Milwaukee Public Art Gets Punched in the Neck
[!UPDATE] Local gallery owner and art maverick Mike Brenner, who publicly threatened to defecate on the aldermans’ lawn in protest, received a personal call from Alderman Dudzik. Which he then remixed.
Remember the Blue Shirt? Yes, I can never forget. The short version: public art project gets approved and funded. Artist begins work. Politicians kill it for vague personal reasons. And now we present the curious case of Janet Zweig. The Common Council on Tuesday decided to “put on hold” the production and installation of another piece of art because they just didn’t like the style. The $60,000 tax-payer price tag is no laughing matter (the city is responsible for 20% of the $300,000 total) and could pay the salary of a teacher, firefighter, or police officer — but you can’t just kill a project you don’t like for aesthetic reasons. Worse yet the design was already approved, the artist has already received partial payment, and production has already begun. Blue Shirt 2.0 we’ll call it.
If you live in Milwaukee, contact your alderman and let them you know what you think. You can also comment on the ArtCity blog if you want to join the debate.
Meanwhile here is a prototype of the piece in question:
“It’s all about Pastor Superstar and his kickin’ worship band.”
Leave a Reply