Showing posts with label public art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label public art. Show all posts
Why Funding The Arts With Tax Dollars Is Wasteful
June 9, 2011 - The short video below examines the idiocy of publicy funding "art," especially in this bad economy. "A few weeks back," writes ReasonTV, the producer of the video, "Hollywood movie stars and groups such as the Creative Coalition stormed Washington, D.C. to lobby for increased taxpayer funding of the arts. Most memorably, Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey told Hardball's Chris Matthew that Abraham Lincoln was a huge theater fan who 'understood that he needed the arts to replenish his soul'."
As ReasonTV pointed out, Spacey didn't mention that Lincoln was killed by a crazed actor in a theater, while the president's soul was supposedly being replenished. They did, however, provide three good reasons why funding the arts with taxapayer dollars is a bad idea. Those reasons are listed below this video.
Painting New York (Video)
This is a beautiful video, which deserves to be called a mini-documentary. Hat tip to iOwnTheWorld for bringing this to our attention. IOTW observed that "You may note that several Stella Artois ads are shown in the film; Stella Artois sponsored the film, though it covers other advertisements as well, and focuses more on painters than the ads themselves." It's a fascinating look at a dying artform, as told by the artists themselves. Although these are commercial paintings, they are "public art" in every sense.
UP THERE from The Ritual Project on Vimeo.
In Rogers Park, They're Putting Lipstick on Pigs
49th Ward Alderman Joe Moore wants to paint over the crumbling infrastructure of CTA and Metra underpasses in Rogers Park. It's like putting lipstick on pigs.
Moore is good at coverups. We are all still wondering what happened to that box of ballots in the April 2007 aldermanic run-off election, for example, and we'd love to know what kind of paper Moore and convicted check kiter Robert Creamer used to exchange in a back office.
Another kind of coverup that the Rogers Park alderman is good at: Putting lipstick on a pig. While CTA and Metra underpasses are crumbling throughout the city, including his own 49th Ward, Moore wants murals on the rusting steel and crumbling concrete.
It won't improve the underpasses one bit structurally, of course, and undoubtedly some folks will not be pleased with the artwork that will finally be applied. In the photos here, we see crumbling CTA infrastructure. Is Moore trying to get this fixed? Nope, but he's elated that pretty paint will soon be applied to underpasses such as these. (Above: CTA underpass at N. Glenwood and W. Pratt. Left: Crumbling underpass at Jarvis CTA station, one block from Moore's 49th Ward Service Office.)
Moore and his leftist pals seem to have a phobia about blank spaces. If a wall is simply white or gray, it reminds them of how empty their own lives are and so they try to fill it with something, anything, just to fill it. They did this a few years ago by hiring an artist to apply a dreadful mural on the Morse Avenue CTA underpass (photo below). After the garish thing was completed, the Morse underpass was still crumbling.
The only difference the mural made: Instead of a white, crumbling structure, the Morse underpass became a crumbling structure painted in a garish, day-glo psychedlic acid trip vomit motiff. The mural has not reduced the level of crime near the station and it has not motivated businesses to move onto Morse Avenue. The mural was nothing more than a public relations stunt by Moore.
Today, the mural is peeling, cracking, and stained by water that leeches through the crumbling cement (see two photos below).
While the Morse Avenue Mural project was underway in 2008, Moore and others spoke dreamily of a "Mile of Murals" project along the CTA elevated tracks in Rogers Park, already well past the promised date of August, 2007. That didn't happen, in part because CTA backed out of the deal. Now, Moore has come up with an alternate plan, which he outlined in an email blast on Wednesday, June 23, 2010.
"Calling All Artists!" screamed the headline of Moore's June 23 email, "Applications to Design an Underpass Mural Now Being Accepted."
"Dear Neighbor," wrote Moore, "All Chicago-based artists are invited to submit a design for one of twelve murals that will grace the CTA and Metra underpasses in the 49th Ward. The 'Mass Underpass Murals Project' was one of the funding proposals that received voter approval in the Participatory Budgeting Election last April in which I gave the 49th Ward residents the power to determine how I would spend the 49th Ward's capital budget allocation."
The "Participatory Budgeting Election" that Moore refers to was a publicity stunt back in April. Moore "asked the residents of the 49th Ward to decide directly how to spend his $1.3 million capital budget for 2010. Over the past six months, 49th Ward residents identifiedneeds, researched projects, and prepared full spending proposals. Beginning April 5, 2010, with early voting, and culminating in an election held on April 10th,2010, all 49th Ward residents age 16 and over, regardless of citizenship or voter registrationstatus, were invited to vote for their favorite ward improvement projects. Each voter was entitled to vote for up to eight (8) projects. Ballots were cast by 1,652 ward residents." (Source: 49th Ward Participatory Budgeting Initiative April 10, 2010 Election Result - PDF)
The population of the 49th Ward is just over 60,000. There are approximately 20,000 registered voters, but Moore is very proud that 1,652 "ward residents" - including a few illegal aliens, no doubt - decided how to spend the $1.3 million capital budget. The items chosen are mostly laughable in these times of city budgetary crunches. The underpass murals will cost $84,000 ("estimated") and received an unimpressive 740 votes.
Compare that to these more practical items: "Additional Benches and Shelters on CTA 'El' Platforms" would also cost an "estimated" $84,000 but received only 487 votes. A "Traffic/Pedestrian Signal on Clark at Chase," estimated at $230,000, received only 494 votes. Another item, "Street Resurfacing: 1200-1500 W. Lunt," will cost an "estimated" $93,500 but received only 210 votes. In fact, it was a "runner up" project and received less votes than any other item. Another runner-up was "Intersection safety improvements at Clark and Farwell," estimated to cost a mere $2,600. That received 334 votes.
So, painting over crumbling infrastructure is a higher priority in Rogers Park than is street resurfacing, benches and shelters on CTA platforms, and intersection safety. And Joe Moore is pleased as punch about that. One wonders what kind of idiots voted in Moore's "Participatory Budgeting Election" and why their priorities are so screwy.
If you're an artist who is eager to rip off the taxpayers, you can apply to paint one of the murals here or pick up an application during regular business hours at Moore's 49th Ward Service Office, 7356 N. Greenview (at Jarvis).
The following CTA underpasses are designated to receive a mural: Columbia, Estes, Farwell, Greenleaf, Pratt. The following Union Pacific (Metra) underpasses are designated to receive a mural: Estes, Farwell, Greenleaf, Morse, Pratt, Rogers, Touhy.
Mayor Daley, Ald. Smith Dedicate "Indian Land Dancing" Bricolage
On this fall-like August morning, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and Alderman Mary Ann Smith (photo left) helped dedicate a mural in the underpass at Foster Avenue and N. Lake Shore Drive. A crowd of approximately 150 looked on. This portion of the mural is called "Indian Land Dancing." Neither Smith nor Daley danced, unless you count a gratuitous appearance at a mural dedication as a type of dancing.The mural is a beautiful stretch of eye candy, both visually appealing and evoking a sense of history. It is composed of hundreds of ceramic and mirror tiles, photographs and paintings. The mural is a project by local artists and young people from Alternatives, Inc. which took about six weeks to create.
According to Chi-Town Daily News writer Natasha Wasinski "Project designers Tracy VanDuinen, Todd Osborne and Cynthia Weiss reached out to Native American artists, scholars and families last October to ask for direction and preliminary designs for the project. Involving the Native American community was integral to the project's success, VanDuinen says."Wasinski quoted VanDuinen as saying, “We didn’t want to make it Indian-ish.” Rather, said VanDuinen, "the artists sought to portray Native Americans 'as a culture now met with their past.'” You'll notice that "Waskinski" is not an American Indian name, nor is VanDuinen, Osborne or Weiss.
I'm not sure what VanDuinen meant by saying that they didn't want the mural to be "Indian-ish." The name of the mural is "Indian Land Dancing."
The very look of the mural is all about American Indians, a number of whom attended the dedication dressed in traditional costumes. The mural includes many large images of American Indians. VanDuinen's quote, then, is rather mysterious.
Daley and Smith seemed oblivious to the wasteful, non-green use of electricity even as they celebrated the American Indian-themed mural and listened to speeches about harmony with nature. I wonder how many people at the dedication saw the disconnect of a beautiful mural that celebrates American Indian heritage being stuck underneath a concrete-and-steel highway overpass in Lincoln Park, named after a man who participated in the Indian Wars of the 19th Century.
Another definition is "the jumbled effect produced by the close proximity of buildings from different periods and in different architectural styles." That's from The Collins English Dictionary.
The best definition seems to come from Wise Geek. They tell us that bricolage is "a word which is used to mean an assemblage of objects, along with the trial and error process of putting such objects together. Someone who practices bricolage is known as a bricoleur. Bricolage plays an important role in a number of fields, from computer programming to music, and it is part of the artistic and cultural expression of many cultures around the world. You may have even engaged in a bit of bricolage yourself; perhaps, for example, you rigged up a simple solution to a household problem, using materials which were to hand. This is a form of bricolage."
Kind Note From Colorado
A reader in Colorado wrote in response to a recent post on The Bench about a public mural project in Glenwood Springs.
Thank you for the coverage of mural projects in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. I have just recently come back to Colorado. I spent the last 11 years in Michigan as Artist in Residence for MSU and the Kellogg Foundation, working with inner city folks and also the rural arts program. We created murals all over the state and used art as a vehicle to discuss value systems and decision making. I was partially trained in Chicago through the Gallery 37 program.
If anyone would like to contact me my email address is renickart@yahoo.com.
My history is Artist in Residence at San Jose State in the 1960's. I worked with Caesar Chavez in Delano and learned from him about community organizing Saul Links style. I have been a painter for 67 years and live in Glenwood Springs.
I am glad the mural we just completed looks like some 6-year old painters did it. Actually, we had 18- month-old and 84-year old folks work on it. I have an 800-ft mural in the old Kellogg Sanitarium, now Federal Center in Battle Creek, Michigan, not to mention many more all over the country.
Thank you for noticing.
Hey, you're welcome and thank you for writing.
Young Children Exposed to Porn on Streets of Rogers Park
No, it's not a nude picture of aging hippy Katy Hogan. But she is displaying a large drawing of a woman, fully frontally nude, on the street in the window of the pseudo-counterculture hangout that she is a partner in, The No Exit Cafe. Located at 6970 N. Glenwood in Chicago, the crummy little storefront "theater" is along a stretch of sidewalk between Morse and Lunt where young children frequently walk on their way to and from school. (Click photos for larger images.) 
If this crappy piece of "art" was displayed in a more private area there would be no problem. But to display it prominently in the front window is tantamount to plastering it on the CTA wall directly across the street, which is the site of the failed SSA#24 "Mile of Murals" project. Hogan, by the way, is one of the decision makers on the postponed Mile of Murals debacle. Let's hope Hogan doesn't push for full frontal nudity in the public murals that may - or may not - eventually be painted on the walls of Rogers Park. The No Exit Cafe can be reached at (773) 743-3355.Related:
No Exit Cafe: A shell of what it used to be
Screamin' Mo Cahill (Updated)
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| Hey Mo |
Update, January 4, 2015: MO'S WOES, Harborer of Rats: Seems she's trying to be an urban farmer, and that got her into some hot water with the City of Chicago late last year. While other people are capable of following the city's rules for such farms, Mo just can't get it right. Of course, it's not her fault that the city is picking on her unfairly just because she completely screwed up so badly on multiple charges that include endangering the public health. In her own self-righteous way, Mo Cahill is convinced that she's done nothing wrong. Here, read for yourself at DNA Info.
Mo has a hard time with original concepts, too: She calls her rat harbor urban farm "Moah's Ark," but that name is already taken by a professional landscaping service in England. On her LinkedIn profile she says, "my skills and passions intersect at designing for political campaigns and issues." Wot? Note to Mo: Use a capital letter at the beginning of a sentence. It's sure to impress even your most artsy-fartsies. The LinkedIn profile continues with, "i spend a lot of my time sidewalk teaching and preaching about sustainable agriculture and the plight of the planet. and about responsible stewardship of whatever little parcel of dirt is home." Responsible stewardship? In Mo's world, that apparently does not include rat control or consideration of neighbors. From DNA Info:
“So there's this thing called rat harborage and it does not require them to show any evidence of an actual rat, it just requires the city inspector to say, I think a rat would really like it here,” said CaHill.
“The educational opportunity that this place right behind us here provides this community is anything but a hazard,” said Andrenia.
The neighbors who are not supportive of CaHill's garden did not want to comment on camera.
Poor Mo Cahill is so dimwitted that she can't grasp the fact that rats like piles of debris made of tree parts from landscapers, logs and wood chips, and just because you see rats doesn't mean they're not there or would be attracted to the piles in the future. The city has rules, ya know. It's like the health code rule that says a restaurant must not leave doors or windows open to a kitchen because it could allow vermin to enter, but the restaurant owner does so anyway and defends his irresponsible action just because he hasn't yet seen any rat poop on the counters.
As for her "educational opportunity," well, that only speaks to her conceit and self-importance. Mo Cahill's little operation is Amateurville compared to a lot of other urban farming projects. (See a list of those urban farms here and compare.) What great wisdom can Professor Farmer Mo Cahill, PhD teach us by growing ordinary crops in non-astounding amounts in ordinary dirt and preaching about the demise of planet earth to any unfortunate passersby on the sidewalk? There's nothing revolutionary happening in Mo Cahill's garden. The fact that neighbors who "are not supportive" of her "farm" were afraid to comment on the record indicates that, well, they're afraid of Screamin' Mo (see below).
And just for chuckles, read "still more woes for Big Mo" at conservativecave.com. The best comment there: "So if it's a republican hit with building code violations he's a slumlord, but if it's a DUmmie it's the overreaching of the state." Yep, that's how it works in Mo's World.
Original Article, Continued: Cahill is well known in the Rogers Park neighborhood for lurking in the comments of other peoples' blogs, using the nom de web of "been there." She is also well known as the woman who, in a Howard Dean-like moment, screamed at the Mile of Murals meeting that kids are not good enough to participate in the Rogers Park neighborhood mural painting project.
Cahill, who publicly poses as a progressive liberal, has revealed herself to be just another Establishmentarian. She recently claimed that 14- and 15-year old kids do not have enough talent to work on a public mural, calling it a "slap in the face" to say they are capable of such a feat. She sold out for a few shekkels to The Man, the Establishment, the local Political Powers.
Apparently, Cahill's pink buttons are not working. She is quoted by the Broken Heart blog as saying, "I have been putting in more time in my studio, doing more political work... an actual job, tho temporary, may have landed in my lap. There is a local project to do a mural, hopefully the first of many annual projects. actual cash money."
Perhaps we should remind ourselves of RPB's recent revelations that the "Mile of Murals" project is way behind schedule NOT because of the Chicago Public Art Group (CPAG), but because of the locals who are tripping over their own egos and incompetence to put their own stamp on the project. Those individuals are certain members of SSA#24, DevCorp North and the alderman's office. The CTA is partly to blame as well, as sources report to RPB that CTA management is getting overly picky about the art that will go onto CTA's walls.
One wonders what Mo Cahill is contributing to this FUBAR situation. She's made herself a public figure by virtue of her web sites (plural), her ranting on the blogs as "been there" even though she knows that we all know who "been there" really is, and declaring that she is "doing more political work."
Therefore, none of us should feel the need to treat Cahill with kid gloves. If her contributions to the Mile of Murals project are anything like her inane, poorly punctuated and never capitalized blog comments, it may be even longer before the project is completed. Or even begun. While we congratulate Mo on her job, but we question the judgment of her new employer.
Also See:
CPAG's Stuffed Turkey
Hey Mo: Closing the Circle
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