Check out this wonderful article by Arkansas Democrat Gazette

Sculptures focus for South Main Street

PHOTO BY STATON BREIDENTHAL

Rhea Roberts of the Quapaw Quarter Association talks about the Bernice Garden in Little Rock. Gardens officials are seeking ideas for artworks that could also serve as benches in the park.

LITTLE ROCK By Claudia Lauer — At first, the busy landscape of the Bernice Garden blends into its surroundings in the South Main Street neighborhood.

A second glance reveals a large yellow metal sculpture jutting from a rock, then a man’s face sculpted in metal, then glass mosaic waves and so on until the privately owned public garden begins to spring with life and quirky details from its cement center. The owner of the space is hoping to add to those details with two art competitions that would place a rotation of new sculptures and three permanent fixtures on the property that used to be a fast food restaurant.

“What you see every day is what you believe is possible,” Bernice Garden Director Liz Sanders said. “If you are walking around your streets every day and you get to see this beautiful thing, then your world opens up. You start to feel that lots of things are possible and you start to see the things you can do to create that beauty.”

Arkansas artists are being asked to submit proposals to design and build three permanent benches that will double as public sculptures. Garden owner Anita Davis and Sanders had seen art benches in other cities across the country from San Francisco to Chicago, but one of the best examples of what they wanted was just down the street.

The South Main Street neighborhood installed art bus benches several years ago, attracting public transportation seekers to take a seat beneath a hulking metal bird or feel like a king on a throne of red and yellow swirling metal barrels.

“It gives a lightness and whimsy to an area that people see and say this place isn’t just totally dead. There’s life here,” Davis said. “A lot of cities are following this trend and it’s pretty exciting. You know art has been closed in galleries for so long, and now it’s out on the street and in the open and you can’t miss it.”

The proposals for the benches, which require a drawing of the planned installation and a budget breakdown, are due by March 5. Sculptors interested in displaying work at the garden for the next annual rotation have a little more time, with submissions including the drawing, description, budget and plan to maintain the sculpture, due by April 20.

The annual sculpture rotation, which has been ongoing for the past four years, will rotate five new outdoor public sculptures into the garden with the caveat that they must be able to be outdoors, and the artist must maintain them throughout the year. A panel including Davis, who is an artist by trade, will choose which sculptures are commissioned.

Chosen artists will be given a $650 budget for materials, labor and installation in the bench competition. For the outdoor sculptures, artists will receive $2,800 and an additional $200 to design a model.

Public art isn’t limited to the South Main Street area. The city has placed a premium on public art and neighborhood organizations, and community development corporations in many areas of the city have added aspects to their design requirements and contracts. A popular public art display at Capital Avenue and Main Street lets people fill in the blank on a chalkboard that asks what they want to do before they die – a community “bucket list.”

Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola said public art has been one of his passions because of the benefit it can have on the attitude of the city as well as how the city is perceived by visitors.

“Art and public art defines a community, and those cultural elements of the community are important in so many ways to the vibrancy and perception of a city,” he said.

Stodola said he is working on two projects, including one that would place additional outdoor sculptures in each of the city’s seven wards, and another that would place sculptures on green space at the entrance to the city’s downtown from Interstate 30. Details and funding are still being worked out, including grant applications awaiting review.

Long-term plans for the MacArthur Park revitalization also include integrating public sculptures from the Arkansas Arts Center’s collection and other public artworks to draw people into the arts center.

The same emphasis on public art is also happening in North Little Rock, where a campaign to paint the utility boxes on street corners garnered attention f ive years ago. The Argenta Arts Foundation is planning on repainting those boxes for the five-year anniversary of the campaign.

Donna Hardcastle, executive director of the foundation, said it’s working on another sculpture to be placed on Main Street at the entrance to the Argenta district that will involve a 12-foot metal figure with six or seven dogs dancing around it.

“Public art has been a focus for us because it defines you as a place that appreciates and supports the arts overall,” Hardcastle said. “It creates an environment that attracts young people and professionals into downtown, and in the long run that also means economic development.”

For Davis and others who have invested time into planting, designing and changing Bernice Garden, the call for public art is throwing out a sort of welcome mat to the neighborhood.

Rhea Roberts, Executive Director of the Quapaw Quarter Association, which includes the area of South Main Street, said the message Davis and others are trying to create is similar to the message she has been trying to spread through the association’s promotion efforts.

“I think public art creates these vibrant pieces and invites people to come back to a community that might not have had the best reputation for a few years,” she said. “It invites them to invest in, revitalize and preserve the characteristics of a neighborhood. I’m trying to tell people that when they get their house on the historic registry, it doesn’t mean things can’t change or that they have to live in their grandmother’s house. The same is true for the community, they can change the perception and still hold onto the character.”

Roberts entered the Main Street neighborhood in Dwell magazine’s restoration-project contest, where a neighborhood or building project will receive a $10,000 grant to help pay for restoration or revitalization costs. The first part of the contest relies on public votes, which can be cast on the magazine’s website.

Arkansas, Pages 9 on 02/20/2012