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Artist News
Cambridge Hosts Innovating Public Art Project
By Staff Writer | February/March Newsletter 2006
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In early January, regular diners at Harvard Square’s popular Café Pamplona were surprised to discover that a giant stack of flexible steel cylinders had taken over their favorite summer dining spot, a narrow courtyard between the restaurant and its neighboring building. Harvard Square residents and tourists did double takes as they walked by the rusty tower of cylinders lodged between the two buildings. “What in the world is that? Is it supposed to be there? How are they balanced? Will they fall?”
The towering sculpture created by artist DeWitt Godfrey is the first installation of Public Art/Moving Site, a traveling public art project that stretches the concept of public art and the notion of ‘site’ by bringing three different artists to three different New England communities to create transient art installations.
Through May, artists Godfrey, Michael Oatman and Spurse Artist Collaborative will bring their very distinct interpretations of the project’s theme to Cambridge, New Haven, CT and Bellows Falls, VT. Each work will be installed for six-weeks in each community and will retain its integrity while responding to, expressing, and accumulating the experience of each site.
Cambridge Arts Council (CAC) helped to conceptualize the project along with Artspace in New Haven and Rockingham Arts Museum Project in Bellows Falls. The project is outside CAC’s regular project budget and is funded by the New England Foundation for the Arts, Massachusetts Cultural Council, and LEF Foundation.
“Through this project, we want to expand awareness of public space by revealing layers of the city that are normally obscured by the habitual activity of urban life,“ said Lillian Hsu of Cambridge Arts Council. “Watching DeWitt install his sculpture outside Café Pamplona was like watching a performance. The street reaction was so exciting.”
In addition to the public sites around Cambridge, the Council will host exhibitions by all of the artists in its gallery at 344 Broadway, Cambridge.
Public art has long been at the center of CAC’s mission. The city of Cambridge is the only city in Massachusetts to have a public art ordinance that mandates the ongoing creation of art in public spaces throughout the city. More than one hundred public art works have been created in Cambridge’s public buildings, parks, schools and neighborhoods since the ordinance was enacted in 1979. Most of these artworks have been created in active response to the character and history of the places they inhabit. Behind each is a story, often involving artists in complex exchanges with large numbers of community members.
“In Cambridge, we have an ongoing dialogue between the community and its artists through the public artworks,” said Hsu. “The community response gives these works life.”
On a balmy Saturday in late January, a Café Pamplona waiter stands outside with a cigarette looking up at the rusty Godfrey structure dwarfing the little red restaurant.
“When are you putting out the café seating?,” asks a pedestrian, pointing to the massive cylinders.
The waiter nods. “Not till spring.”
“You know it’s growing on me,” says the pedestrian.
“Don’t get too used to it,” says the waiter. “It’s off to New Haven in a month.”
DeWitt Godfrey’s work will be installed at Café Pamplona and at the CAC gallery through Feb. 17. Artist Michael Oatman will show his “Model Citizens: A Miniature Epic” based on the collections of local model makers from Feb. 27- April 7. Spurse will create“Provisional Restaurant,”exploring the culture, practices, and role of food in a community from April 17-May 26. More information is available online at www.cambridgeartscouncil.org.
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