Outdoor Art Helps Define and Unify Birmingham, Experts Say

Downtown Birmingham gains charm from more than sidewalk cafes, flower planters, distinctive shops and inviting bistros. According to experts, artworks of varied styles, sizes and materials also enliven the “walkable city.”

Street art “puts a little spring in your step,” art historian and author Dennis Nawrocki said during a discussion Thursday night at . “It's a kind of grace note, a 'goose' as one makes one's way through town."

The 90-minute event featured three other panelists and moderator Michael Hodges, Detroit News fine and visual arts writer. It was organized by the city's Public Arts Board, made up of eight appointed volunteers who meet monthly. Board chair Barbara Heller, chief conservator at the Detroit Institute of Arts, kicked off the evening with a quick overview of public art — a phrase broad enough to include graffiti and more conventional murals.

'More of the same?'

As Heller noted, Birmingham has had a public art initiative, called CityScapes, since 1991. One panelist suggested later that its selections of works may be too conventional.

“You have to mask yourself, 'What do we really want here?' ” said Bryan Rogers, dean of art and design at the University of Michigan. “Do you want to show more of the same kind of public art? There's not anything wrong with that. It's normative.”

He added: “I don't think every community needs its obligatory Calder,” referring to Alexander Calder, whose metal mobiles are widely displayed elsewhere in plazas, courtyards, parks and museums.

An alternative is to become more daring, more edgy – perhaps by hosting “a new kind of festival here” beyond art fairs like those in communities nationwide, Rogers suggested.

“Do you want to become a destination for more people? Look at what Grand Rapids did with ArtPrize. It really put them on the map.” That privately funded event, started in 2009, displays works indoors and outside citywide in what's billed as “part arts festival, part social experiment” because visitors vote to determine which artists share $449,000 in prizes.

Nawrocki jumped in to advocate for “temporary ephemeral art,” such as impromptu installations for a day or a week, perhaps made from surplus materials, cardboard boxes or painted shoes. “It has a visceral quality that a Calder doesn't have,” noted the author of Art in Detroit Public Places.

Another participant, glass department chair Herb Babcock of the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, doesn't look at whether public art is unconventional or easily accessible. He defines successful work this way: “If you take it away, people miss it. Then you've got it right.” One of his creations, “Torso,” is a graceful glass and stone sculpture alongside a sidewalk on the east side of North Old Woodward at Oakland.

Detroit Free Press architecture writer and author John Gallagher, the fourth panelist, said public art “is a rallying point for the community, just like a community garden.” That's especially true, he said, for “things like murals that involve a lot of people instead of just one high-priced artist.”

Rogers added that “art is at its best when it inspires one to go home and create something.”

'Essential,' but not top priority

When moderator Hodges asked whether public art is “a luxury or a necessity,” Rogers replied: “It depends if you're hungry. Art is essential to humanity, but I also want to fed and clothed and housed first.”

The forum, Birmingham's first on this topic, attracted nearly two dozen people. Audience members included well-known artist Russell Thayer of Franklin, who lets the city display his three-legged aluminum “Wind Rapids” sculpture on Merrill Street in front of the Pierce Street parking deck. Also attending was Sally Parsons of the Public Arts Board, a member of Rogers' advisory board at the School of Art and Design.

In Birmingham, more than a dozen castings, carvings, statues and wall hangings are scattered around downtown, creating a sculpture garden-like atmosphere in spots and a touch of whimsy elsewhere with a painted tiger. They include vivid abstracts, nature-inspired forms and realistic images. Materials include bronze, stone, steel, aluminum and glass. Some are here to stay, others loaned by their creators and available for purchase if you have a large yard or atrium.

Birmingham's website has walking tour maps of permanent and rotating sculptures, as well as pieces in the CityScapes program supported by the and private donors.