Gaps in Parks Master Planning, Part Six | Art(s) in the Park(s) as a comprehensive program

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Republished due to misdating

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Gaps in park master planning frameworks

-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part One | Levels of Service"
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Two | Utilizing Academic Research as Guidance"
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Three | Planning for Climate Change/Environment"
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Four | Planning for Seasonality and Activation"
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Five | Planning for Public Art as an element of park facilities"
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning, Part Six | Art(s) in the Park(s) as a comprehensive program "
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Seven | Park Architectural (and Landscape Design) History" 
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Eight | Civic Engagement"
-- "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Nine | Second stage planning for parks using the cultural landscape framework" 

Art of parks and natural spaces.  Art has shaped our perception of landscapes, parks, and other public spaces for 200+ years in the United States alone, and longer in Europe ("‘Nature’s Nation’: How American art shaped our environmental perspectives," Princeton University Art Museum).  

There is a nice National Park Service brochure for the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area on 19th Century Painters: The Hudson River School about their focus on painting landscapes and nature and how this influenced painting practice.  

We recently saw an exhibit on Maynard Dixon at the BYU Museum of Art and were blown away.

Maynard Dixon (1875-1946), 'Mesas in Shadow,' 1926, oil on canvas, 30 1/4 x 40 inches. 

Brigham Young University Museum of Art, 1937

Impressionist painter (Frederick) Childe Hassam (1859-1935) painted 

a number of works of Central Park.  This dates to 1892.

But rather than the "high art" paintings of yesterday, the range of arts programming in parks is much wider than it was then.   

Gene Harris Bandshell (amphitheater), Julia Davis Park, Boise, Idaho.

Art in parks today.  Despite papers like "How cities use parks for arts and cultural programs" (APA) and "Using art to define our parks" (NRPA), I was surprised to find that there isn't much written about how to structure and offer systematic "arts in the park" programs. 

Some parks might have an amphitheater for music and theater presentations.  Lunch time concerts are typical at Downtown parks and squares.  Some parks or recreation centers might have arts production facilities like a kiln for ceramics and arts education programs.

Many parks have museums or other cultural facilities within their parks.  The Chicago lakefront is renowned for its lakeshore being a continuous park, with 10 museums and cultural facilities including the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Science and Industry and the Shedd Aquarium.  In Salt Lake's Liberty Park, the mansion of the park's donor remains, and is used to display regionally-relevant cultural artifacts and presents temporary exhibits.

Programming offered is a wide range, can be music, theater, dance, children's activities, etc.  Mostly, parks might do one or two art related initiatives.  

Silverwood Park, north of Minneapolis, displays the work of regional artists and poets on trails and in the park's gallery. The Arts in California Parks program has Native American recognition, health and diversity objectives as part of their program.  Art in the Park in Northeast Los Angeles offers a wide range, including sponsoring a community band.  The Multnomah Arts Center is an initiative of the Portland Parks Department and offers programs for youth and adults.

Most typical is a focus on public art.  That's the case with NYC's "Art in the Parks" program.  Its webpage focuses on public art, even though there are many other arts-related programs in the city's parks, they have the Arsenal Gallery in Central Park, etc.

Arsenal Gallery, Central Park, New York City

Lack of budget.  A big problem is that park departments have budgets that are inadequate to meet the demand for services, so programming tends to be an after thought, maybe funded by special grants, or offered in association with other agencies to share the cost, but mostly doesn't exist.  

Programming tends to be provided in parks and public spaces that are managed by conservancies or business improvements districts--organizations that have separate funding sources, and with the luxury of only managing a few spaces, not many dozens.

Types of programs.  Music and cinema are probably the most common.  So arts as consumption or presentation. But there are myriad opportunities.

Dance.  The Queensboro Dance Festival presents across the borough of Queens in New York City.  

Members of Montana Shakespeare in the Parks perform 12th Night Wednesday evening at the Libby Elementary School Amphitheater. Montana Shakespeare in the Parks, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary, is an outreach program of Montana State University serving 61 rural communities in over 10 weeks across five states. (Scott Shindledecker/The Western News)

Theater.  Montana Shakespeare in the Parks travels around that state and pops into abutting states too (we saw a play they put on in Pocatello, Iowa).  

There are also play festivals held outdoors for a summer, like the Stratford Festival in Ontario or the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City.  Those are destination events, not events in a local park.

Artist in residence programs such as at the National Parks or the Bureau of Land Management or at the Madrona Marsh Preserve sponsored by the Torrance Art Museum in Southern California, offer opportunities to develop site-related projects and share more contemporary arts activities.  

-- Program by Katie Wendt at Madrona, "Warp and Weft," 2023

-- "‘Ask Me What I’m Painting’: The Changing Role of the Artist in Residence," New York Times

The Southern Utah National Parks also have a "Community Artist in the Parks" program where an area artist is selected to make and present art within the parks.

Music.  Celebrate Brooklyn is an annual free concert series at the Lena Horne Bandshell in Prospect Park.  

Many downtown promotion organizations sponsor daytime music.  (Parks will also do ticketed events or rent out their space to big music festivals like Lollapalooza in Grant Park in Chicago.)

A number of symphony orchestras do summer residencies in parks.  The Los Angeles Symphony plays in the Hollywood Bowl.  These too tend to be destination events.

Music in the American Wild (webpage, Eastman School of Music) was a program where new music compositions were commissioned to play in 12 National Parks, in honor of the park system's 100th anniversary.

Temporary and permanent public art.  As mentioned in the previous entry in this series ("Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Five | Planning for Public Art as an element of park facilities"), annual sculpture presentations like the Sioux Falls Sculpture Walk in their Downtown, the annual billboard for the High Line Park in New York City, the Georgetown Glow lit sculptures in Washington, DC, are examples of temporary public art exhibits.

And there are plenty of examples of permanent public art, from statues to murals. 

And in public spaces, such as bus shelters ("Watching for the Bus Stop Gallery," New York Times).

Felipe Baeza, "Unruly Forms," bus shelter art in the US and Mexico

Traditional paintings presented in parks.  This has been done in many places.  In Maine, Maryland and others.

A reproduction of "Dark Harbor Fishermen" by N.C. Wyeth is posted along a trail in Wolfe's Neck Woods State Park in Freeport. The Portland Museum of Art has partnered with L.L. Bean and the state parks bureau to install reproductions of works of art from at five outdoor sites this summer. (Staff photo by Ben McCanna, "See Famous Paintings," Portland Press-Herald.)

Artist Kathy Wipfler gives a demonstration in Grand Teton National Park.

Plein Air events.  Painting in public.  Maybe as part of a competition.  Many programs.  For example, the Hockaday Museum of Art in Kalispell, Montana sponsors an event in Glacier National Park.  Plein Air for the Park is a fundraiser for Grand Teton National Park, where professional artists paint a park scene, and the paintings are sold ("Plein Air in Grand Teton National Park," Homestead Magazine).

There are plenty of local plein air events in parks    There is even a magazine, Plein Air, devoted to the subject and it lists events.

Galleries.  As mentioned.  There is one at the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, the Dyer Building.

Movies in the park.  Happens all over.

Special lighting events.  Exhibits.  Site installations.  Educational programs.

Arts and crafts fairs/Festivals.  The one sponsored by the Boise Museum of Art, Art in the Park, held in the adjacent Julia Dawson Park, is pretty cool (artist guidelines).  They are all over  And some can be pretty  bad.  

For artists, the best ones are where people actually buy, so they attract better quality artists ("Guide to the Top Art Fairs Across the U.S.," Artwork Archive).  After the last one I went to, I joked "we don't need to do one in Sugar House Park.

The event features more than 250 artists offering varied fare, from glass and metalwork, to pottery and textiles, jewelry and toys! Shoppers will find a wide selection of arts and crafts for all tastes. Enjoy a variety of food and beverages from more than 30 food vendors, relax while listening to local musicians at the Gene Harris Bandshell and grab a drink in the Sculpture Garden Pub. Children are encouraged to get creative with an arts and crafts project in the Children’s Art Tent.

Artscape in Baltimore is one of my favorite festivals, not just with arts and crafts vendors, but the participation of programs at the Maryland Institute of Contemporary Art, students presenting their work and projects, nonprofits, and arts organizations, along with music stages.

Book festivals are another variant.

Etc.

Destination events and problems.  

Photo of Lollapalooza 2022.  Brian Cassella, Chicago Tribune.

There are two types of cultural destination events that are parks related.  The first is spaces organized around the discipline such as park like spaces for theater or music, but the facility isn't open as a park otherwise.

The other is having ticketed or private events in regular public parks like Grant Park in Chicago, home to the Lollapalooza music festival.

There is a tension in holding ticketed/exclusive events in regular parks between the revenue they generate for the park system versus damage and other costs ("Lollapalooza producers to pay $410,000 to clean up Grant Park after this year’s music festival," Chicago Tribune, "The Tough Mudder run ripped up our London park, and residents are paying the price," Guardian), "One-third of Central Park's Great Lawn 'fully destroyed' after damage from Global Citizen Festival, rains," Fox News) and access restrictions ("A New Home for New York Fashion Week," New York Times).

WRT music festivals, the Philadelphia Inquirer offers an observation that multi-day music festivals do better when they aren't generic, have a distinctive identity and a focus on community building ("How has the Roots Picnic continued to thrive while Made in America has been canceled again?").

Art and controversy in public spaces.  Note that given that it's a public facility, a park setting isn't likely to always support the presentation of "cutting edge" works, e.g., challenging political works may be controversial ("A Story of Arab Loss Comes to Life at a Kibbutz in Israel," New York Times), or fire as part of performance art.  Those would be hard for an average administrator to approve.  

Note that in retrospect I should have published this piece before the public art piece, "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Five | Planning for Public Art as an element of park facilities," because that blog entry does not address controversy.

That being said, there are some public art programs, like Portland's Tri-Met transit agency, that have presented on a permanent basis some incredibly challenging works, such as a nearby site of a Japanese-American internment camp and the anti-Asian racism of local newspapers at the time.

There is the related issue of presenting art in spaces of controversy ("Harsh is truth," National Parks Magazine).  Tri-Met did that, acknowledging two stations Exposition (Japanese internment) and Vanport (where the Kaiser flood killed dozens of people) serve areas where controversy occurred.  

Nina Berman, Homeland Security Advisory Billboard, Country Club Hills, IL, 2008, from the Homeland series.

The National Parks article discusses presentation of potentially controversial contemporary art in parks (also see "Home Land Security" art certain to spark dialogue in uncertain times," Golden Gate Conservancy).  From the article:

“Home Land Security” opened a few months after the Brexit vote and ran through the U.S. presidential election. In the chilling installation, “2487,” the artist, Luz Maria Sanchez, reads the names of the 2,487 people known to have lost their lives crossing the U.S.-Mexico border between 1993 and 2006. Other works included “Some/One,” a larger-than-life suit of armor that Do Ho Suh crafted out of thousands of military identification tags representing individual soldiers; “Encirclement,” Michele Pred’s sculpture made of objects confiscated by the Transportation Security Administration such as scissors, pocket knives and lighters; and “34,000 Pillows,” which two artists collectively known as Diaz Lewis created in response to the congressional mandate that every day, Immigration and Customs Enforcement fill 34,000 beds in their facilities with immigrant detainees. More than 200 visitors participated in pillow-making.

Antediluvian, an abandoned gas station, sculpture, by Canadian artist Mia Feuer, a resident of DC.

This work proposed for the Anacostia River in Washington, DC didn't get installed, because people said it implied the residents mistreated the river.  

It was rejected on environmental grounds ("D.C. Sinks an Artist's Plan to Build a Sunken Gas Station in the Anacostia River," Bloomberg).  

In response, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities attempted to suppress certain forms of expression ("After outcry, D.C. commission backs down on censoring art," Washington Post).

Anti-Semitic vandalism on Anish Kapoor’s Dirty Corner, Versailles, France, 2015.

Sometimes people aren't upset by political ramifications of the work, but don't understand it, think it's dumb, poorly designed ("Martin Luther King Jr. statue in Boston gets mixed reception," NPR) or complain about the expense.

But most complaints are about content ("Inside NYC’s most explosive public-art controversies," New York Post, "Invitation to a Dialogue: A Debate Over Public Art," and "Art in Public Spaces," New York Times. "Controversial Public Art. Debate, Fury, Vandalism and Loss," Artland, "Amid Crisis, a Renaissance for Street Art," Bloomberg, "University of Houston cancels opening ceremony, increases security around “satanic” art installation," Houston NPR).  People may react by defacing or stealing the work(s).

The Black Lives Matter mural on 16th Street NW in DC was partly an "in your face" act vis a vis President Trump during the George Floyd demonstrations.

"Washington, DC paints a giant ‘Black Lives Matter’ message on the road to the White House," CNN

Developing policies for response in advance of such controversies is advised.

Monuments that are controversial.  This has been a big issue for a number of years, monuments that memorialize the Civil War Lost Cause, slavery, etc. ("Controversies over Confederate monuments and memorials are part of an overdue racial reckoning for America, says Stanford historian," Stanford University, "White contractors wouldn’t remove Confederate statues. So a Black man did," Washington Post).  

Parks have been caught in the middle between interests that want to keep the monuments up and those that don't.  This is less of an issue as parks are removing statues, military bases, and university buildings, schools, streets, etc. are being renamed, although there is still opposition to the change.

And there were alternatives.  E.g., I thought it would be cool to reinterpret the Robert E. Lee statue with a revisionist exhibit placed around it ("Monuments, historiography, and change," 2020).

Robert E. Lee statue, covered in graffiti, on Monument Avenue, Richmond, before removal.

Security and public art.  There is also the issue of security and art works placed in parks.  As mentioned above, this is an issue at times with controversial public art.  But it's also an issue with vandalism in general.  Plus, metal works may get stolen for the value of the metal ("Art removed from International Peace Gardens after attempted theft," Fox 13 Salt Lake).  Advance security planning is advised.

Creating a typology.  Like the "wheel" of event types created for the Salt Lake City Reimagine Nature plan, or the planning for seasonality approach created by Balmori and Associates, there needs to be a typology for arts in the parks programming.

While researching for this article, I did come across one that could function that way, in "Why is landscape design the greatest art form" by the firm LandARCH Concepts.  While below I offer a more comprehensive listing of the artistic disciplines, the format of this chart, which doesn't just list the disciplines, but also the senses that are engaged by each, is quite interesting.

Outlining the potential for a comprehensive approach.  The point of outlining a more complete framework of the disciplines and ways of presenting is to set the stage for a more comprehensive approach to arts in the parks program.  

Doing all of it is beyond the capacity of the average park or park system.  But it's helpful to have a such a framework to be able to make structured decisions and choices for what to do, how to do it, how to position it, etc.  

Note also that not every potential discipline is likely to apply/work in park settings.

Organizing Principles

Comprehensive approach: This framework outlines a comprehensive approach to arts in the park programs and programming.  

Park system versus a particular park.  Some park systems may organize events across their system such as Orange County, California ("OC Parks’ free Sunset Cinema announces 2024 summer series lineup" and "OC Parks announces lineup for its free 2024 Summer Concert Series," Orange County Register) while heavy schedules at one park happens usually in Downtown spaces (Calendar, Madison Square Conservancy) and large parks with conservancies (Central Park Conservancy, Spring Guide, Calendar).

Equity: access and participation shouldn't be limited by income.  Parks should develop programs to assist people of lesser means in enabling their participation.  Montgomery County Maryland Recreation has a program that does this.  The national Museums for All program provides free access to more than 1,200 museums, for people on food assistance.

Support Producing Artists: in arts programming much of the focus ends up being on the consumer, what I call the difference between arts as production and arts presentation.  Support of artists should be a forefront of planning for arts programs in parks ("Seattle launches New Deal-inspired income program for artists," Crosscut).

Disciplines

Note that this "complete" list doesn't mean that parks should do all of these.  Just that this is a good list of the possibilities.  

Visual Arts: including painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, architecture, multimedia, installation, video art and projection, lighting, new genres, craft (ceramics, metalwork, glass, textiles, woodworking, etc.), and socially engaged, and/or sustainable visual art-based practices, and in a park setting, manipulation of park equipment and facilities

Performing Arts: including dance, theater (new theatrical work, playwriting), music (popular, jazz, opera, classical, etc.) performance and composition, performance art, puppetry, acrobatics and circus arts, and socially engaged and/or sustainable performing arts-based practices 

The artist JR's "Giant Picnic" across the US-Mexican border.

Film/Moving Image: including experimental film, short film, animation, documentary film, narrative film, and socially engaged and/or sustainable film/moving image-based practices, and presentation.

Movie night in Laird Park, a neighborhood park in Salt Lake City.

Technology: including augmented reality/virtual reality, bio art, data visualization, hardware, software, digital media, internet art, and socially engaged and/or sustainable technology-based practices 

Literature/Words/Language: including poetry, fiction, nonfiction, graphic novels, spoken word, translation, book arts, and socially engaged and/or sustainable literature-based practices.

StoryWalk isn't high art, but does present opportunities to promote reading within parks

("The StoryWalk project in Norton, Kansas," StoryWalk kit of resources)

Design: graphic design, illustration, murals/street art, and socially engaged and/or sustainable design-based practices

Landscape Architecture and Horticulture: manipulation of the landscape, environmental art, creative display and manipulation of plants and plantings, programs, and socially engaged based practices. ("A word for landscape architecture," Harvard Design Magazine, "Why is landscape design the greatest art form" LandARCH Concepts, "Environmental Art: Changing Our Habits Or Just Illustrating What We Already Know?," Artland, "Michael Singer, Sculptor Who Used Nature as His Medium, Dies at 78," New York Times).

Agnes Denes, Wheatfield – A Confrontation, 1982, Battery Park Landfill, Downtown Manhattan, 

photo: John McGrall

Besides the fact that public gardens including botanical gardens are a form of park, in Europe on a large scale, with revitalization objects, there is the Garden Festival, often termed "International" such as in Germany, with a wide variety of installations ("European Garden Festivals as a model urban planning initiative for Detroit and other US cities," and "DC has a big "Garden Festival" opportunity in the Anacostia River," blog, "International Garden Festivals to Visit," Gardens Illustrated).

Wall art, Dig the City.

Flower shows like Chelsea Flower Show, and Chelsea Fringe guerilla exhibition as a response to traditional flower shows ("Top 10 Chelsea Fringe events," Daily Telegraph, "Chelsea Fringe Festival and the rise of guerrilla gardening," Financial Times), there are many examples.

From the FT:

“New gardening” has leapt over the garden fence to beautify streets, parks and roundabouts of towns and cities worldwide. There is a generation of gardeners out there who do not look upon horticulture solely as a “back-garden” activity. They achieve beautification in various ways: by creating a community garden; planting flowers in the “tree pits” that surround street trees; or even engaging in “guerrilla gardening”, the practice whereby squads of horticulturists take to the streets at night to plant shrubs and flowers in places that may have been neglected by the local authorities. 

In this vision, gardening becomes a benign form of environmental activism and a way of creating “social cohesion” — which in practice means making friends through gardening; it is certainly true that the activity recognises no social boundaries.

Another great model that seems to be on hiatus was the Dig The City Garden Festival in Manchester ("Dig the city? Then you’ll LOVE these ultra urban garden ideas for Manchester" Manchester Evening News).  It ran for a week in the city's center, with demonstrations and presentations and had many thousands of patrons.

The Bilbao Garden, Balmori & Associates, 2011, International Garden Competition (article).

Exhibit: The Landscape Architecture Legacy of Dan Kiley.  Cultural Landscape Foundation

International Garden Show, Hamburg, 2013

Landscapes and Gardens in the Hudson River Valley, National Park Service brochure, page 1

Food: food as art ("Food in Art") and as craft, programs, presentations, and socially engaged and/or sustainable food-based practices ("Food as an art form," "The Relationship between Art and Food: Food as the Ultimate Comprehensive Art," Medium, "Connecting Cultural Foodways within my Artistic Practice," "The interconnections of art and food," Cincinnati Art Museum).

The Taste of Art: Cooking, Food, and Counterculture in Contemporary Practices

Wasatch Community Gardens sponsors "Sabores de me Patria" which has arts elements in the way it presents Latin American foodways.

Organized community meals with specific objectives for outcomes can be a form of performance art (or community building).

This installation in Tel Aviv is not set up as a meal, but could easily do so.

"Paella with a purpose: Chef uses food to connect with youths in Huntington Beach" Los Angeles Times

Programs

Art centers:  Typically multidisciplinary arts centers are not part of park systems.  But there may be art-related centers/buildings located within parks.  

Arts as part of other events:  e.g. art cars at a festival, music in a parade

Artist in residence: The intent is that artists create site-specific artwork on the property based generally on the artist proposal and the artist’s previous works.  Artists then deliver an experience at the property through which the local community can engage with the artist and the residency such as a workshop, talk, open studio, exhibition or tour. 

Arts production: having equipment for the production of art and craft such as ceramics kilns, furnaces for glass, etc.

Children's experiences:  Often as part of events, there will be art participation tables set up for children as a way for them to participate in the event.  A lot of face painting and balloon animal making.  The events might set up children's areas with bounce castles, etc.

Destination events:  This article focuses on arts programs in city, county, state, and theoretically federal parks.  It doesn't focus on destination events like theater festivals in park like spaces, ticketed music festivals in parks, and Fashion Week at Lincoln Center, etc.  

Educational programs: K-12 ("How cities use parks to help children learn," APA, NYC Arts in Education Roundtable, "National Parks as Learning Spaces – Ideas for Park-Focused Art and Literature Projects," Teacher Camp).  Seattle's Art Corps travels to various parks in the summer providing arts workshops ("Arts Corps Breaks Down Barriers in Arts Education," NEA).  Weber State University does something similar in Ogden, Utah, in association with summer feeding programs.  Offender support programs ("Woodworking providing mentorship through craftsmanship," Boston Globe).

Adults and the community ("Arts in the Parks: An East Greenbush community experience," Empire State University, Art in the park community cultural programs grant program, California Arts Council

Exhibits, Curation and Presentation

Exhibit:  Forest of Dreams: Contemporary Tree Sculpture (Autumn, 2023 Seasons). 

Fredrik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids Michigan

Festivals: arts and craft fairs, community festivals, etc.  Note that arts walks tend to be productions of business districts, not involving parks much unless public spaces are used for music presentation.

Galleries:  Presentation of art in park buildings.

Museums and cultural facilities in parks.

Public Art: Discussed in the previous entry in this series at great length, "Gaps in Parks Master Planning: Part Five | Planning for Public Art as an element of facilities."

Studios and rehearsal spaces: spaces for visual and performing artists to work, allocated on a short or long term basis, or as part of artist in residence programs.

Studio tour programs.  Not usually park specific.  But areas, such as neighborhoods, will organize tour events, like an art walk, featuring access to studios by working artists in the community.  New England Conservancy Open Studios.

Conclusion.  I offer this entry as an introductory attempt to provide a comprehensive programming framework for presenting arts in the parks programs in park systems and individual parks, squares, plazas, etc.