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Pl(art)ace
Thu, October 22, '09 |
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“It is very American to think you could look at art from a car,” said Elizabeth Breeden, a bus whipping past behind her. We stood together on a grassy strip between the sidewalk and the busy traffic of McIntire Road, watching for her “missing artist” who was scheduled to install a piece that afternoon just southwest of the light at Route 250. Her lack of anxiousness at the artist’s absence made it clear that, as director of Charlottesville’s Art in Place, she had overcome problems like this at countless past installations.
- The Dec: How would you describe Art in Place?
- Elizabeth Breeden: We were at the dinner table and a friend of ours said, “It ought to be easy to put art on the streets in Charlottesville.” And all of us went, “Is not,” “Is so,” “Is not.” We’re art from a car, and although it sounds ridiculous, we’ve been copied a lot.
- How are you involved?
- I’m the manager, director, and I’m the president of the non-profit.
- As director, are you responsible for making all the selections?
- No. I have a board of six people and each year we invite an artist, a professor, and a gallery owner to be on our jury. We get submissions from artists. This year we had forty-three artists and ninety-five submissions from seventeen states. The artists submit already finished pieces. This year we had an artist submit a proposal of something he is going to do. The “rambling rhino” is a proposed piece. It hasn’t been finished yet.
- So art in place was just inspired by that dinner conversation? Was there any other reason you wanted to start it?
- Yeah. It was that and to create opportunity for sculptors. For me, there were a lot of shows then, about 1995-2000, which were short term, so you spent a lot of time and energy getting everything ready for a week. Then, if it was a show, everybody got your brochure for that week, and if you left it up there, nobody knew it was yours. With the advance of the World Wide Web, you can put a sign up for everybody. It is not like advertising, but people can go to your website and see the art. Part of the reason that the artists are recognizing that I’m offering them a gallery show with their brochure handed out is because that sign gets that all out there. It’s the sort of thing people can remember just long enough to get home to check it out.
- I know that U.Va. professor Satyendra Huja is involved with Art in Place. What is his role?
- He was the town planner, the neighborhood planner. When we started, the town insisted we add him, but we were very glad we did because he was not only interested in having art in the town, but he could also smooth the bureaucratic way. That was very important to us. Even now, we’ve gained a reputation rather quickly because we do things very efficiently compared to other people. If you are a person running the town you sure do want someone who is business-like. Artists have to have insurance. They have to name the city of Charlottesville in their insurance. We have to get approvals for every site we have. We have to get approvals for water and sewer, and parks and rec. We have four approvals. If you have someone in the system you can make sure all that goes to all the right places. But yes, he has always been a fan and he is on our board.
- I saw from your website that there were other types of Art In Place, not just sculptures.
- Yes. We have three other programs, two that are active. The bike rack program is still getting one more bike rack. For that we commission bike racks and we give them to the city. Those are $1000 dollars. The one that’s left the artist just hasn’t finished.
We also have Charlottesville in two dimensions, which is a two dimensional invitational show. It is $10 an entry, and everything gets hung. Then we have a jury of three that goes through and judges it by age with a big prize for the adult category. We get about a hundred submissions for that. We changed the theme last year to honor that 50th anniversary of de-segregation and it dropped to fifty. Our theme this year is “Green Charlottesville” and I hope that lets people go back to their landscapes. We used to have a lot of landscapes when the theme was “I love Charlottesville.”
This year we have a new program. As you get on the 250 bypass at Barracks Road, there is a very ugly retaining wall. We first looked at just painting it. We didn’t like the painting that goes on in a lot of cities and it wouldn’t last very long. VDOT, who owns that wall, wanted assurance that it would be returned to its present condition. Returning it to its present condition if it was painted set us back. So we are buying a twelve-foot by twenty-four-foot aluminum siding that is just ratcheted onto the wall and we’ll put a digital image there. We have a digital competition, which we are going to jury on the 28th. Originally we thought photography, but someone on the planning group said, “Well if someone has this really pretty watercolor, wouldn’t that be cool.” Or even a fabric artist where from a distance it looked like a painting but when you got up close you could see the stitches.
- How do you decide where things get placed?
- It took us about four years to learn to site this stuff, mainly because of the 35mph speed limit. We did realize we had to select rather obvious pieces. It also has to be set so you notice it. We have seventeen sites and we select ten each year, so we can shift if we need to. All of our pedestals are moveable. They sit on the ground and they have hooks so we can lift them. We don’t have to be here every year. The piece at Preston Avenue, and the bicycle, down here—the city bought those. So if the city wants to keep it, we might leave it.
- How does the city buy a piece?
- The city has a percent for art, a stash of money from building parking garages. They don’t like to spend much of it, they are very careful with that money. We’ve had three artists give work. If they get a lot of public response they consider buying it, but a lot of times the artists give them a really good deal.
- Do you collaborate with the artists about where they get placed?
- No, not really. They have to do what I say [laughs]. With the jury it is tough enough to select sites for the ten. You want to shift it around until you have it right. If you have people lobbying for specific sites it makes it harder.
- Are the artists generally from out of town or do you have Charlottesville artists participate?
- We usually have one Charlottesville artist every year; one or two. We don’t give preference to Charlottesville artists. Other programs do that. Though the first time we did this it was all Charlottesville artists. Our stipend has grown too. The first time we did it there was a $500 stipend and no one was going to drive from anywhere for that.
If you’ve driven at all in Charlottesville—or even taken a walk off-grounds—it is likely that you’ve happened upon a public sculpture with a corresponding sign reading “Artinplace.org.” This local non-profit organization has been placing the work of sculptors around the city for the past several years. Before her artist surfaced, Breeden had time to tell me how her organization became a reality.