{"id":590,"date":"2009-05-24T09:01:30","date_gmt":"2009-05-24T16:01:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp\/2009\/05\/ries_niemi_the_problem_of_publ\/"},"modified":"2009-05-24T09:01:30","modified_gmt":"2009-05-24T16:01:30","slug":"ries_niemi_the_problem_of_publ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/2009\/05\/ries_niemi_the_problem_of_publ.html","title":{"rendered":"Ries Niemi: The problem of public art is the jury (and politicians)"},"content":{"rendered":"

In response to this post<\/a>, Ries Niemi<\/a> wrote:<\/p>\n

\n

Mostly, it’s the system.
\nFirst, a jury, with perhaps one artist on it, and, usually, an
\narchitect who feels any art is an intrusion on his genius, plus a few
\nlaypeople who are convinced the budget would be better spent on giving
\nthem more days off. <\/p>\n

Unless you have been on juries, …you have no idea the horsetrading, educating, and
\npoliticking that are involved to get any but the blandest, least
\nthreatening, beige art selected.<\/p>\n

Although I am an artist who competes for these projects, I have
\nserved on several juries over the years, and most every time, the
\nstrongest artists with the most personality are voted out in the first
\nround, despite my protests.<\/p>\n

Jury composition is an art- in the legal system, there are
\nconsultants who charge hundreds of thousands to help on jury selection
\nof big cases. And this is one of the biggest weaknesses of a weak arts
\nadministrator- not timidity, but the inability to find, and cajole,
\ngreat people to serve on juries. Generally, the administrator must sit
\non the sidelines and manage process, not lobby for favorites.<\/p>\n

Then, the even bigger problem is the politicians or beaurocrats who
\nmust say yes before checks are signed- the main reason for dumbing down
\nof ideas.<\/p>\n

In the recent Dan Webb\/Olympia dustup<\/a>, it was the elected
\npoliticians who shot down the idea, not the artist who was timid- and
\nthis is very very common. Which leads professional artists, ones who
\nhave been around the block once or twice, to avoid pitching that x
\nrated day glo pink giant reptile eating human cadavers amidst a pile of
\ncrack bags. Self editing is what you are talking about, not timidity…<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

In any field of endeavor, there is a difference between being timid and just tossing out expletives for their shock value. <\/p>\n

Nope, Vito<\/a> has never proposed that he would masturbate under the stairs for a project for a new convention center…<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In response to this post, Ries Niemi wrote: Mostly, it’s the system. First, a jury, with perhaps one artist on it, and, usually, an architect who feels any art is an intrusion on his genius, plus a few laypeople who are convinced the budget would be better spent on giving them more days off. Unless […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-590","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}