All of this Public Art is Near My House

Hello again! I hope you've all had a great week. And now that I think about it, the conclusion to this project is startlingly close. However, even as the daunting task of presenting looms in my near future, I still am learning new things every week.

Unfortunately (or fortunately), I decided to abandon the idea of surveying a large amount of people in favor of sending out a more detailed and open-ended questionnaire to people specifically working in the Arts & Culture departments of various cities. As I wanted to stay local, I tried to get in touch with those connected to the public art programs of Phoenix, Scottsdale, Mesa, and Tempe. So far, all of the people I've contacted associated with Scottsdale Public Art have agreed to respond, as well as those with Tempe Public Art. If all goes well, I should have their responses in the next week or two, which will undoubtedly shed a unique perspective on the role of public art in Arizona communities.

Below, I'll attach the questionnaire if you want to take a look at the questions!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZwqPnVPNl_bnwsjE24Juud0kWa3hy2s6dLHtd5xXwdU/edit?usp=sharing

(I know this is a poor substitute for a photo--sorry Russell.)

 Aside from the questionnaire, this week was spent mostly on familiarizing myself more with the art in the immediate area. In my case, this would be Scottsdale (although I technically live in Paradise Valley--a weird glitch in the Matrix). And it seems that in my day-to-day Scottsdalian life, I unknowingly pass the works of dozens of artists! For instance:

Photo by Diego Ceja

This art piece is called "Water Mark" by Laura Haddad and Tom Drugan. I pass this on Indian Bend Road all the time without ever realizing that this is itself a piece of public art! On a side note, it's also cool to see this on the rare days when it's raining, since flood waters will spout out of the mouths of the horses like an elaborate pseudo-fountain.

Another public art piece I've personally been to is a space known as "Knights Rise" by James Turrell.

Photo by Sean Deckert

Nestled within the Scottsdale Contemporary Art Museum, this piece is a cavernous concrete space with a large opening up to the sky. I actually visited "Knights Rise" a while ago with fellow Senior Research Project blogger Keanan Jenkins and was taken aback by the atmosphere presented by the quiet, grey interior. The room is all blocks of solid pure color, and espouse a sort of emotional tranquility, especially when the sky has the dramatic colors of sunrise or sunset. If you are ever seeking a quiet space to think or (dare I say) meditate, I highly suggest checking this piece out (and the rest of the Scottsdale Contemporary Art Museum while you're at it).

The last local piece I wanted to bring attention to is one that I think most Arizonans have seen in there time here:

Photo by Bill Timmerman

This is known as the "Soleri Bridge and Plaza", named after its renowned artist and architect Paolo Soleri. I remember passing this all the time on the way to Fashion Square Mall with my mom when I was younger and thinking that it looked like the smokestacks of a boat. Or maybe someone told me it was supposed to look like a boat? I'm not entirely sure, but to this day, whenever I pass this bridge I think of how lonely this boat must be in the middle of landlocked Arizona.

On that note, thank you for reading and I'll see you in next week's installment!

Lots of Pictures

Hello again to my blog! I hope you all have had a good week. Considering that I'm almost completely sans congestion, I'm on top of the world.

Physically, however, I was at the museum for much of the past week. Here are two photos from my adventures that I felt absolutely had to be shared:

I unwittingly applied blue paint to my neck. Not sure if I qualify for the Blue Man Group.

An example print I made for a tour that I particularly liked of a hypnotic octopus.

As you can clearly see, what I do there is very serious business. 

However, instead of regaling you all with more tales of my adventures at the museum (helping a girl on the verge of tears because she messed up on her drawing of a fish, fishing popsicle sticks out of glue bottles, etc.), I wanted to use this post to mention a few of my favorite public artists that I encourage you to check out further if you're interested. 

As I mentioned a few posts ago, I picked up a book about Keith Haring at the museum a while back. Coincidentally, his prolific art career sprang forth from his innate desire to create as well as a strong passion for social activism. In fact, he first sparked intrigue on the art scene by painting in subway stations in New York City in order to grasp the widest audience. From there, he began painting murals both in New York and internationally, including his famous "Crack is Wack" mural. He believed strongly that art should be accessible to all and also utilized his artistic ability to inform the greater public about issues such as anti-apartheid sentiments, AIDS awareness (which he tragically succumbed to later in life), and the crack cocaine epidemic. 

Haring's "Crack is Wack" mural.

One of Haring's more iconic images. 

Haring next to one of his subway paintings, this one commenting on the practice of apartheid in South Africa.

Haring's sculpture known as "The Boxers".

Keith Haring was a contemporary of Jean-Michel Basquiat, who also got a start in the art world by way of graffiti before moving on to canvas. 

This one is also a boxer. 

Not everyone is a fan of Basquiat's style, but he certainly left an imprint on the mind of the public before passing at the age of 27 from a heroin overdose. 

The next artist I'd like to mention is Robert Indiana, whose name is not all that familiar but whose sculptures almost certainly are. He is most known for his "Love" sculptures. In fact, we have one right here in Scottsdale! 

This sculpture is right near Old Town Scottsdale, so go take a look if you're in the area.

This is the one in Manhattan.

While this is the one in Philadelphia, which is also the "City of Brotherly Love".

A large segment of public art is the placement of sculptures in public areas, as seen by the Haring and Indiana sculptures above. Below, I'm going to show various sculptures of artists who don't necessarily work frequently with public art but whose work I like a lot. 

"Flamingo" by Alexander Calder, an artist who work primarily with abstraction and mobiles. 

"Maman" by Louise Bourgeois. Creepy but cool.

"Spoonbridge and Cherry" by Claes Oldenburg.

Anyways, I think that's enough images for now. I know there's a lot of public art out there that I haven't even touched on, but I encourage you to be on the lookout for it everyday! 

I'll see you in the next blog post.

Hello once again! I apologize for the late post this week. I've found in my many adventures at the museum that aside from being wondrously insightful, kids are also the perfect vectors for illness. As a result, I've been various stages of sick for the past week. But never fear! I managed to go in and intern near the end of the week, and was really glad I did so.

On Friday, due to an unfortunate mix up of the schedules of the gallery educators (who normally lead the school groups), one of the classes was left without a tour guide. Thus, the opportunity presented itself for me to lead a group, if only briefly. I was able to take the class through a demonstration of the tour activity, which, as mentioned before, is the printing exercise. In the tour as a whole, I am most comfortable with this station, and because I was still a bit hoarse from illness, I was grateful that I did not have to lead the whole hour-and-a-half long tour (another educator came and eventually granted me leave). However, speaking and leading a group was fun and exciting, and a definitely something that I'd like to try more.

If you're reading the previous paragraph and asking, "Molly, what does this have to do with public art?", I would like to respond with the fact that a lot of my experience at the museum deals less with the philosophical nature of public art and more with the outcome. Instead of studying more historical instances of public art, the nature of my project seems to have shifted more towards the actual impact of the art upon an audience, and more specifically children, since this is the audience that I've witnessed for the past couple months. I just wanted to address this fact as I believe that I originally set out to explore the nature of public art itself. However, it seems that the reactions to public art are both more quantifiable and more accessible for me to explore. And as an aside, I would like to add that there is a sort of wonder in the first and second graders viewing the art at the museum, especially as a means to understand greater concepts. When the kids get excited at the expertly taken photographs of sharks or the fantastical photoshopped ocean scenes, the experience for me as a guide and an intern is gratifying not only for the sake of my project but also as an art lover myself.

Anyways, I know this was more reflection this week, but as I was sick, I had a lot of time to think. I also wanted to address the slightly different direction of the nature of my project, so I'm glad that I got to mention it. Thank you for reading and I'll see you next week!

An Introspection

Hello and welcome again to the next installment of my blog!

Admittedly, this week has been pretty quiet at the museum, especially after the madness that was last week. Once the spring break of the Mesa public schools finished, the museum went back to the usual throngs of younger children. However, school groups are still coming to tour the gallery in droves, and I have thereby become a pro at assisting with the tour activity, a variation of the printing activity that occurred with the Hokusai class that I mentioned in the previous post. And that means that I get paint on my hands. A lot. 

As we are in the second half of our project timeline already, I would like to take this time to broadly sketch out my plans for the remainder of the project. 

In terms of the museum, I will continue to do what I do now, which is primarily assisting with the tour, especially with the painting and printing at the end of each tour. At some point, I will begin to lead a tour stop or two, helping to educate the tour groups on the topics of recycling, the oceans of the world, categorization of marine animals, or echolocation. This will definitely be a different experience for me, as I'm not the best public speaker. However, the task seems less daunting when the audience is more interested in the art on display than what I'm saying. 

If I've learned anything from interning at the museum, it's that kids have a strange, unpredictable, wonderful insight. Even with my previous exposure as a TA to fifth graders, this is the first time in my life that I've had so much time close to such a younger generation. (I should mention that I also underestimated the collective destructive power of kids under the age of six. I will never make this mistake again.) As such, I am planning some sort survey as I mentioned in the post before. I have a prototype of one, but I'm contemplating having two: one for teenagers or adults, and the other for children. In any case, some form or either can hopefully begin to circulate next week at the museum. 

As for outside the museum, I find that I don't go to other sources of public art enough. However, I plan on visiting Roosevelt Row again--this time in the daylight, a piece known as Her Secret is Patience in Downtown Phoenix, and perhaps a couple of other works on the list that can be found here: http://dtphx.org/2015/10/01/9-public-art-projects-in-downtown-phoenix/.  

Her Secret is Patience

I really want to experience more of the city I've lived in for ten years, especially because there's a strong chance that I'll be leaving soon. Therefore, I'll spending the remaining weeks going out and not just photographing art, but also exploring the spirit of the city. Stay tuned for more photos of local public artwork! 

A Return to Normalcy

Long time no see! I hope you all had a great spring break--I sure did. But this week marks a return to the museum where I have been interning, and it felt great to be back.

To get this out of the way first, below are a few pictures that I promised from the previous blog post:

The description here is too small to make out, but if you'd like more information on the project you can visit http://streetpianos.com/mesa2016/. 

The first picture above is of the piano that sits directly in front of the i.d.e.a. Museum. As you can see, it's pretty fancifully decorated, as are all of the pianos in this art project. I'm not sure if the coordinator of the project took the location of each piano into account when deciding where to place which, but I often wonder if the piano we got was reinforced, as I mainly see younger kids banging on it. And I only say this because I doubt pianos in other locations get so much wear and tear. 

Below that image is a large chalkboard-esque mural that seems portable as I did see this when I visited the Mesa Performing Arts Center two weeks ago. I believe that it's covered in different people's feelings on the pianos, and based on the change in locations, I think it also accompanies different pianos at different times. I particularly like this piece because of the giant and seemingly random pug head, but to see a physical manifestation of Mesa's affection for the pianos is a powerful reminder of just how far-reaching the project is, even if you see the mural next to only one piano. I would say that this is a great companion piece to the pianos, especially if it is circulating among them. I'll let you know if it's still there next week!

In other news, while at the museum I've had the opportunity to work increasingly close with visitors. More specifically, I help with tour groups coming through, assisting with the educators in the ocean-themed gallery and especially helping out with the ocean activity, which is a variation of the printing that was done in the earlier Hokusai class. Besides that, I've helped out with the odd class or two as well as the spring break program that was occurring this week (for some reason, Mesa's spring break is a week later than the Scottsdale one).

A child's "bubble" project from the spring break program.

A coral prototype I made for a class. 

Aside from that, I've picked up a book from the museum library on Keith Haring, who just so happens to be a prolific public artist. For next week's post, I might do an exploration into process and legacy, as a lot of his work embodied an extremely straightforward principle of egalitarian public art. 

And finally, I'm deciding whether or not to survey people at the museum on public art. Since many of the frequenters are children, the responses would mainly consist of parents and teachers, which could prove interesting. Please let me know what you think in the comments! 

As always, thank you for reading, and see you next week. 

Spring Break

Greetings from Florida! I hope you have a great week and I'll see you in next week's post.

Music to My Ears (And Eyes)

Hello and welcome to my fourth week of my Senior Research Project!

Right as I walked into the museum as I do every Tuesday, I happened to notice a strange new acquaintance sitting at the entrance: an elaborately decorated piano. With hieroglyphics emblazoned on the back, knobs and meters on the front, and a rocket taking off from the top complete with a veritable cloud of exhaust, it was a hard sight to miss. Unfortunately, due to phone-shattering incidents, a picture of this beauty will have to wait until future posts.

After some digging (and the sign that said streetpianos.com, which I recommend you all visit), I found out that this piano is actually part of a larger public art series known as "Play Me, I'm Yours". Known more colloquially as "Street Pianos", the project is the brainchild of British artist Luke Jerram. From the website, the basic information is as follows:

"Mesa Arts Center is presenting Play Me, I’m Yours from March 1 until April 9 2016, as part of the celebrations of a major milestone: 10 years at their beautiful location in Downtown Mesa, AZ.  24 playable and artistically enhanced pianos will be featured, primarily in Downtown Mesa along Main Street, near Mesa museums and libraries, on Mesa Arts Center’s campus and at numerous other accessible and open-to-the-public locations, including several satellite locations throughout the city. The Twitter hashtag for the project is #streetpianosmesa."   

Physically, the pianos are placed at strategic locations throughout downtown Mesa: at the i.d.e.a. Museum, the Natural History Museum, the library, a whopping three at the Mesa Arts Center. In fact, if you just drive down Main Street, you're bound to see at least two stray pianos sitting near a mural or sculpture. But on the whole, the pianos are centered around places of education, which perhaps speaks to the importance of music education. This specific placement of the pianos calls to mind my previous post in which I looked into the importance of an environment of a public piece of art, which really serves to be the context for a piece of art. However, this week I would like to draw more attention to interactivity of the Street Pianos. 

Unlike the murals at Roosevelt, the Street Pianos in Mesa invite viewers to sit down and play--make music, brighten the atmosphere, draw other passersby. In fact, the pianos cross media--from the sculptural elements of the pianos themselves to the sounds they can emit. Whereas the mural conceptually required the viewers as a part of its existence as a public art piece, the pianos physically need people to sit and play--it's the whole purpose. This project is a prime example of art where there is no doubt of the art's relationship to the public. Accessibility is as easy spotting one of the pianos, sitting down, and deciding to hit some of the keys. And without players, the pianos seem somewhat diminished in their brightness, despite their cheerful facades. 

As mentioned before, a shattered phone screen has inhibited me from taking any photos. However, I promise them in a future post. In the mean time, if any of you are in Mesa some time soon, I highly recommend that you check the pianos out. Thanks for reading!