Another sighting of public art fauna has been made by Charles Downey of Ionarts – in Manchester, where they have cows! He’s referred to my post on public art fauna and how that trend has “befouled” cities around the world.
(Thank you, Charles )

More public art fauna, right here in Vancouver and Victoria!

A few days ago I wrote about Public ART? in some American cities. I had forgotten about our Orcas in the City until I read Pete McMartin’s article “Whale-watching tour of downtown” in Saturday’s Vancouver Sun (unfortunately subscription only).

McMartin wrote: Zurich pioneered the concept of fauna as public sculpture, populating the city with a herd of fibreglass dairy cows – each of them decorated by local artists – to be auctioned off later for charity. Chicago did bulls. Toronto did moose; Saskatoon, pigs. Miami did flamingos, eight-foot-tall flamingos. Dublin…auctioned off one bovine clad in cut crystal for a record $233,000 US.

B.C. Lions society president Stephen Miller saw Rochester, N.Y.’s horses which inspired the idea for Vancouver and Victoria. According to the Orcas in the City website, the Orca was chosen to embody the West Coast and to highlight the fact that British Columbia is one of the best places in the world to view killer whales.

Have a look at the photos in the Orca Gallery. My personal favourite is ‘Orcasmic Voyage’ by Arnt Arntzen because it is the most unique and least decorative, using industrial materials as well as a head of a real Mayan figurine inside the periscope (this fact from McMartin’s article).

The project certainly has a lot of business sponsors and the cities of Vancouver and Victoria are listed as supporting sponsors, so some public money here as well, to support a worthwhile charity. Yet, I still feel a lot of these projects are more decorative than artistic, with a few exceptions like Arntzen’s. Perhaps it is harder to sell art?

Update: Visit today’s entry in Anna Conti’s Journal for a further discussion of “Is it Art?” She’s made up for my laziness by adding the links to the many fauna mentioned above, plus talks about San Francisco’s public art project Hearts!

Update July 19.04: Libby from artblog saw SF’s hearts and is not a fan of these objects which add up to just more visual clutter.

Pandas? Sheep? Pigs? Cows? What is going on?

Over the past few weeks I kept reading about pandas in Washington, then ever so humble* had a post about Sheeptacular Pittsfield in Massachusetts.

Yesterday dangerous chunky* referred to departing Seattle art critic Emily Hall’s article The Road of Good Intentions is Paved with Painted Pigs, about the state of art in Seattle, including their Pigs on Parade. Hall has now moved on to New York where they have the cow parade!

What they all have in common is that they are public art projects. But are they art, I wondered.

To help us answer that question, here’s an article by Washington Post art critic Blake Gopnik, Getting Cute With Art, As the District Trots Out ‘Pandamania,’ Is Something With Bite Too Much to Ask For? Here are some excerpts:

The panda project is described in all the city’s PR as an ‘exciting public art project’… to promote ‘excellence in the arts’ so that the general public can ‘gain a deeper appreciation for the arts.’ And the Pandamania ‘call to artists’ says that the ‘selection committee is looking for artwork that is dynamic and invites innovation.’

Many of this city’s leading art professionals.. are dismayed at the DCCAH’s role in launching Pandamania. It feels like the commission is saying, ‘There’s no need to face up to the challenges of real art; getting a belly laugh from tchotchkes will do just as well.’

There’s more so do read both the articles and let me know what you think – are they art or are they carnie?

*expired links removed

In today’s ArtForum News:
Study Reveals Nation’s Most Art-Saturated Cities

The nonprofit organization Americans for the Arts has released its first national Creative Industries Study, which analyzes in detail the locations of arts-related businesses, institutions, and organizations in all fifty states and the District of Columbia. The study reveals that eleven metropolitan areas have more than ten thousand arts-related businesses, institutions, and organizations (both for-profit and nonprofit) each: New York tops the list with 54,895, with Los Angeles following close behind. But when ranked per capita, the metropolitan area with the highest number of arts-related businesses, institutions, and organizations is Seattle, followed by San Francisco.

Read the full report: Americans for the Arts.

Did you notice that three of the cities mentioned here are on the west coast?

I wonder if a similar study has been done of Canadian cities and how would they compare? Vancouver and Seattle are often compared because of similar climate and size, how about the arts?