Airport: DIA offcials want to remove some art installments. »
DIA o∞cials want to remove Concourse C’s Interior Garden, but arts advocates cry foul
Disputes over public art are, by their very nature, out in the open. That’s a good thing for taxpayers, who often have a stake in the financial and cultural outcomes. But these disputes also shed light on the grayarea wrangling that happens when a revenue-conscious organization struggles to free itself from a city-led agreement.
In the most high-profile art dispute in its history, Denver International Airport officials have recently butted heads with the city’s public-art pro- gram and the cultural commission charged with guiding it over an installation at the 22-year-old airport— the birthplace of Denver’s nationally recognized public-art program, with 36 pieces representing an investment of more than $14 million.
At stake: the renowned, highly visible Interior Garden by artist Michael Singer, which the airport wants removed from its con course C.
Airport officials have said the piece, designed to look like ancient ruins with living tropical plants, is prohibitively expensive to maintain, has not lived up to expectations due to “faults in the design” and takes up otherwise valuable space in a con- course they estimate is squeezed by about 50,000 square feet.
Some arts advocates are alarmed by that, calling the Interior Garden a significant piece of the city’s artistic identity that needs to be preserved. And after a public-comment period that ended May 16, Denver Arts & Venues director Kent Rice — the man charged with making the final decision— has yet to rule.
“Those are some of the most important pieces in our whole collection,” Michael Chavez, who oversees the city’s roughly 400 publicart works for Arts & Venues, said of pieces such as the Interior Garden
and Mustang (a.k.a. the big blue horse).
The Interior Garden, he said, “was a really important publicart piece when it was installed, and a real forerunner in that type of art. It’s the type of thing we like to tout from a program standpoint.”
As first reported bywestword, DIA officials on March 28 filed requests for deaccessioning for three public-art pieces: Singer’s Interior Garden, Anna Valentina Murch’s Skydance and the tiled floor of the Jeppesen Terminal’s Great Hall (under the big white tent), by artists Jaune Quick-to-see-smith and Ken Iwamasa.
All were funded by the city’s 1 percent program, in which 1 percent of the construction budget of any municipal capitalimprovement project over $1 million is set aside for art.
But one of the pieces in the Great Hall is broken and the other is complicating plans to overhaul the 1.5 million-square-foot terminal to provide more traveler amenities, including shops and restaurants.
“Skydance hasn’t worked since the airport opened, and it’s just been sitting there for many, many years, despite some pretty good efforts to fix it,” Stacey Stegman, senior vice president of communications for DIA, said of the projection-based piece that was supposed to throw eye-catching images onto the ceiling of the main terminal. “That one is essentially a resubmittal because it’s prevented the airport from doing anything with the tent.”
Similarly, the tiled floor of the Great Hall is complicating airport attempts to redesign the open space that is now defined mostly by pedestrian traffic and Transportation Security Administration checkpoints at either end.
“All the designs we have looked at so far indicate we would have to remove and replace the entire floor,” Stegman said of the multimillion-dollar project to overhaul the space. “The lesson we learned is that perhaps public art isn’t ideal in a floor situation in the airport.”
The only other public-art piece that DIA removed was its troubledmountain Mirage fountain, also in the Great Hall. It was removed, in 2010, because of leaking and safety concerns. But this year’s quest to remove the Interior Garden took some, including the artist, by surprise.
“I had no idea that there was a plan for deaccession until I received a formal letter from the airport,” Singer said in an email to The Denver Post. “Once I learned about the process, I wrote several letters to the airport and the city, which did make their way to the Denver Commission on Cultural Affairs, and they voted 15 to 3 against the removal of the garden. I was relieved to learn of their vote and that they value the piece as much as I do.”
In four separate letters, Singer asks for more specific plans from DIA; repeatedly offers to work with the city and airport to preserve the Interior Garden and to cut down costs; and notes the overwhelming support he has received for his piece.
“My goal is to maintain what so many have noted over the past 22 years, the Garden’s unique qualities not found in any other airport,” he wrote.
In one letter, addressing claims by airport director of arts and public events Heather Kaufman that the piece is problematic, Singer wrote: “If the design was so ‘flawed,’ how did the Garden thrive for so many years? Why didn’t anyone confront me about these flaws until over 20 years later? … Why did numerous consultants and contractors continue to re-waterproof the base of the piece rather than simply blame such flaws?”
Airport officials counter that strained capacity means decades-old plans are begging to be revisited.
“We need to be able to have art and passengers together, and really make a better use of the space that we have,” Stegman said. “Our terminal was built for 50million people. We’re already getting more than that, and we’re hoping to be able to serve up to 75million by thework that we’re doing.”
Despite being far removed from the Greathall remodel, the Interior Garden brings up similar issues in the eyes of airport officials. Its dual-sided, 12,000-square-foot imprint doesn’t account for the “total space it requires, since it’s open below,” Stegman said. “It’s unusable space.”
In its request for deaccessioning, airport officials assert that the piece— which is situated above passenger-train lines— leaks and is excessive in its maintenance costs, including $15,000 annually to water the plants by hand.
“Leaking down right where a train is creates a hazardous situation for passengers,” Stegman said. “We’ve had problems with pests, like rodents and birds, none of which are ideal in an airport environment. Over the past 20-some years, we’ve spent, from what we can even track, in the neighborhood of $800,000 to maintain it, which was neither anticipated nor budgeted.”
The airport has, however, budgeted nearly $650,000 to remove the Interior Garden, which is about $235,000 more than the project’s commission.
“I fully appreciate that the airport has needs for expanding their space, including adding support services in Concourse C,” Singer wrote to The Post. “However, Concourses A and B both have artwork in the same locations as my garden, and the airport is not requesting to remove those pieces. It’s unclear why Concourse C can’t be builtout similarly to Concourses A and B.”
Despite the Commission on Cultural Affairs voting to preserve the Interior Garden, the ultimate decision will come from Rice, director of Arts & Venues.
“Once Kent has the opportunity to diligently examine all the data and consider all aspects of the deaccession requests, he will make a determination in the next several weeks,” Chavez said on behalf of Rice, who was traveling last week.
If city officials’ testimony at recent public meetings is any indication, Rice may well vote to keep it.
“From a city perspective, it’s an important part of our legacy and the public-art collection’s legacy,” said Ginger White-brunetti, deputy director of Arts & Venues. “Art plays an important part in tying Denver to its brand and whowe are as a city.”
DIA’S “iconic architecture,” White told The Post, is reinforced by unusual pieces, such as the Interior Garden, that help create the visitor experience the airport has pushed in recent years by shrewdly embracing its conspiracy theories formarketing purposes, screening free films and other programming, and— starting this year— offering free, city-guided public art tours at the airport. The tourswill be on June 2, July 7 and Aug. 4.
“(The airport) is such an important gateway to our city and, in many cases, a lot of people’s first or only interaction with Denver,” said Stephanie Blake, co-chairwoman of the Denver Commission on Cultural Affairs. “Arts and culture is essential to this community and sends a strong message to people about what our city’s identity and what we value.”
“We heard loud and clear that we should do whatever it takes to maintain our public art,” DIA’S Stegman said. “There didn’t seem to be the same concern that we have for the amount of money that could look like.”
Johnwenzel: 303-954-1642, jwenzel@denverpost.com or @johnwenzel