What is public art's place?
LITTLE ROCK — Now is a good time to talk about the role of public art in our community. Now is an especially important time with the impending destruction of one of our little gems of public art: The Lovely Mural. The question to ask is, "What role does public art play, and what is it worth?
The beautifully painted mural is in a place that no one sees much anymore. They used to go there; they used to drive past it coming out of the parking lot of the old Fayetteville Public Library. Now the library has moved and the only ones to even see the mural are working in the office building that replaced the library. But the Lovely Mural is about to come down, a victim of a failed concrete structure. Pretty soon that piece of art about our history is going to be demolished and most of us will never even notice.
The county government has been informed by the engineer on the job that removal of the wall as it is will cost $40,000. That isn't a final figure and it covers more than the minimum and doesn't cover the cost of putting it somewhere else. That could be as high as $140,000. The deadline for action on theproject is Sept. 25. I believe that a less-expensive solution can be found, but the governments concerned must act now to convene a body with the power to address this issue.
I have received calls from people with a broad variety of solutions, from slicing the concrete into pieces and placing the pieces Berlin Wall-style around town to transferring the photographed mural to tiles or canvas to be placed on another wall.
But it's not just a question about money, it's a question about values. Simply put: How much is a piece of our culture worth?
My favorite definition of art is that it is the symbolic transformation of experience. We don't just decorate our homes we make a symbolic statement about who we are both to ourselves and to those who visit with us. Public art expresses the symbols of the community. It tells us and the world who we are. It shows us where we have been, especially this work.
If you haven't seen the mural go take a look - it's on the east wall of the condemned county courthouse parking facility on east Dickson Street. It is a tableau of many of the characters in our history paintedwhere they lived, Fayetteville and Washington County, Ark. This is a public work of art that expresses our concern for our heritage, for the people who came before us and influenced our lives. It was made by us, so it is our collective concern. Let's find the money. Let's find the will to somehow move or at least remember our valuable cultural symbols.
Hank Kaminsky / Fayetteville
No sympathy, no way
The Northwest Arkansas Times editorial on Aug. 20 left me so angry I couldn't see straight. So Michael Vick deserves a second chance? Bull!
Too bad the editorial staff finds that "[hanging] dogs from trees, [electrocuting] them with jumper cables, [holding] them underwater until they drowned in his swimming pool, and even [throwing] his own family dogs into the fighting pit to be torn to shreds while he laughed" is not too bad!
What is too bad is that the Times is included with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. I'll not be renewing my subscription.
Frank Price / Fayetteville
Opinion, Pages 4 on 09/21/2009