Public Art

Yes, but is at least somewhat less cornball than the previous version, so there is that.
 
I wish they'd find another spot for it. Perhaps closer to the garden would work. I'm thinking the skateboarders will tear it up anyway.
 
philip said:
I wish they'd find another spot for it. Perhaps closer to the garden would work. I'm thinking the skateboarders will tear it up anyway.
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I was hoping for the end of the Garden opposite the Orr statue for a sort of bookending of the two most important players from the two teams that play inside. Either that or a relatively small statue in the middle of the Gateway park under the trees could have been nice.
 
Sicilian Fishermen - North End

Design will be selected in June

A work of public art is planned as a tribute to the Sicilian fishermen who formed the backbone of Boston’s fishing industry during the late 19th C through the mid-20th C. The working title is the Sicilian Fisherman’s Tribute and is to be located on the north side of Long Wharf near the remnants of T Wharf, which along with Eastern Packard Pier and Commercial Wharf in Boston’s North End formed the commercial center of activity for the neighborhood.
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http://publicartboston.com/content/sicilian-fisherman-tribute-finalists
 
The Pablo Eduardo proposal seems the classiest by far. The others seem either kitsch or bland to the point of ignorable.
 
Yeah, I'm kind of digging the Eduardo one. Though I fear some tourists are going to think it's a witch thing.
 
I feel like they'll go with the Morgan Faulds Pike one, although I also love the Eduardo one.
 
Eduardo's cloaked figure is evocative of Saint Gaudens' Adams Memorial.

800px-Adams_Memorial_by_Augustus_Saint-Gaudens.jpg
 
^ agreed.

but if i had to chose one, i would pick the William Reimann, Sandro Carella, Elizabeth Ghiseline one. it is the most interesting and really defines a space as opposed ot just decorating it.
 
found5dollar said:
^ agreed.

but if i had to chose one, i would pick the William Reimann, Sandro Carella, Elizabeth Ghiseline one. it is the most interesting and really defines a space as opposed ot just decorating it.
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Agreed! Elizabeth was actually my Site Planning & Landscape professor at Wentworth and she always had a great care for well defined spaces and materiality.
 
I'm sure some of you have noticed but there's a number of new public art pieces at the Christian Science Center:





My favorite:


There's a lot more than this but I got these as I was passing through.
 
Downburst said:
I'm sure some of you have noticed but there's a number of new public art pieces at the Christian Science Center:

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Brick unfortunately doesn't jive well with the Zen theme. It's too bad they couldn't put down a huge bed of sand and let people rake it, but I can imagine the epic mess that kids and college students alike would make with the sand. It would be cool to have a little Zen garden here.
 
More from the Christian Science Center. From today:

I really like this one.


I think this my favorite. It's a disk strung up with a number of tiny metal panels, and it traces the shapes of the wind as it blows over it.




And "Appeal to the Great Spirit" outside the MFA
 
Poe statue update.

The City of Boston’s Edward Ingersoll Browne Trust Fund has awarded a $75,000 grant to the Edgar Allan Poe Foundation of Boston. These funds will support the installation of a permanent statue honoring Poe in the square dedicated to him by Mayor Tom Menino in 2009 at the intersection of Boylston Street and Charles Street South. The Poe Foundation has now raised 3/4ths of the $200,000 needed to fabricate and install the statue.

“This is a major step towards the home stretch in making the dream of the statue a reality,” said John LaFleur, President of the Poe Foundation. “We’re looking for contributors who have been considering support to help conclude the campaign quickly so we can schedule an installation date.”

On June 23rd, the city’s Public Improvement Commission approved the installation plan for the statue, and on July 23, the Boston Arts Commission gave final approval to the statue’s design. With these approvals in place, Stefanie Rocknak—the sculptor whose design was chosen from 265 proposals—has begun the work of transforming an 18” carved wooden model into a life-sized bronze statue that will be called Poe Returning to Boston. “The Browne Fund’s support has been vital to the project from the outset,” Rocknak noted.

“Not many people may know of Poe’s personal ties to Boston, but through Poe Returning to Boston our city’s role as the birthplace of Edgar Allan Poe will finally be recognized and celebrated,” said Mayor Menino who has supported the project from the outset.

“Ms. Rocknak’s experience in wood carving and philosophy lend a unique approach to the bronze rendering of Poe. The sculpture tells a story of Poe’s complicated creative relationship with Boston as his papers and stories slip from the bag he carries home,” added Karin Goodfellow, Director of the Boston Arts Commission.

While the Poe Foundation continues to focus on fundraising, Rocknak is directing the fabrication process. Skylight Studios of Woburn, Mass. will assist in the creation of a 6’ carvable foam version of the piece that Rocknak will adjust, cover in clay, and sculpt into its final form. The clay-covered figure will then be cut into separate parts for use in the creation of wax molds that will be cast in bronze by New England Sculpture Services of Chelsea, Mass.

“Poe deserves this tribute,” says Boston College English professor and Poe Foundation chair Paul Lewis, “not despite, but because he quarreled with Boston-based writers of his time, whom he called ‘Frogpondians’ and ‘so-called transcendentalists.’ By resisting then-fashionable didacticism and promoting literature for its own sake, Poe became a foundational figure in the development of popular culture.”

Other major contributors to the project include the Highland Street Foundation, the Hildreth Stewart Foundation, the Poe Studies Association, Steven and Tabitha King, Susan Jaffe Tane, Michael Moskow, Jack Joyce, and Poe fans from Boston and around the world.

The Poe-Boston Foundation, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation, invites supporters to visit its website and Facebook page to learn more about and contribute to the project. Information about upcoming events sponsored by the Foundation—including walking tours of Poe’s Boston on Sunday, September 22, and Sunday, October 20, can also be found on our Facebook page.

Poe-Boston Foundation: www.bostonpoe.org

Poe-Boston Foundation on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bostonpoe

Background

Supported by a planning grant from the city’s Browne Fund, the Poe Foundation of Boston has moved through the first four years of what we expect will be a 5-year undertaking. In 2009 we began to think about ways to memorialize Poe’s connections to the city of his birth. In 2011 we issued a call for artists that resulted in 265 applications from which 3 finalists were chosen. After a period during which about 1,500 people commented on these designs, a statue called Poe Returning to Boston by Stefanie Rocknak was selected. Rocknak describes the work as "a life-size figure in bronze, approximately 5’ 8” tall. Just off the train, Poe is walking south towards his place of birth. With a trunk full of ideas—and worldwide success—he is finally coming home.”

An award-winning member of the Sculptors Guild whose artwork has appeared in numerous publications and in more than 40 exhibitions including at the Smithsonian, Stefanie Rocknak is also an associate professor of philosophy and the director of the Cognitive Science Program at Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York, where she has taught since 2001. A graduate of Colby College in Waterville, Maine, with a B.A. in American Studies and Art History with a concentration in studio art, she holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Boston University. Her interests include the 18th-century Scottish philosopher David Hume (the subject of her forthcoming book), the philosophy of art, and the philosophy of the mind.
________________________________________________________________

Date:
Tue, 2013-08-20
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Wow, Rocknak's bio is impressive as hell! Internationally known artist, philosopher and cognitive scientist. Pretty darn intimidating! From the mock-ups this statue is going to be one of the more engaging pieces of public sculpture in Boston (not that the competition is that stiff).
 
I love the arms race of sorts in cities claiming Poe as their own.

Philly, Baltimore, Richmond and New York have done so for years. I want to say even New Orleans has, given that Poe was a correspondent for the Times-Picayune and his family's history goes through New Orleans (as I recall...). I'm all for Boston, as Poe's birthplace, getting in on the action.
 
itchy said:
I love the arms race of sorts in cities claiming Poe as their own.

Philly, Baltimore, Richmond and New York have done so for years. I want to say even New Orleans has, given that Poe was a correspondent for the Times-Picayune and his family's history goes through New Orleans (as I recall...). I'm all for Boston, as Poe's birthplace, getting in on the action.
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I do think it's funny that Boston is getting in on the action. Given that, by all accounts, Poe hated Boston. It's similar to my Alma mater the University of Virginia which maintains a shrine of sorts (a dorm room unchanged since Poe lived there). Even though Poe dropped out after 1 semester.
 
At least Boston was his birthplace and where he spent his childhood. However unhappy that time may have been, it's a legitimate "claim" to the writer.
 
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