Two Installations in Brooklyn,
Almost 70 in Manhattan
By Beth C. Aplin
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
BROOKLYN — One is an eight-foot-tall mass of willow branches; the other is a bright red tower made from aluminum. What do they have in common? They are the only artworks in Brooklyn currently sponsored by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.
Make that temporary art. These two sculptures are part of a decades-long public program at the Parks Department that has placed more than 500 — which they say is a conservative estimate — temporary outdoor art displays in about 100 city parks.
“On the average, we do from one to two installations a month, though installations tend to be bunched up at certain times of the year,” said Abigail Lootens, a Parks Department spokesperson.
But Brooklyn has hosted only a fraction of this dearth of public art. When artist Leonard Ursachi’s willow-made sculpture, “Hiding Place,” made its debut in Prospect Park on May 5, it was the sixth Parks-approved installation to touch down in Brooklyn since 2000. Manhattan has exhibited 69 outdoor art displays in the same time frame. (Before you cry for Brooklyn, think of Staten Island, which has had none.)
These numbers come from the Parks Department’s Web site. They do not include all the exhibits that occur on parkland maintained with additional partners, like the Wave Hill Center in the Bronx and the renowned Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City, for example.
Still, there are several factors that keep most of these striking outdoor sculptures — like Cheryl Farber Smith’s red aluminum piece in Downtown Brooklyn’s Columbus Park — and small group exhibits from traveling beyond Manhattan’s parks.
One is the artists themselves. They pick the site, according to Ursachi, a Romanian artist who has lived in Brooklyn since the 1980s. “Hiding Place” is his third public art project with the Parks Department, and the first to be displayed in Brooklyn.
Choosing the site “is good for me; I like to be free with the context of the piece,” he told the Eagle. He said his sculpture’s location at the north end of Prospect Park, near Grand Army Plaza, “really marks the boundary between the green environment and the concrete, urban environment. My piece is exploring that boundary.”
Another factor is that artist and/or the artist’s sponsoring organization has to pony up all the funds necessary for the artwork’s creation, as well as its installation and removal. “Since all projects are funded by the exhibitor, the sponsors are seeking maximum visibility and publicity,” says Parks spokesperson Lootens.
“Manhattan has the highest density of people, so the work is more likely to be seen by more people there. We encourage potential exhibitors to show in all boroughs,” she added.
Brooklyn may be the most populous borough, and its green jewel, Prospect Park, receives 8 million visits a year, according to the Prospect Park Alliance. Manhattan’s Central Park, however, tallies a whopping 25 million visits a year, says the Central Park Conservancy.
One small sign shows that Brooklyn’s popularity is rising in the minds of the program’s art makers and money raisers: All of the outdoor exhibits in Brooklyn parks since 2000 have come about in the past three and half years. (From 2000 to 2003, there were none.)
More Outdoor Art
Coming to Brooklyn
The Parks Department says it is hard to know exactly what has caused the fairly recent spike of art suitors for Brooklyn parks. “Perhaps [it is] the mobilization of many new residents to Brooklyn, which has boosted the borough’s public interest,” said Lootens. “Brooklyn Bridge Park in particular is a new park with a spectacular view, near an artistic community, that lends itself to the display of temporary public art.”
Who knows if Brooklyn is ready for its version of “The Gates,” or maybe something like Nancy Hwang’s performance piece “S,” a free shampoo and scalp massage station that was set up for a month in a Lower Manhattan park.
One thing that’s for sure is that more temporary public art in Brooklyn is on the way. The Parks Department isn’t giving specifics yet, but says several installations are planned for Brooklyn this fall, as part of the Public Art Program’s 40th anniversary.
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
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