griffing Park, and Rob Lorensen's "X's and O's," which is the red one in front of the log cabin. Chuck laid out the money for Steven Zaluski's "The Ballplayer," which is the larger one in Griffing Park, just on 6th Avenue, not far from the American flag. Once all the collecting of donations was complete -- or as complete as we thought we could get it to be -- the Village wrote a reimbursement check to whichever of us had laid out the money. We banked all the cash donations with the Village, too. If you're skeptical or angry, and you want to accuse me or Chuck of stealing money, there's an opportunity here to do it (maybe we paid much less for a given piece than the donations represented; maybe we just pocketed the occasional cash donation), but we were in fact scrupulously honest, no one cheated anyone, and the fact is that whoever laid out the money got much less reimbursement than they wanted. Whoever laid out the money made by very far the largest donation. We just wanted to do it, and we were willing to take the risk, and the loss. And I don't think either Chuck or I regret it.
Anyway, I kept a list of donors for "X's and O's." I'm not going to say who donated how much, which, as I said, was not remotely uniform, but I'll tell you who donated anything:
Lynn Fischer, Doug and Felicia Tannehill, Dan Keys, Andrew Olis, Harvey Bilt, Chester Morris, my daughter, Steve and Suzie Taylor, Helga Silva, Dale Blanton and Louie Bowen, David Coviello, Gage Hartung, Audrey Earhardt, Supreme Dorvil, Luca Bronzi, Don Weiss, David and Gloria Wilder, Gary and Barbara Kuhl, someone named Evans, one of the Beltrans (probably Michael, the son, but I don't remember), Linda (I forgot her last name) and Consuelo Moreno, Jose DeArmas, Milagros Gutierrez, Drew Dillworth, Tracy Truppman, Valerie Behet, someone whose last name is Bopadilla, and Chuck (and Rox) and I.
One of our managers -- I forget if it was Ana Garcia or Heidi Siegel -- donated to one of them. They gave back to us some of the money we paid them.
Some of those people were repeat donors. Dan Keys and Andrew Olis and Chester Morris and Dale and Louie and Chuck and I donated to all of them. Some always gave more (hundreds, or thousands, of dollars). Audrey Earhardt has since died. Andrew Olis, who donated to all three, has moved away. So has Supreme Dorvil.
And as I said, even more of your neighbors donated to "The Ballplayer." That's why the Village now has these public art pieces: because your neighbors wanted to improve the Village, were willing to give their own money in the effort, and because three different Commissions welcomed the idea of public art.
If it had been up to you, perhaps you would have chosen different pieces. Maybe you can find one that's here, and you don't even particularly like it. But public art makes the Village a better place, doesn't it? (Don't you like the mural at the recreation center? I, and Chuck, and any of us individually, had nothing to do with that. It was just the result of momentum.) The fact is that when some of us went door to door to request donations for "The Ballplayer," I remember at least one person who didn't particularly like it. (I had a photograph of it, and I would show neighbors what it was I was asking them to fund.) So I said this project was already under way, but if the neighbor liked something else better -- there was mention of something "natural" or "organic," with stones and things like that -- I would be more than delighted to get to work finding and acquiring such a piece, and join the neighbor in making that our next project. But the neighbor didn't have any further ideas. It's a lot easier to criticize than it is to have ideas, take responsibility, and create.
But there you have it. The Village has a small public art program, and those of your neighbors are why. If you want a more extensive program, that, too, can be made to happen. I will repeat now what I said at the time. And for a frame of reference, no single sculpture (or mural) the Village now owns cost more than $6500. There are about 1200 homes in the Village. And about 3000 residents. If each home contributed $5 or $6 per year (I said five dollars or six dollars per household per year; how many servings of Starbucks coffee is that? Two?), the Village could have a nice new sculpture every year or two.
It's your Village. It'll be whatever you want it to be. On the cheap, too, at least for public art. There's outdoor sculpture that costs more, or a lot more, or vastly more, than we spent. But it's not necessary. We did well for not much money.
