The Public Arts Committee met 11/03/2021. Amongst several things they took up lease extension requests for three Sculpture Valley sculptures currently located on public property—The Collective, Gyan/Gesture of Conscience, and To the Moon Alice.
Alex Schultz, who is the alderperson for District 9, appeared in his capacity as Executive Director of Sculpture Valley which is the organization that brought these sculptures to Appleton. He explained that he was seeking an extension of the leases for these three pieces. All three had 2-year leases that expired on 11/07/2021.
He said that Sculpture Valley had anticipated a number of artists possibly not coming back to the Fox Cities to retrieve their pieces at the end of the exhibition, but the number of artists who didn’t took them by surprise. They had 16 pieces that came to the end of their lease. Some of those were already extensions from the previous seasons. They had 16 pieces slated to leave the Fox Cities, but only 2 artists returned to pick up their pieces. The vast majority of the artists expressed concerns with travelling during Covid.
Sculpture Valley was trying to pivot and adjust to artists expectations and see what they could do to extend the leases to keep them here a little bit longer so there was a slightly higher comfort level when those artists “feel” like they can come back and safely pick up their pieces.
[Honestly, that makes no sense to me. Howard Russo, the creator of To the Moon Alice, is located in St. Charles, IL, Kara James, the creator of Gyan/Gesture of Conscience is located in Chicago. It’s hard to see how they would be put at some sort of extra risk of contracting Covid by hopping in their vehicles and driving 3 hours up to Appleton, WI to retrieve their sculptures which are located outside in parks that have ample fresh air.]
Alderperson Schultz explained that the contract Sculpture Valley holds with each of the artists who display work in Acre of Art contains a 1-year extension clause specifically to deal with issues that might arise such as what they are currently facing.
He went on to state, “That flexibility was never a part of our conversation with the city. We never talked about this one-year extension when we went through our approval process with the city, so what we’re trying to do here is marry those up a little bit.”
[It seems a little weird to me that Sculpture Valley included a 1-year extension clause in their contracts with artist but then never mentioned it in its discussions with the city or include that in their lease agreements with the city.]
Alderperson Schultz said Sculpture Valley was asking for an extension of the leases of the three pieces that were placed on public property. Two of those requests [To the Moon Alice, and Gyan/Gesture of Conscience] were due to the artists asking to keep them here for another year according to the contract they had with Sculpture Valley. The request for The Collective was due to the fact that they were having some challenges arranging to deliver it to its purchaser who lives in Bozeman, Montana. They went through a number of negotiations with some freight companies but by the time they were able to move the piece it was too late because it was already snowing in Bozeman, MT. As a result, they wanted to extend the lease until the spring.
He finished up by saying, “So really there’s two requests here. One is an extension for two pieces because of these artists’ requests and their concern with travelling for Covid and this third one which is the Collective is just giving the buyer some additional time to get their site prepped in the spring.”
The Chairperson asked if anyone on the committee had any questions regarding the extensions. No one did, so she asked if the equipment and reinforcements to hold those pieces would be okay for another year.
The Chairperson was appearing remotely, so someone in the room said that Alderperson Schultz was indicating that the foundations could handle another year. They were designed by a structural engineer. She noted that the Parks and Recreation Department had indicated they would prefer that the pieces not be removed during the spring when the heavy equipment would tear up the ground. They were okay with a full 1-year extension for the two sculptures located in parks.
The Chairperson asked if they should go ahead and vote on extending that piece. A staff member suggested that she get a motion and a second on the item. There was a marked moment of silence and when no one on the committee stepped forward to make a motion the Chairperson asked if she could get a motion and a second at which point it was moved and seconded that the lease for the Gesture of Conscience Sculpture be extended for a year.
Instead of holding the vote, the Chairperson then asked about a motion for the To the Moon Alice sculpture, and the staff member explained to her that they had to hold three separate votes, one for each piece.
They voted unanimously to extend the lease for 1 year. To me, the Chairperson sounded a little surprised as she said “Oh, okay, we voted, good.”
They moved on to the lease extension request for To the Moon Alice. It was confirmed that this request was also for a 1-year lease extension.
A committee member moved to approve the item. There was a noticeable period of silence in which nobody else on the committee responded and the Chairperson had to ask if anyone was going to second the motion at which point one of the committee members seconded it.
Again, they unanimously approved the 1-year lease extension for To the Moon Alice.
The committee then moved on to the lease extension request
Somebody in the room explained that this item had been before the Municipal Services Committee since it is located within the public right of way. At that meeting, the committee granted an extension through April 30, 2022. She said that Alderperson Vered Melter (District 2) had sent two emails in support of the extension and those would be included with this item when it went on to the Common Council.
Alderperson Schultz said that Sculpture Valley understood how “controversial” this piece was, and they were particularly sensitive to this piece as was the community. While there are lots of people who would like to keep it where it was, there were also lots of people that, when they heard that the piece was going to stay for another 6 months, expressed their concerns about that. He wanted to let the committee know that Sculpture Valley was aware of those concerns and they would be putting out a letter of explanation so that the individuals within a 500-foot radius of the sculpture would understand why the extension was taking place. He was worried about the narrative created in the social media world which might be different than the one that they were trying to control.
A staff member explained that the city did send out letters to the properties that met the 100 foot radius criteria set out in the city’s Art in Public Places Policy. [Note, I originally wrote that they sent it out to everyone within a 500 foot radius, but it was actually a 100 foot radius. Alderperson Schultz did say his letter would go to a 500 foot radius (although it’s possible he misspoke) but staff stated the city’s letter went to a 100 foot radius.]
Another staff member clarified that the public art policy says that everyone within 500 100 feet of a sculpture or art piece would get a letter in the mail alerting them to the request. The policy did not require notification for pieces that were located withing parks that were more than 100 feet away from a residential home, so To the Moon Alice and Gesture of Conscience did not require letters to be sent.
Someone said that there was some gray area regarding the policy. It required letters “for the approval” of a work, but it doesn’t address extension requests. However, they wanted to make sure they erred on the side of caution, so they sent out notifications out.
The first staff member who spoke said that when The Collective was originally placed that notification requirement was not in the policy, so the sculpture fell into a foggy area as to whether notification was required for it or not. Nevertheless, they did send out the notifications.
Alderperson Schultz said he did not see that letter and asked if they could supply him with a copy. It turned out that he had been mailed a copy but it went to the Sculpture Valley business address and he doesn’t check the mail there very often.
The Chairperson asked if anyone had any questions or concerns regarding the item.
One committee member asked of the 4 houses that received the notification letter, how many people responded?
It seemed that no one who received notifications had responded.
The Chairperson asked for a motion and a second. A motion was made to approve the lease extension for The Collective through April 30, 2022, and it was seconded.
The committee then voted unanimously to approve the lease extension.
[On the one hand, I don’t have an objection to any of the lease extensions. I think The Collective is hysterically funny, and I think Gesture of Conscience is a legitimately decent work of art. At the same time, this process doesn’t seem to have been handled very well. It’s weird to me that the city was never told about the 1-year lease extension option that Sculpture Valley included in its contracts and that such an option was never discussed when negotiating leases with the city, and it also seems a little weird that these lease extension requests were made so close to the end of their existing 2-year leases. While the lease for The Collective could have been voted on at the 11/03/2021 Common Council meeting, the requests regarding the other two sculptures did not appear on the 11/03/2021 agenda and so would not have been approved before the lease ended. Finally, as explained earlier, I don’t understand what the Covid concerns from the artists are. They live three hours away and could probably take care of transporting their sculptures with minimal close contact with other people. Blaming their inability or unwillingness to remove their sculptures on Covid comes off as more than a little flaky to me.]
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=895651&GUID=5771F2F1-6F18-4ED1-9542-D2BDCD782BF7
Be the first to reply