Campus Digest: Public Art 3/10/2003 | | "The Medium," by Janet Zwieg (Photo courtesy of the Weisman Art Museum) | Who Owns Our Campus Art?
You may not realize it, but you own art. In fact, you’re quite an aficionado. You and every other sensible Minnesotan have invested in public art—art that’s funded by the people, for the people. The money comes from a 1983 state law mandating that 1 percent of the construction cost of all state-funded buildings (which includes most University buildings) be set aside for public art specific to that building.
The University of Minnesota’s Public Art on Campus program, which began in 1988, is one of about 300 public art programs in the nation. It has grown into one of the country’s largest and most dynamic, with more than three dozen permanent pieces and a full menu of temporary works. Environments range from interior interactive exhibits to outdoor sculpture to functional landscapes like the entryway to the St. Paul Gymnasium.
"Public art is a long conversation," says Shelley Willis, the U’s public art coordinator. "When funds become available for a new piece, we assemble a committee composed of faculty and staff who will ‘live’ in the building, architects, people from planning and facilities management, maybe the dean involved, [and many others]."
This ad hoc committee decides on an overriding goal—to educate, memorialize, amuse, challenge, etc.—and how to go about achieving it. The selected artist creates a new work with the committee’s guidance. "Except in the case of a design contest, artists are chosen based on their past work and a certain chemistry," explains Willis. "Departments all have a personality, a culture. They choose an artist whose work reflects that culture. For example, the Animal Sciences and Agriculture people chose Peter Woytuk, whose work is very solid and realistic. He created the massive bronze  | | Michael Cohen at work on "Pressure, Tension, Stress, Release." (Photo courtesy of Weisman Art Museum) | bulls on the front lawn of the St. Paul campus.
A map of public art on campus is available at the Weisman Art Museum so you can walk around and appreciate your collection.
—Sarah Barker
The Medium
Artist: Janet Zweig, New York City
Location: Inside Murphy Hall
Description: A pair of facing benches, flat–screen monitors, and cameras. Subjects interact through the monitors, rather than face to face. In keeping with the dynamic nature of journalism (the school is housed in Murphy Hall), Zweig intends to update The Medium with different audio and video effects.
Comment: "I think the committee chose me because my work is conceptually based, participatory, and often uses humor to express complex ideas," says Zweig. "In this case, I wanted students to be able to experience the fact that everything we see or hear through the filter of the media is transformed, interpreted, and manipulated—that none of it is the unvarnished truth."
Pressure, Tension, Stress, Release
Artist: Michael Cohen, Minneapolis
Location: To be installed in March, high on an exterior wall of the University Recreation Center, visible from University Avenue
Description: Low-relief lights, reflective during the day and computer-timed to change color at night. Cohen was selected based on previous work including a lighted piece in the lobby ceiling of Target Center.
Comment: "I think the committee liked the idea that I work with light and luminous pieces because it connotes energy and movement, similar to the activity going on inside the building," says Cohen. "I chose the exterior because I felt it best served the idea of public art. It’s accessible to the most people."
 |  |  |  |  | | Public Art on Campus | Minneapolis West Bank Untitled, oil on canvas; Carlson School of Management, dean’s office The Humphrey Garden; Humphrey Institute, exterior plaza Sphere; Carlson School of Management, interior atrium Stepped Tower; Anderson Library, exterior courtyard Promethius; Anderson Hall, exterior Shiruku Kawa (Silk River); Carlson School of Management, dean’s office Landscape; Law School, interior 16 Minnesota Configurations; Wilson Library, interior stairwells Pangaea; Carlson School of Management, dean’s office Don Quixote; Law School, interior
Minneapolis East Bank Wolves and Moose, Predator and Prey; James Ford Bell Museum of Natural History, exterior Knotted Wye II; Vincent Hall, math library Governor John Pillsbury; Burton Hall, exterior 10 Minnesota Dwellings; Ford Hall, interior Platonic Figure; Mechanical Engineering Building, exterior Rokker V; Williamson Hall, exterior 10 to the minus 6; Amundson Hall, exterior The Crucible; Amundson Hall, exterior and interior Leaves; Elliot Hall, exterior Spanish-American War Soldier; Armory, exterior The Language of Skies. Appleby Hall, interior Minnesota in 3 Quarter Time; Department of Physics, Tate Laboratory Untitled bronze; Integrated Waste Management Facility, exterior The Medium; Murphy Hall, interior
St. Paul Untitled plant, metal, wood and concrete; Green Hall, exterior Aesop Says; Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, exterior Museum of the School of Social Work; Peters Hall interior Eco-Rhythms; Ecology Building, interior Rhythmics; St. Paul Gym, exterior Untitled bronze; Haeker Hall, exterior
Minnesota Landscape Arboretum Untitled bronze; Exterior Wedding Tower; Exterior St. Francis of Assisi; Exterior
Untitled mural; Sudan Underground Laboratory
Coming soon… Pressure, Tension, Stress, Release; University Recreation Center, exterior As yet untitled works by: Harriet Bart, Walter Library Eduardo Kac, Microbial and Plant Genomics Building Ann Hamilton, Molecular and Cellular Biology Building John Roloff, College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture
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