[Press Release] : FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Installation of Walnut garage art project begins this week

[Press Releases]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Connie Kacprowicz, Interim Manger of Cultural Affairs, 573-808-4869

Installation of Walnut garage art project begins this week

COLUMBIA, MO (May 23, 2011) - Clear skies early on Monday morning allowed crews to begin adding the art project Sky Algorithm to the 5th and Walnut Street garage. The Percent for Art artist Stuart Keeler will be in Columbia through Tuesday to oversee the installation of the colored glass panels on the northwest stairwell. Depending on the weather, installation could take up to two weeks.

Stuart Keeler's artwork combines many layers of meaning to encourage repeated viewing. The colors selected for Sky Algorithm's glass panels are from Columbia's sky during the summer solstice. Each glass panel has a time stamp from when the color was documented on June 21, 2010. Up close, visitors to the garage can see quotes from other countries along the 38th parallel (north). The content of these statements will connect Columbians to other cultures across the world.

Percent for Art was an ordinance established by the Columbia City Council in 1997. If the council designates a project, 1% of the project funds go towards a public art project. The art project for the 5th andWalnut Street garage had a budget of approximately $140,000 which includes a fund set aside for future maintenance and administration of the project. The Standing Committee on Public Art which consisted of various members of the community along with project specific members spent over 130 hours on selecting the artist and the artwork. The Standing Committee on Public Art, the Commission on Cultural Affairs and the Columbia City Council selected the artist from 260 applicants. Once selected, Stuart Keeler designed a community specific, integrated work of art for the garage.

Mr. Keeler is an accomplished public artist with major commissions in many cities. He is familiar with theMidwest, having received his Master of Fine Arts from the school at the Art Institute of Chicago and has completed an art installation in Kansas City. To arrange an interview with Mr. Keeler, please contact Interim Manger of Cultural Affairs, Connie Kacprowicz, at 573-808-4869.

Artist's Statement for Sky Algorithm

"Sky Algorithm will seek to unite viewers with the concepts of travel of the mind, body and spirit as they access the northwest stair tower of the garage, leaving their cars or returning to them. Colorful glass will create ambient shadows in the stairwell areas where the majority of garage-users will enter and exit the structure. Using actual colors of the Missouri sky, the glass panels will be punctuated with languages of countries around the world that share the 38 parallel (north) with the city of Columbia.

The colored glass panels will be set with a range of varying hues -- azure, cobalt, lapis-lazuli, powder blue and indigo -- that will be gathered by documenting actual tones of the Columbia sky. The documentation will begin at sunrise on the Summer Solstice, June 21, 2010, and continue every hour until sunset. The eventual color fields of glass will form a minimal yet striking checkerboard pattern of saturated, rich color tones of light and dark that will map the sky hues. During the day, the shadows of color and text will cast patterns into the stairwell. At night, the work will glow from within the tower

Languages and dialects, both historic and contemporary, as well as place names from China, Africa, Europe and Asia, will be included in the panels to align a humanistic and global view of the world andColumbia's place within it. Each color-specific panel will also include the time the photograph was taken to establish that specific color field and to document the color shift of the sky overhead. The text, with a differing sequence of letters and alphabets, will create shadow and light play in the stairwell, while the content will unite viewers with a larger framework of place, journey and the cross-cultural aim of connecting Columbia to communities around the world."

-Stuart Keeler, June 2010


 -30- 

______________________________________________________

You have received this message because you subscribe to the City of Columbia’s Web Mail service. To view linked material click on provided links or copy and paste them into your browser's address menu.
______________________________________________________

If you would like to stop receiving messages, modify list options, or subscribe to other lists visit the Web Mail section of our Web site and follow the instructions provided. 

http://www.gocolumbiamo.com/Web_Mail/
______________________________________________________

Archived press releases can be viewed online at:
http://www.gocolumbiamo.com/Public_Comm/Public_Information/Press_Releases/
______________________________________________________

If you would like to stop receiving messages, modify list options, or subscribe to other lists visit the Web Mail section of our Web site and follow the instructions provided. 

http://www.gocolumbiamo.com/Web_Mail/