Sculpture for New Orleans
by: Bill Sasser | posted: Sep 1, 2009
An on-going exhibit of public sculpture, in locations across the city.
Michael Manjarris wants New Orleans to be the next "Art City"
A cubist sculpture by Alexander Calder in the New Orleans Museum of Art's Sculpture Garden; a surreal pair of bronze eyes that double as park benches by Louise Bourgeois in Lafayette Square; a quadtych of exquisite bronze figures representing displaced victims of disaster by Deborah Masters at the entrance to Audubon Park.
From one end of the city to another, on any given day a New Orleansian can come face to face with sculptures by artists of such worldwide renown thanks in large part to the vision and hands-on expertise of Houston artist and New Orleans native Michael Manjarris. The program's first installation was unveiled at the entrance to the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in February 2008, a 26 foot-tall steel-and-bronze sculpture by Houston artist James Surls, titled "Me, Knife, Diamond, and Flower." Forty sculptures have followed in locations across the city, with dozens more to be installed.
While strapped city's across the country are slashing arts budgets, in the past year and a half Sculpture for New Orleans—the art program that Manjarris heads—has brought $15 million worth of world class public art to the city. The program's operating budget in 2008 was $84,000. To date, total expenditures are $330,000, including donations of $200,000 from the Calder Foundation and $45,000 from Bourgeois. While the next installment of the Crescent city's new signature art event, Prospect New Orleans, is over a year away, Sculpture for New Orleans and another public art program—a collaboration between the City Arts Council and Joan Mitchell Foundation providing opportunities to local artists—are keeping up the buzz for New Orleans as an art destination.
Manjarris, who grew up in Gentilly and Metairie and moved to Houston with his family when he was in his teens, is a sculptor who, twenty years ago, started a second career as a curator of outdoor sculpture parks, working in cities across the U.S. Surls, one of the most prominent sculptors working in the U.S. today, has compared Manjarris' curatorial work to that of a conceptual artist. Like most artists, he often works with limited budgets and scant initial backing.
Q: How did Sculpture for New Orleans come about?
MANJARRIS: In early 2006, David Oestreicher, who at the time was president of the board of the Jazz and Heritage Foundation, and art collector Dorian Bennett asked me and my partner Peter Lundberg to come up with a project to aid New Orleans artists. After Katrina, millions of dollars were donated to help musicians, but visual artists, many who had lost their studios and much of their work, weren't getting much help. The idea with this project was to help artists here by raising the city's art profile, to bring cultural tourist to New Orleans to see great art. But in early 2006, New Orleans was still refrigerator city, and we knew we couldn't ask the city for money. David and Dorian backed us up with initial funding.
Q: What kind of collaboration has it taken to make this program work in New Orleans?
MANJARRIS: This has been a team effort, which really shows what can be accomplished in the arts when people pull together. First and foremost are all of these wonderful artists, world class artists across the U.S. and around the world, who are donating the use of their works for two years and absorbing much of the associated costs. In New Orleans, it's involved museum directors, civic groups, city agencies and corporate sponsors. John Bullard at the New Orleans Museum of Art arranged for us to place the Calder's in the Sculpture Garden. David Houston and Rick Gruber at the Ogden were on board from the beginning. Magistrate judge Sally Shushan, who sits on the Lafayette Square conservancy board, is the reason Eyebenches IV are in the square. It's an effort that includes three local universities—Tulane, Xavier, and the University of New Orleans—two world class museums—NOMA and the Ogden—and partners ranging from the Downtown Development District to the Audubon Institute to Harrah's casino. We're still seeking corporate and individual sponsors who could help purchase some of these works to make New Orleans their permanent home. And of course we need help covering costs—from insurance and shipping to paying for concrete, steel rebar, and cranes for installations.
Q: How did your own career as a sculptor evolve into curating large scale shows of public art, and from your own experience, what kind of impact can such programs have on a local art scene?
MANJARRIS: My own work, which is largely stone and steel, is large scale and difficult to store. In 1989, I got permission to install some of my sculpture on a vacant lot in Corpus Christi and invited several other artists to participate, which is how I started working with James Surls. It became a community effort that involved some local art councils and even some homeless guys who I enlisted to help clear the lot. I went on to produce sculpture parks for other towns in Texas and that success led to a new career. Over the years I've become very familiar with all the physical, financial and political details of putting on big shows of public art. It's a collaboration between many players and can be difficult to pull off, but the payoff can be big. It's been huge for Houston, and for Miami, where I worked in the early 90s. South Beach was nothing like it is today, but it became "Art City" and was instrumental in the whole area's upswing. No one should underestimate what an event like Prospect New Orleans and programs like Sculpture for New Orleans and the Art Council's efforts can do for a city. It's been a very big deal that some of the world's top artists, collectors, and curators have been coming to New Orleans to see what's going on.
Q: What's the next step for Sculpture for New Orleans, and for art in the city?
MAJARRIS: The program was originally intended to last two years. We placed forty sculptures the first year and hope to do another 25 by the end of this year. We're very likely to do at least a hundred. Everyone seems to enjoy it, so I say lets keep it going if it adds to the excitement of visiting the city. The next step we need in New Orleans is some high level leadership to capitalize on the successes we've already had. I'm an optimist, because I know—twenty years ago people didn't buy art in Houston. Houston doesn't have much of a music scene, or the French Quarter, but it has art now. It's the number three art city in the U.S. in terms of annual art sales, behind New York and Los Angeles. New Orleans could be in the same league, but we need leadership to market it in a major way.
We also have to guard against in-fighting that can come with this kind of collaboration between so many players. And we need to avoid a heavily bureaucratic approach that puts dollars into consultants and studies, rather than in the hands of artists and programs. If anyone wants to see what can be done, look at Houston. They've done impact studies that have estimated that for every $1 budgeted to support art in Houston, it brings back between $10 and $100. Let me go on the record: We don’t need an impact study in New Orleans. Read Houston's instead. Put that one hundred thousand dollars into an arts program for kids.
Q: What is your own stake in New Orleans, and Sculpture for New Orleans?
Manjarris: I'm a native and I've always loved this city. After Katrina I wanted to do whatever I could to help, and art is what I know. We want to work with everyone and anyone we can to make New Orleans, Louisiana, a major world art destination.
