Is this a Rip-Off?
 

What do you think? Anyway, here we can read the debate among public officials about spending money to install public art.

Sculpture branded ‘a rip-off’

A CONTROVERSIAL piece of artwork planned for part of Blackburn's town centre regeneration has been branded a "ludicrous rip-off".

It comes after the Evening Telegraph revealed that a 32ft light sculpture, dubbed the light sabre, was to form the centrepiece of the £1.2million Sudell Cross revamp.

Today it emerged that the stainless steel structure which will be programmed to change colours will cost £75,900, and of that £14,000 will be spent on fees paid to the artist.

The other £61,900 will be spent on the building costs. .....

The column, called the Braid, will be made of stainless steel and will have a number of LEDs (light emitting diodes) within the braids. It will stand on the site of an old Victorian lamppost.

It was designed by Newcastle artist Simon Watkinson, who is regarded as a leader in the field of public art works using lighting and was behind major projects in his city and Salford.

But Coun Paul Browne, former leader of the Lib Dems, said: "The landmarks in this borough are going up and up in price. There's no way that I can support a landmark scheme that's £61,900 plus £14,000 in fees until I or anyone in this council can convince me it's value for money."

The Sudell ward councillor added: "I think we are being ripped off, I think it's absolutely ludicrous."

Re: Is this a Rip-Off?
 

Well, I read the article, more importantly saw the rendering of this, it looks to me like little more than an ultra modern utility pole with a light on it than art.

I guess the prices isn't bad considering its to be stainless steel and it IS 32 feet high. but that is about £140,000 which in US monies is about $250,000 or so and that seems expensive to me for this. Hate to say it, but in that city/towan that's $250,000 of public money that could be better spent- what about housing for the homeless, reducing property taxes, small business startup grants?
I saw a photo the other day of a homeless man who had no clothes on, had laid down in the street and died of exposure in an area where there were parked cars and obvious money but no one helped him- $250,000 would have done more good for him and more like him than a "light pole" dont you think?

Re: Is this a Rip-Off?
 

Your maths is a little out there... total budget £75,900 = $140,000 USD. Artist fee £14,000 = $25,800 USD (which would include concept, maquettes, submission, costing, logistics, correspondence, images, numerous meetings, insurances and divided and/or delayed payments).

This seems a fair sum to me and a typical example of politicians grandstanding after due process. I would bet no one is making a fuss over a sum double that being spent on a few seats or paving stones, and that the salaries of the project managers, contractors and elected officals easily eclipse this artist fee by a mile.

The debate about the merit of the work in artistics terms is a seperate one.

Re: Is this a Rip-Off?
 

Is this a Rip-Off?

Howzabout is that article a piece of garbage?

"CONTROVERSIAL piece of artwork planned for part of Blackburn's town centre regeneration has been branded a "ludicrous rip-off".
"

...branded by WHOM? the author doesn't specifically say but in 2 other paragraphs the is one man Coun Paul Browne, former leader of the Lib Dems is directly quoted as saying "I think we are being ripped off, I think it's absolutely ludicrous." did the author paraphrase the original quote for a spicier headline? - and base an inflamatory anti-art piece on one guys opinion when clearly more than one other council member has approved the decision to fund landmark art installations in thier town to regenerate the town center and 'pedestrianize' it.

The article is a hack job against public spending on art in a town where the local government (representative of local wishes one would think) has an ongoing organized effort to enrich public spaces with art.

I'm going to venture a wild and crazy guess that readers of sculpture.net tend to be aligned with the town council and approve of commissioning public artworks with an eye towards enriching the public environment. I know that If given a choice between a space with art in it versus an artless space I would choose Art! Anyone would be hard pressed to offer hard numbers of the ROI such an investment holds when claiming that attractive public spaces encourage pedestrians which equates to increased traffic/sales for local businesses and more prosperity - but it would be interesting to see if anyone has studied/tested the question systematically. More interesting would be an analysis of what kinds of public art produce 'better' results?

Eh - i just had a depressing thought - if scientists could prove what style/design of public art had the greatest impact on improving the local tax base - it would be mass produced in China, sold at deplorably low prices, and you would see it EVERYWHERE - to heck with high pricetags and funding the local cultural establishment, can you use it to sell office supplies?

Anywho - to answer your question - No I don't think it is a rip off. A glow in the dark giant light saber may or may not be the economic salvation gimmick for Blackburn's town center.

Re: Is this a Rip-Off?
 

common theme
towns revitalization projects fund art because they hope the art will revitalize (read bring in more people with more money) their town, street, neighborhood

they want a tangable return on investment and ain't being strictly altruistic here
ok
so some business folks argue over the costs as part of their raison de etre
haggling is their joy
like two fleas argueing over who owns the dog

i could really give a shit less
but not without a good deal of effort

what I've seen is that many revitalization/public art efforts are fragmented with either no or a darned poor masterplan and a poor sense of the aesthetic often handed off to a series of different "experts" with their own disparate visions

often it seems that ill fitting sculptures are haphazardly plunked down in unlikely places while the surrounding has all the class of a strip mall

so---is it a rip off-------not if it accomplishes it's part in the goal for a unified whole
otherwise, it is a waste of resources

If the infusion of art enriches the lives of those who experience it then it's a good use of resources.

Re: Is this a Rip-Off?
 

I agee with both of the above points.

It is noteworthy to contrast this case with another case of public art currently mentioned in another thread, about the iron man statues on an English coast. Over there, after the artist has displayed the statues installed at a cost of GBP 150,000, the visitor number is expected to hit 600,000 mark, and expected to bring GBP 6 m to the local economy.

"Sefton chief executive Graham Haywood says the piece has created a "feelgood factor" in Crosby, by creating jobs, doubling visitor numbers and boosting the local economy."

To prevent the artist moving the statues away, the officials are trying to raise GBP 2m for the statues' purchase, modification and maintenance.

Re: Is this a Rip-Off?
 

I included the £ 61,000 the article mentioned as "other", I must have read that as additionally another £61,000 was being spent on "x"- re-reading it I think you're right and that would be about $140,000 USD or thereabouts not $250,000 then;


Today it emerged that the stainless steel structure which will be programmed to change colours will cost £75,900,

The other £61,900 will be spent on the building costs. ..

Quote:

...or the kickbacks, bribes, the little perks and other assorted extras that usually accompany politicians and their ilk when in charge of our MONEY.

Re: Is this a Rip-Off?
 

Well, the thing is, I seriously doubt this light deal will revive or salvage the town center on it's OWN, now if it's a PART of a larger package like renovating or installing a new park or designating a couple of blocks as a pedestrians only- no cars- free parking down the street- shopping destination with planters, fountain, brick pavers, lots of chic stores, maybe sales tax free at those stores and so on, then I could see the whole package might attract shoppers and people to the area to spend money in those stores, but if the plan is to stick a light pole in the middle of an already dead patch of grass in dead downtown with abandoned stores and buildings around it- that isn't going to cut it beyond some initial short term curiosity seekers.

Cities always seem to come up with schemes similar to this that never seem to DO what they purport they will, at least on the long haul- namely revitalize a dying or dead neighborhood.

Re: Is this a Rip-Off?
 

From what we get in the article there is more to than one committee/group charged by the local gov't to formulate plans for revitalization of the town center - and they have been conducting revitalization efforts in more than one spot - so it seems reasonable to assume that an irresponsible willy-nilly race to waste public money in a slap-dash 'Step 1: chuck a big ol lightsaber on a traffic island, Step 2: PROFIT!' plan is what they have.

Yes it is pefectly possible for for a poorly concieved plan to defeat itself. Sticking any old objet d'art in the middle of a dead grass patch surrounded by boarded up store fronts isn't going to cause the manna to fall from heaven. I'd imagine someone looked at other (successful) 'revitalization' campaigns conducted by other communities in detail and examined the budgets for those projects, and the proposals/bids/ideas that went on during planning phases, maybe even read what post-mortem studies were conducted that evaluated which parts of earlier plans worked and which didn't before attempting to craft a new plan specific to the particularities of this community.

Maybe I'm just talking crazy when I imagine that people do sensible things like look for evidence of what has worked before and then go with a similar plan before spending a lot of public money, based on how our own Government sometimes behaves you'd be led to believe that public money sits in a metaphorical glass display case waiting for the best connected political thug-of-the-moment to smash and plunder it. Sometimes a government does things like formulates and executes a sensible plan that may include a budget for 'public art' as part of an overall wise and responsible effort to increase the wellbeing of the entire community.

Right here at sculpture.net is a guy (Ries) who has been comissioned to do a few 'light sabers' of his own - check his page out - http://www.riesniemi.com/pages/pubart_main.html

I don't know if his public art saved the communities that bought it (or made everyone rich) - but they certainly are nice to look at and you can sit on some of them too which would at the very least make the public space more interesting and welcoming. My apologies to Ries if he'd rather not be pointed out.

Re: Is this a Rip-Off?
 

Well my town only has 1800 people and very little business or industry but amazingly the powers that be decided we need a brand new library to replace the "too small old one" ($1,000,000) at a time when everything is up on the net, including books cheap from Amazon.com etc and free from guttenberg project. And that we need a new $65,000 replica victorian cast iron fountain to replace the old one, and now a new street clock. They replaced the old wood "band stand" a laughable little gazebo like thing that at best might hold 10 people up there, with- a tall victorian deal with a copper weather vane on top etc

I'm not sure how these items are going to bring business in or what all the purpose is supposed to be, but this is the sort of thing some towns do these days.

Re: Is this a Rip-Off?
 

Landseer,

I also live in a small town albeit a little larger than yours - 25,000. A lot of these ideas for modernizing are laughable that city councils come up with. But they serve a purpose.

When I moved to town 20 years ago, Martinsburg had just been redone in a "Williamsburg" look. Really tacky at the time. Rather like putting vinyl siding on everything that moved or was stationary. About 8 years ago Martinsburg went back to its more authentic roots. The city fathers put in cast iron street lights in keeping with the local architecture and tried to be more authentic. It is better and not so cheesey.

Most times these improvements are to indirectly lure real estate developers - and eventually new people to the town. It is also done to make the town look more cultured - even if that is a stretch - for new companies to evaluate your town to see if they want to relocate there.

In my town, it is always easy to see why they are doing something. Coming from Washington DC and the big land rush of development they had there 25 years ago, Martinsburg's City Council uses the same play book that DC used back then. Usually with the same results.

Be of good cheer about the renovations. At least your city is trying something instead of lapsing back into a torpor. Their improvements might not be right but at least it is a start.

Carl
www.wsggallery.com