Art on the streets
This year’s Art on the Streets exhibit is different. Consider the ante upped. “We decided it was an opportunity to take the exhibit to the next level,” said Judy Noyes, a board member for the Downtown Partnership, which organized the ninth annual public sculpture exhibit.
In addition to its traditional sponsorship from U.S. Bank, the Downtown Partnership received funding from Nor’wood Development Group. The additional money enabled them to hire a juror — Bruce Guenther, curator of modern and contemporary art at the Portland Art Museum — and offer prize money for the first time.
And not chump change either: The three prizes total $30,000. The result is both the biggest — in terms of the sheer size of the sculpture — and the most visually coherent exhibit yet.
“It’s got a real theme,” said Noyes.
That theme is modern, said Denise Schall, the Downtown Partnership’s program coordinator.
“There were realistic bronzes entered,” she said. “Bruce didn’t pick any of them.”
She’s not worried that this approach will alienate the public, since downtown also features numerous whimsical and realistic pieces from past exhibits.
The new format attracted some new talent: Six of the 16 artists are from outside Colorado. Among them is California artist Bret Price, whose “XO” is by far the most massive piece ever seen in the exhibit, at 20 feet high by 12 feet wide. With a shipping cost of $7,000, Price couldn’t afford to enter “XO” in previous years.
The prize money also attracted attention from a trio of widely respected regional sculptors who passed up earlier Art on the Streets exhibits: Bill Burgess, whose “Continuum” was recently dedicated at America the Beautiful Park; Don Green, whose “Rearing Horse Fountain” by the Pikes Peak Center is well-known to concertgoers; and Colorado College professor Carl Reed.
The presentation also differs from previous exhibits.
“We tended (in past years) to put things a little out of the way,” Schall said. “Bruce said, ‘No, put the sculpture in people’s faces.’”
CONTACT THE WRITER: 476-1602 or mark.arnest@gazette.com
AND THE WINNERS ARE . . .
The Art on the Streets exhibit offered prize money this year, for the first time. The winners were announced by juror Bruce Guenther at the opening July 20.
1st prize, $15,000
Carl Reed’s “Braced Ring and Outlyer” “Though my work is called nonobjective or abstract, it’s very realistic because it’s not an illusion,” said Reed. “It’s exactly what it is.”
2nd prize, $10,000
Bret Price’s “XO”
3rd prize, $5,000
Christopher Weed’s “My Surreal World”
