Chicago’s museums aren’t the only homes to thought-provoking, inspiring and exceptional works of art.
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Consider the bronze sculpture by Christopher Wool called “Untitled (2013),” which stands next to Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park. A temporary installation there since August, it had stints at the Art Institute of Chicago and, before that, as part of an exhibit last year at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.
Wool’s work in Grant Park is part of an initiative Mayor Emanuel has been pushing since taking office to feature art in city parks, on the lakefront, in neighborhoods and other public places. As he prepares for a re-election bid in February, he’s talking up the initiative again, and saving on the costs of commissioning original pieces by showcasing art on loan from other cities.
Christopher Wool’s “Untitled (2013)” near to Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park. (Brooke Collins/City of Chicago)
Integrating and expanding art into public places were among the recommendations proposed in the city’s cultural plan released in 2012. Fast forward two years, the park district is looking to create private partnerships to fund an endowment for future artwork and set up a network with other major cities, such as Miami and Los Angeles, to bring pieces of art to Chicago and put them on display instead of sitting in a warehouse.
Emanuel’s office invited RedEye on a trolley tour last month with stops at five of the latest temporary public art installations on the lakefront.
“It’s part of our overall goal of using public spaces for art, whether it’s a subway station or ‘L’ stops or along Lake Shore Drive, in our neighborhoods,” the mayor said. “If you go to Logan Square, you’ll see it on the boulevard [and] also at Night Out in the Parks, where we have performance art.”
To get the art into the program, the park district, in collaboration with an ad-hoc arts committee of curators and city officials, works to identify available sculptures, calculate the costs of relocating the pieces to Chicago and determine the sites where the works can be installed.
Artists donate the pieces to the city for a year and the park district allocates $250,000 to $300,000 annually—a figure that will be maintained in next year’s budget—to pay for transportation and installation, said Michael Kelly, CEO of the Chicago Park District.
“We’re trying to hold steadfast paying a little bit of money, getting the art for one to three years, holding on to it and then letting it go to another city and bringing in something else,” Kelly told RedEye during the mayor’s trolley tour.
Alice Aycock’s “Waltzing Matilda” located on the lakefront at 46th Street. (Leonor Vivanco/RedEye/October 29, 2014)
Three white aluminum and fiberglass sculptures that are part of Alice Aycock’s “Park Avenue Paper Chase” collection were relocated in August from New York’s Park Avenue to Chicago’s lakefront. The seven-piece collection reportedly cost more than $1 million to commission, but Chicago paid just $70,000 to bring three pieces—entitled “Waltzing Matilda,” “Spin-the-Spin” and “Twin Vortexes”—here and install them in spots Aycock herself selected at 46th, 47th and 48th streets and the lakefront path.
“Right now, we don’t have the resources to commission artists to create work new,” said Nathan Mason, art committee member and curator of exhibits and public art for the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. “It’d be great if there were a local patron who wanted to come and underwrite sculptures to create new work.”
Alice Aycock’s “Spin-the-Spin” located on the lakefront at 47th Street. (Leonor Vivanco/RedEye/October 29, 2014)
With Lake Michigan as its backdrop, the lakefront provides an opportunity to give artists exposure for their work, Emanuel said.
“It is Chicago’s front door,” he said. “I do want it to be a bike path, a running path, but a place where families also stroll and see art.”
The push to add more public sculptures was born after Chicago Sculpture International raised funds for a yearlong lakefront exhibition of large-scale public outdoor works in a partnership with the Chicago Park District to complement the 2012 International Sculpture Conference here, Mason said.
Since Kelly became the park district CEO in 2011, he set a goal to have art in every park in Chicago. There are more than 580 parks in Chicago. He estimated he was about one-third of the way to his goal.
Recent additions of public art include Robert Lobe’s “Nature’s Clock,” once on display at Prospect Park in Brooklyn but now located on the Museum Campus, and Ai Weiwei’s “Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads,” formerly mounted at the Cleveland Museum of Art and now stationed outside the Adler Planetarium. More permanent outdoor artwork on park property ranges from the painted trees at locations such as 31st Street Beach to the headless figures in Grant Park.
Kelly said he hopes having higher works of art will start generating momentum and philanthropic support.
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“This is a ridiculous success to get the Aycock pieces, Robert [Lobe]’s piece and this Christopher Wool piece,” Kelly said. “This probably will lead to an even better year in 2015 with more pieces coming.”
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