New Albany’s public art grows: Themes include textiles, media and farmers’ markets

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One of 2011's three public art pieces for New Albany's Bicentennial Public Art Project will be located at the Carnegie Center along Spring Street. Staff photo by Braden Lammers

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March 13, 2011

By BRADEN LAMMERS Braden.Lammers@newsandtribune.com The News and Tribune Sun Mar 13, 2011, 01:42 AM EST

NEW ALBANY — New Albany is adding to its art collection.

Three new pieces of public art will be on display by the end of June, in addition to five art projects that have been on display for a year, at sites throughout the city.

The artwork is part of New Albany’s Bicentennial Public Art Project, which is a 4-year program featuring public artwork installed each year in downtown from 2010 up to the city’s bicentennial year in 2013. Each work interprets a different theme from New Albany’s history.

A call for artists was put out on the group’s website and artists submitted proposals and chose those that best represent the historic themes, said Laura Wilkins, director of marketing and outreach for the Carnegie Center.

Three winning exhibits, which netted $4,000 for each artist, were chosen by a panel of jurors through an anonymous review and where selected from 18 artists’ proposals.

The artwork was selected on quality, uniqueness, approach and interpretation of history, said Carnegie Center Curator Karen Gillenwater.

“One thing which we were really hoping it would do, that I think we’re seeing, is it’s getting people who are interested in art to get interested in the history and vice-versa,” she said.

The themes of the artwork — which will be on display for two years — are based on textiles, wholesale to retail; newspapers and media; and farmers’ markets.

Textiles, Wholesale to Retail

Dominic Guarnaschelli, an artist living and working in Louisville was selected to create a piece of art representing New Albany’s textile history.

The artwork will be a sculpture located outside of the Carnegie Center, along Spring Street, and was inspired from Greek marble statues.

However, Guarnaschelli said he plans to construct his sculpture from metal and heavy wire mesh.

“It’s an oversized dress form from the 19th century,” he said.

Aside from mirroring oversized Greek sculptures, Guarnaschelli also had another, historical inspiration.

“My grandfather was a tailor in Louisville ... so [there’s] a little bit of family history that I brought into it,” he said.

Newspapers and Media

New Albany resident and artist Scott Scarboro is planning a public art piece that is in a completely different form than Guarnaschelli’s display.

Scarboro is a multi-media artist that is planning to construct two 8- to 10-foot tall sculptures on adjacent corners of an intersection in New Albany that will house low-wattage, solar-powered radio transmitters.

“It’s pretty much inspired by Mr. Microphone from the 70s,” he said.

He added any kind of radio will pick up the transmission that will broadcast historic newspaper articles being read, vintage radio commercials and other archived radio transmissions.

Scarboro’s installation will be located at the intersection of Market and Scribner streets in front of the News and Tribune building.

The transmitters will broadcast about the distance of a city block and are a piece of art Scarboro is hoping people bump into and are able to appreciate.

“I’m a mixed-media artist, so it’s kind of rare for me to get to do a public piece,” Scarboro said. “Mixed-media pieces usually don’t get a chance to be out in the public or outdoors. I think it will bring a lot of awareness to the public art program to people that might not know anything about it at all.”

Scarboro also said by installing the transmitters he hopes to reach the audience in another way.

“I just want to bring awareness to New Albany’s history, some of the forgotten stories of the people that lived here before that other generations might not know about,” he said.

Farmers’ Markets

A group of artists is hoping to reach the visitors of the city’s farmers’ market this season.

Artists Janis Martin, Ruth Andrews and Mike Slaski from northern Indiana and Michigan are planning a display at New Albany’s farmers’ market located at the corner of Bank and Market streets in downtown.

The artists are planning to install columns of red marsh sticks and sumac sticks in the rafters of the market’s shelter, but the customers also inspired the artwork.

Andrews said she had the concept she described as fairly simple, but the movement of the sticks in space will mirror the spirit of people moving together through the market below.

“It’s a nice dance, a parallel dance,” she said.

But the inspiration of the artwork came from the group’s personal passions.

“I love farmers’ markets and I got really excited about the idea of having something in open air in the farmers’ market,” Martin said. “The opportunity to combine my love for food, the farmers’ market and art and community building [was exciting].”

So you know

The New Albany Bicentennial Public Art Project originated from a partnership between the Carnegie Center for Art and History and the New Albany Urban Enterprise Association.

The Carnegie Center is open from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, and is located at 201 E. Spring St., in New Albany. Admission is free.

Visit www.carnegiecenter.org for more information on exhibits, events and classes.

For more information about New Albany’s Bicentennial Public Art Project visit www.napublicart.org.