Arts panel stalls

A recent flap over public art has influenced the Arts Commission’s latest competition for artist-designed benches in front of two of the city’s summer art festivals.

A routine review of the $50,000 competition’s submissions at Monday’s meeting evolved into a discussion about the competition guideline creation and selection process, including the level of detail that must be requested with respect to a piece of art’s placement, engineering and installation.

The commission ultimately decided to contact would-be finalists to answer their questions before sending them on to the City Council.

The winner will create benches to go in front of the Sawdust Art Festival and Art-A-Fair that allude to the festivals’ missions.

In a previous competition to select art pieces for the senior/community center, the commission only selected one finalist, whose submission was approved by the City Council but not at the specific location, resulting in a convoluted “” and unprecedented “” decision.

A subcommittee is now set to determine the final location of the art pieces, including a large metal whale.

Some public officials and community members said the competition guidelines developed by the commission for the senior/community center public art component didn’t take into account landscaping and safety issues that should have been spelled out.

Several commissioners said that, following the senior/community center art debacle, they are now “gun-shy” about the bench competition.

For the bench competition, a committee originally recommended two submissions by artists Sue Ann Winner and Mary Anne Baker for approval by the commission as finalists.

Some commissioners voiced concerns that Winner’s submittal wasn’t complete, and didn’t include enough information on aspects of the piece’s placement on site and installation procedure.

However, they enjoyed the whimsy of the piece, which included artist paint tubes as seating elements.

?

Banner competition

In other news, commissioners selected Bob Bonn, Christopher Claiborne, Marcel Mead, Carl Smith and Walter Viszolay as the five finalists for their 2008 Banner Competition.

The next Public Art Tour Day, previously planned for April 20, has been rescheduled for Sept. 21 due to scheduling conflicts.