Put some musical instruments in public spaces, and musicians (even homeless ones) will come play them. An idea worth stealing! From The Denver Post:
There's lots of love downtown. The Downtown Denver Partnership began placing pianos along the mall in late 2009, said spokesperson Sarah Neumann. All of the instruments were donated; the partnership received many of them just by asking on Craigslist. They started with eight pianos but grew the roster to the current 17. All of them are painted to match the seasons by local artists.
NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman Announces $3 Million in Grants From Mayors' Institute on City Design 25th Anniversary Initiative
MICD25 supports creative placemaking projects that contribute toward the livability of communities and help transform sites into lively, beautiful, and sustainable places with the arts at their core. The grants range from $25,000 to $250,000 and are awarded to 21 communities ranging from Easton, Pennsylvania (population 26,000) to Los Angeles, California (population 9.8 million). This is the first grant program developed under Chairman Landesman's leadership.
Here is Judith H. Dobrzynski's take on the new initiative.
A huge poster of a Nazi swastika behind a 1940s-style naked pin-up model clad only in a Mickey Mouse-mask and stretched across a building has stirred controversy in Poznan, western Poland.
A new art gallery is using the work titled "NaziSexyMouse" by Italian artist Max Papeschi to advertise an exhibition, but a city councillor has tried to take legal action saying it violates a law banning the display of Nazi symbols.
In search of something new, the museum abandoned its 1996 plan to create a traditional park with monumental sculptures by, say, Alexander Calder, Richard Serra and Louise Bourgeois. Instead, it commissioned works by emerging and underappreciated midcareer artists—Kendall Buster, Alfredo Jaar and Los Carpinteros, among them—and will keep most of them on view for only a few years. It will add at least one new work a year, financed by drawing from the park's $15 million operations and art endowment.
And one more thing: The museum asked the artists to study the parkland and to create "site-responsive" works. Far from being a manicured lawn, the property—officially "100 Acres: The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park"—includes woodlands, meadows, a lake and wetlands, giving the artists plenty of potential inspirations.
When Freiman joined the museum eight years ago, she decided 100 Acres should engage the public in two unusual ways: Unlike most sculpture parks, it would commission site-specific works and define those works as “temporary,” lasting a few years to a decade, to tempt visitors back to Indianapolis. “[100 Acres] hinges on the notion of change,” Freiman says. “We wanted to introduce a sense of surprise and wonder into this park.” The park’s free (like the IMA’s permanent galleries) and open from dawn to dusk.
Apparently, the funding, including an operating endowment, for the project was in place before the economic downturn. It's heartening to see a major institution be so forward-thinking and be able to raise money for that vision. It is, of course, depressing to think about all the amazing ideas that will be dead-on-arrival in this current economic climate.
