The IMA"s Lisa Frieman

Gretchen Freeman, together with her business partner Deborah Whitehurst, has been helping people ñ from university presidents to big city mayors ñ think about public art since 1994. That"s when they founded their public art consulting firm, eponymously known as Freeman Whitehurst, in Phoenix, Ariz. Freeman Whitehurst specializes in large municipal projects. The company has helped cities like Minneapolis, San Antonio and Atlanta establish the guidelines and procedures necessary not only to help deal with public art and artists, but to do so in ways that express their particular sense of place or identity. Since last September, Freeman and Whitehurst have been coming to Indianapolis for meetings and research regarding the public art component of Mayor Bart Peterson"s cultural initiative. They will be presenting the city with their recommendations in July. NUVO recently met with Gretchen Freeman in the Art Council of Indianapolis offices for a conversation about how the work is going so far. A melting pot "What has been remarkable to us is how ready Indianapolis is for this," says Freeman, who began her arts career working with the corporate art collection of the Chase Manhattan Bank in New York, but whose speech retains the soft touch of her native Arkansas. "People are wanting an expression of who they are in their community ñ and want to make their community unique, because there"s so much homogeneity around the country." Indianapolis, says Freeman, is in a good position to undertake a program like this at this time. "This is not a new concept. It has been done in other cities and Indianapolis is probably one of the last large cities that hasn"t either considered it or established a public art program." Freeman has been meeting with various stakeholders, beginning with the city"s public works departments. "One of the ways that public art can be accepted by a community," she says, "is to attach it to things that people know are necessary ... We"ve been talking to a very eager public works department. I have to say that they are ready. The public works director has said we want this to happen and that"s their charge." Artists and neighborhood associations have also been high on Freeman"s list of contacts. "You don"t want to create something artificial in any way," she notes. "You want it to come from a community and be very much tied-in and have people feel as though the art is responding to what life is like here. Very site specific. It could not be anywhere else than Indianapolis." To this end, Freeman and her colleagues have been immersing themselves in local history. They are looking particularly at the city"s residential character. "More than a lot of large cities, Indianapolis is really a melting pot," she observes. "You might go to Chicago or Milwaukee and say, "Where is the German section?," or, "Where is Chinatown?" People can point to it. Here that"s not really the case ... Neighborhoods are really what Indianapolis is about. I think these cultural districts that have been named are certainly areas that are identifiable, but a lot of the neighborhoods are not as identifiable as one would like and that makes it a little bit difficult. I think that identities are beginning to form ñ or re-form. Perhaps they"ve existed in the past but they"ve reconstituted. Some of those neighborhoods are really exciting to go into." Learning how the people in a neighborhood think of where they live is a crucial part of Freeman"s process. These ideas can inform whatever art might someday be placed there. "A project, if it"s done in a good way, engages the public in looking at itself and thinking about what speaks for them in a visual form." The local history that Freeman and her colleagues uncover is included in their report to the city and can be used by artists as reference material for future projects. "It"s going to add a layer of meaning and purpose and belonging ñ and some sense of pride as well." A sound working process Freeman stresses the importance of creating a sound working process for public art in order to defuse what can easily turn into public controversy. "Though you try very hard, you"re not going to please all the people all the time," she observes. "That"s why a public art program should embrace diversity and variety ñ if you don"t like one project, perhaps you"ll like another." She points out that many notable works of public art ñ the Eiffel Tower, for example ñ were abhorred when they were first introduced, only to become beloved landmarks. Freeman expects Indianapolis to devote public, foundation and corporate dollars to a public art program. Doing so will enable citizens and tourists to see a greater variety of artworks, most notably temporary forms of expression. "I think it"s extremely important, if one can do it, within a city to have a component that is temporary, more experimental. It allows artists to take some risks at a relatively low cost and communicate with the public. Often artists don"t have experience building large-scale, permanent works. Temporary projects become a kind of laboratory. We will encourage temporary works in addition to the permanent, landmark kinds of projects." It has become common for cities with successful public art programs to require that all public works projects set aside a certain percentage of their budgets for art. Freeman thinks that 1 percent is too low and likes to see cities adopt higher standards so that maintenance of completed work is included. "You can put this stuff out there but if there"s no one to take care of it you lose your investment and it just detracts from the whole reason for doing it in the first place." Freeman Whitehurst"s recommendations for public art will be presented to the city in July. Freeman knows that many people here will want to see results as quickly as possible, but cautions against being hasty. "The more quickly you rush into this, the more at risk you are for doing something that will be extremely unpopular, will not be inclusive and subsequently may be so controversial or so despised that it will set the public art program back years. What is shown to the public initially is exceedingly important. "We"re going to be producing a list of projects that should be done probably within the next five years," Freeman says. Some of these projects will be linked to building projects ñ like the airport expressway ñ that are already in the planning stages so those opportunities aren"t missed. Others are likely to be temporary projects that don"t require large budgets and can serve to build artist capacity for permanent projects later on. Once again, Freeman comes back to the importance of process. "That"s not to diminish the importance of outcome," she explains, "but it"s so important to have a fair, consistent, equitable process. That way people feel they have an opportunity to be heard and that they"ve had an opportunity to compete ñ I can"t stress that enough." -DH

Over 40 art museums are currently under construction in cities around the world. Many of these buildings are expansion projects like the Indianapolis Museum of Art, but many others will represent new destinations in the communities where they are being built. Following is a partial listing of museum building projects in the United States ñ note the many within driving distance of Indianapolis. Akron Art Museum Akron, Ohio $29 million expansion Art Institute of Chicago Chicago, Ill. $200 million expansion Austin Museum of Art Austin, Texas $65 million new building Calder Museum Philadelphia, Pa. $35 million new museum Cleveland Museum of Art Cleveland, Ohio $170 million expansion Denver Art Museum Denver, Co. $110 million expansion Detroit Institute of Arts Detroit, Mich. $91 million expansion Forum for Contemporary Art St. Louis, Mo. $7.5 million new building Guggenheim Las Vegas Las Vegas, Nev. $30 million new museum Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, Mass. $35 million new building Lois and Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art Cincinnati, Ohio $34.1 million new building Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth Fort Worth, Texas $60 million new museum Walker Art Center Minneapolis, Minn. $50 million expansion