  Boody Fine Arts, Inc. provides art collection services including project planning, management, and installation.
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 Volume 14   Mid-America Center is a 110-acre Entertainment District including Council Bluffs' Arena and Convention Center, restaurants, hotels, the Horse Shoe Casino, and other retail outlets. This development contains several of the prioritized public art locations within the City of Council Bluffs' Public Art Master Plan. 
In 2009, Jun Kaneko completed his sculpture garden, entitled Rhythm, which rests on a four hundred foot long granite plinth. The composition of Rhythm includes eleven columnar-shaped ceramic Dangos, five ceramic wedge-shaped Dangos, two large ceramic and metal walls and three bronze heads.    The Central States American Society of Landscape Architects honored the First National Bank of Omaha's sculpture park, which includes Pioneer Courage and Spirit of Nebraska's Wilderness, with its Award of Excellence. The monument uses the City's architecture as its canvas, covering portions of five downtown city blocks and encompassing one hundred and twenty-three works of art at 1 1/4 life scale. Blair Buswell, Ed Fraughton, Jim Reeves, and Bruce Lauritzen also received the National Sculpture Society's most prestigious award – the Henry Hering medal - for the collaboration on a sculpture project between an artist, a landscape architect/architect, and an owner. This is the second Henry Hering Medal for the project, as Kent Ullberg's Spirit of Nebraska's Wilderness received the honor in 2008, and it is the 4th time Jim's projects have been honored with the medal. Other medal recipients include Michael Graves, George Hargreaves of the SWA Group and Eugene F. Kennedy. Documentation of the decade long effort will be aired on national television this fall.   When evaluating what is contextually appropriate for a project, professionals often complete the design, identify a specific area for the placement of a public work of art and select an artist for the project with a specific genre or work for the site in mind. This may or may not be the best solution for the project, but it does not really meet the definition of collaboration with an artist. Bringing an art consultant and artist into the mix as team members during the initial stages of a project can have a profound and positive impact on the project. The role of the artist is to listen to the vision of the client and others on the team and create a work of art to inspire the community at large. Selecting an existing work of art and placing it in a project requires the traditional approach, but if the client is going to commission a major work of art, a true collaborative approach will result in alternatives not considered and meeting or surpassing a clients vision. Contact us concerning any of your current projects or RFQ/RFP submittals. For additional company information and project examples please review our web sites www.BoodyFineArts.com and www.PublicArtAndPractice.com. Please let us know if you would like to discuss a possible speaking engagement for an upcoming conference or meeting. Send information on the event to BFA@BoodyFineArts.com or PAP@PublicArtAndPractice.com. Click here to provide us with your new email address or email addresses of others who would like to receive our newsletter. To unsubscribe, please click here. |
 Public Art & Practice, LLC focuses on developing, managing, and implementing public art master plans and individual public art projects. Born upstate New York in 1952, John Van Alstine grew up in the southern Adirondacks Mountains. After attending St. Lawrence University, Kent State University and Cornell University, he joined the faculty at the University of Wyoming, Laramie and later the University of Maryland, College Park to teach drawing and sculpture. In 1986 he left teaching and moved to the NYC area to pursue studio work full time. In 1987 he purchased a 19th century industrial complex on the banks of the Sacandaga River and returned to the Adirondacks in upstate New York where he now lives and works in the restored historic structure.  Van Alstine's work has been exhibited widely in North America, Europe and Asia. He has completed a number of monumental site-specific commissions, recently installing a large outdoor work for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Park and a 35' tall piece for the new Indianapolis Airport. A new 28' work Funambulist will be installed on the Michigan State campus in East Lansing in June 2010. He is a recipient of important grants and fellowships including from the Gottlieb Foundation, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, the Tiffany Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Please click on John Van Alstine's image to see more of his work. |