(Diego Rivera’s depiction of Lenin)
 $50,000 ART WALL
The city of Sioux Falls is proposing a $50,000 art wall to be installed on Falls Park Drive (the 3 million dollar street to nowhere). Believe it or not, this bitter old artist actually read the proposal and considered submitting a design. The design has to incorporate the past and present Sioux Falls (yawn). Sorry no depictions of Indians getting trampled by pioneers, Lenin or cuss words are acceptable. The first reason I backed out is because I don’t feel taxpayers money should be spent on public art unless the funds are 100% public and the art is incorporated into new construction or existing structures which ultimately keeps the cost down. Why not use existing walls for the project? Why create a whole new structure? The second reason I backed out is because after I crunched the numbers, $50,000 will barely cover the cost of the wall construction. So what’s left for the artist’s effort and time into the project? Nothing. I’ll be very curious of who gets chosen to do the wall and if they can do it within the budget. Yet another example of how Sioux Falls pays artists for public art; a pat on the back and an atta boy. Well isn’t that swell.
this reminds me of my alma mater, good ole sdsu, who is “unveiling” their new jackrabbit mascot next month.
after paying some out of state firm $6,000 to design a bunch of logos that all looked the same (and not that good, really, although they were fine. just not $6000 fine)…nobody liked em.
so they “opened it up to the public” and asked for submissions. of which they received 250. i was asked to submit, and said “no way, jose” to that. i bet the “winner” will get a $50 gift certificate to somewhere, and the guys with $6,000 grand will laugh when they drive thru our state on their family vacations 🙂
It sounds like a cool project, but like I said, crunch the numbers and the $50,000 gets ate up in construction. My idea was to construct a polished cement crescent shaped wall. And design a mural using photos of the city throughout the years that I would trace and vector. Print it out large format, mount it and spray it with about 12 coats of clear poly. Something with really bright colors.
Once again, a great public art idea in SF administered by the wrong people.
Scott:
Submit a proposal just like Rivera’s above except insert a smilin’ likeness of Mayor Dave instead of Lenin.
I think it would be cool–and funny and make a point that the City Fathers and Mothers wouldn’t get.
What, you have a problem with more money being spent on the project for cement than for art?
Greedy artist!
Cement for the Art wall – $35,000
Labor to form the wall – $15,000
Artist’s creativity and vision – Not a f#$@%n dime.
I’ll pitch in a dollar – I like Mr. Epp’s idea – beam it up, Mr. Scott!
[…] I wrote about this about a year ago and how wasteful it is. […]