Posted on Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - 11:17 am:

---

Quote:

I will try as best I can - albeit in a long treatise – to share with the MOL readers the little knowledge I have, and give my two cents on the subject.


Is this project a priority for our town?

Our town does not have a list of priorities. Priorities today are established ad hoc by the BoT, led by the Village President. There is no Strategic Plan for the future of South Orange that would establish our priorities. A plan that receives public input from its inception. A plan that coordinates the budget with our land use needs, our capital improvements needs, our infrastructure, our redevelopment, and with the real estate trends of the region. A plan that addresses our demographics, the business needs, historic preservation, the environment. A flexible plan that, as a living document, would be regularly updated to adjust to changes and to public input.

We do not have priorities because we do not have a Strategic Plan. Instead we have a Land Use Master Plan (updated every 6 years as required by law), an Open Space and Recreation Master Plan, a Church Street Redevelopment Plan, a Central Business District redevelopment Plan, a Parking Study, and a Traffic Study. Few of these plans have received public input, and they are all acting independently without coordination, and with little reference to our budget.

If we had a Strategic Plan it would have designated a space downtown for public art, and we wouldn’t have to remove the gazebo to accommodate art.

If we had a Strategic Plan we would have an appropriation in our budget for public art. Many municipalities in the US set aside for public art 1% to 3% of the budget of certain municipal construction projects. Corporations appropriate 3% to 5% of a construction project’s budget to art.

The priority of the hour, as we all know, is SOPAC. The Tony Smith Sculpture Project is a priority only to the extend that it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to acquire the sculpture of a world-renowned artist – who happens to be from South Orange, whose work is coveted and purchased by major museums and cities.


What’s the story behind it?

In 1998, a small group of local artists found it strange that although Tony Smith and his work are admired the world over, South Orange didn’t honor its native artist in any way. They began a campaign to acquire one of the works of the artist and have it installed in a public space in South Orange.

In 2002 the Lennie Pierro Memorial Arts Foundation began the “Tony Smith Sculpture Project” with the goal to fabricate and install in downtown South Orange a permanent outdoor sculpture created by its native son Tony Smith. The Foundation’s work with the Tony Smith Estate resulted in a substantial and generous gift to the Village of South Orange: the Estate offered South Orange the rights to fabricate the museum-quality sculpture “Tau”, estimated in value at $500,000-$600,000. Its size: 14 ft. wide x 21 ft. long x 12 ft. high. It is the artist’s wish that his works be reproduced in limited editions of three. This is common for sculptors who work with large metallic pieces. They build their models and they have a foundry or sheet-metal workers who fabricate them in limited editions. Auguste Rodin, as well as many other sculptors did so. To clarify: “Tau” is neither a replica nor a statue. It is an original Smith sculpture like the ones in major cities and most major museums around the country.

The offer was presented to the South Orange BoT in 2002. In 2003 the Village applied for a CDBG grant of $250,000 for the project. In 2005 the County approved the grant. Subsequent to the County’s approval, the Lennie Pierro Memorial Arts Foundation was able to continue its fundraising efforts in earnest.


How come we didn’t know about it until now?

Beats me!

The project has been out in the open since its early stages.

Newspaper articles about it were published in The New York Times (11/3/02), the Star Ledger (1/9/03), and the News-Record (11/21/02, 1/30/03, 11/6/03).

A widely publicized fundraiser for the project was held by the Lennie Pierro Memorial Arts Foundation in 2002 and was attended by more than 250 South Orange and Maplewood residents.

A widely publicized (News-Record, MOL) lecture was given at the Adult School of Maplewood-South Orange, also organized by the Foundation, in 2003.

The Foundation made presentations with all the facts on the project to more than a dozen civic and neighborhood groups in 2004.

The Village BoT held several open public meetings on the subject in 2003, 2004, and 2005. These meetings have been televised, and minutes are posted on the Village’s website.

Community collaboration and transparency are very important for every public arts project. The venues for public participation in the Tony Smith Sculpture Project were offered to the public and many Villagers took advantage of it.


Should there be public art in South Orange?

Should you have that beautiful picture hanging in your living room? Do you really need it? Would you take it down?

No, you don’t really need it. But you wouldn’t live in a living room with empty walls, would you? You did go out and bought a piece of art – be it a photograph, an oil, a watercolor, a pottery bowl, a tapestry, a glass vase, a figurine, any wall-hanging to decorate your walls and beautify your environment.

Let’s face it, art is an integral part of our private lives. We don’t even think whether we need it or not. We just want it, and we get it.

In developing countries, where people cannot afford to buy art for their houses, they create it with their own hands, and they decorate their environment and themselves, thus creating the most beautiful expressions of art: the folk art.

Public art adorns the living room of a community. It has existed since the beginnings of history and in the most primitive societies. It has become an integral part of a successful urban environment.

South Orange does need public art; a creation that will fill our chest with excitement when we look at it, that will make us proud when we show it to our visitors, that will make us happy to share it with our children, that will earn us a place in the world of art. Indeed, this is such a unique town and project that PBS’s “State of the Art” program is waiting for things to begin so they can shoot a documentary on this project and our town.


Why a Tony Smith sculpture?

Because Tony Smith is a child of South Orange. He was born here in a third generation South Orange established family, raised here, worked here, and raised his family here (his daughters attended Columbia High). He loved South Orange.

Because the art of Tony Smith is revered throughout the world, exhibited in major museums, admired in the world of the arts, inspired many other artists, and is on permanent public display in several cities such as New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Chicago, not to mention housed in major museums including the MoMA, the Whitney, the National Gallery, the Metropolitan Museum, and more.

I know not of another artist of enduring international reputation and higher artistic caliber, who is so tied with the soul of South Orange.

Historically South Orange has paid its respects to public art through the beautiful architecture of its public buildings. The Tony Smith sculpture is an opportunity to marry our historic art with the contemporary art of our own, here in our own backyard.

And what an opportunity this is! Under no circumstance would South Orange be able to afford the cost of purchasing a Tony Smith sculpture. We can have it only through the generosity of the Tony Smith Estate who, desiring to give back to the community that Tony called home for so many years, gifted the rights to one of Tony’s priceless creations, the sculpture called “Tau”.

“Tau” is a sculpture bound to create controversy. Those somehow familiar with abstract forms will admire the strength in its boldness, the defiance to gravity in its posture, the intricate exposure of its planes to light, its monumental size. Those ill-at-ease with abstraction will see it as a incongruous assemblage of gigantic plates. But, hey, that’s art. Art is always controversial. Only good art endures the trials of controversy and of time. Tony Smith’s art has done just that.


Why that location?

There are several locations in South Orange where “Tau” could be installed. The plaza on Sloan Street, between the Train Station and the Firehouse was selected collectively by a group of local artists, the Tony Smith Estate, and our Village government. It is ideal if one wishes to bring the two historic structures and the sculpture together and thus accentuate the contrast of the old with the new. Linked with the proper landscape design this contrast could become harmonious.

Replacing the gazebo is a blessing; this structure is a poor attempt to reflect the architecture of the Train Station and the Firehouse.

I must say, however, that this would not have been the location of my choice if I had my ‘drathers, but I don’t have them so I shut up.


The Economics

If the town were to purchase “Tau” outright, it would cost between $500,000 and $600,000. That is why the Foundation worked so hard to establish such good relations with the Tony Smith Estate, because without the gift this project would be impossible. So what the gift means – and it is a gift – is that South Orange will get a museum-quality sculpture simply for the price of fabrication, estimated at $80,000-$90,000. A gift worth in excess of $420,000 sounds like a gift to me.

The Foundation has paid for a preliminary conceptual redesign of the site. Based on that conceptual design the estimated total cost for the project – which includes fabrication, transportation, installation, final site design, engineering, clearing and construction – is $440,000.

The Village has allotted to the project $250,000 it received from the County’s Community Development Block Grant. The Lennie Pierro Memorial Arts Foundation has committed to raise the remainder needed to complete the project through private donations.

Granted the $250,000 CDBG money could have been used to reduce our taxes for 2005 by approximately $44 per household ($250,000÷5,600 households). And although to some these $44 would have made a difference in their budget, it is a worthwhile sacrifice when it comes to enriching our downtown with art, and further enhancing our reputation as a vibrant arts' community. Because believe me, you don’t find many – if any – other villages that have an art gallery, put on famous jazz concerts, and have a downtown sculpture by a world-renowned artist. If all this isn’t a plus for South Orange, then I don’t know what is.

In conclusion I suggest let’s grab this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the good of South Orange.

---