What's New in Public Art

“The artist should feel himself affirmed and buoyed up by his community. In other words, art and life must mean something, in the deepest sense, to the everyday citizen.  When that happens, America will have achieved a maturity to which every sincere artist will have contributed.” —Aaron Copland
Public Art continues to flourish and grow in Omaha.  Here are some recent installations of art in public places that we can all use and enjoy.
Littleton Alston’s sculpture of Martin Luther King Jr. dominates the Farnam Street Civic Center Plaza named in his honor in 1987.
Paid for by the Lozier Foundation, the 9-foot-tall work shows a robed King in full stride.
Playing a visual riff on the Jazz theme of the North 24th Street beautification project, Alston’s trio of musicians are the centerpiece of the new Dreamland Plaza, North 24th Street and Lizzie Robinson Avenue, a block south of Lake Street.

 

The bronze 8 feet tall piece and is part of the city's $2 million effort to beautify the heart of historic north Omaha that pays homage to North 24th Street's jazz history. 

Nearby work is underway on a new $3.3 million headquarters for Family Housing Advisory Services, the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial walkway and a cultural and arts center named for Omaha saxophonist Preston Love.
A set of Jun Kaneko’s ceramic dangos, (right) Japanese for dumplings, enliven and invite people to enter Omaha’s Convention Center Hilton Hotel. Kaneko created the display in the traffic circle outside the Hilton as his first pubic art offering in his adopted hometown.

Two new works have recently been installed in Turner Park and at the W. Dale Clark Library.  The sculptures were selected as winners of the Omaha Public Art Commission's recent art commission project.

Both projects were funded with money the commission received from Omaha's five-month J. Doe Project in the summer of 2001. "They both are classic high levels of public art," said Allan Tubach,
the commission's former chairman.

(left) Catherine Ferguson’s “Totem” on the west side of the W. Dale Clark Library features figures of animals she discovered in a book at the public library.

(below) A happy couple kick back in one of Leslie Iwai‘s "Sounding Stones" recently installed in Turner Park, one of the city’s gateways to downtown
(right) A little north of Lewis and Clark Landing Sculptor Matthew Placzek’s “Monument to Labor” depicts five 8-foot-tall figures working at a variety of tasks. Eight Omaha union locals and 26 companies and individuals donated over $1 million in contributions and labor to bringing the monument to life.
Installed as part of this year’s Summer Arts Festival’s Wind and Fire show, Jamie Burmeister’s “By the Bucket Full” (left) transforms a soothing waterfall in the Leahy Mall into a sudden splash. The kinetic piece is the first to remain a permanent addition as a result of the annual show.
Photos by Ken Mayer