ICA, To Do Or Not To Do, Public Art

Last July, I blogged about the end of “Vita Brevis,” the public art program founded by Jill Medvedow just after she was hired to run the Institute of Contemporary Art. At the time, the ICA's Deputy Director Paul Bessire said that it was only the Latin term that was being eliminated. Public art, he said, remained a mission at the ICA.

I revisited this after noticing that no public art project is planned by the ICA for 2008. Asking about that, the ICA told me that next up is Krzysztof Wodiczko, whose Bunker Hill Monument Projection was a key part of Vita Brevis's inaugural exhibition in 1998.

“We began discussions with him in 2006 to create the project to follow Art on the Harbor Islands,” Bessire said. “He is developing an interior projection with veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan for an ICA gallery that is planned to open in November 2009. Being able to offer a project of this magnitude over several months, rather than for a few evenings as was the case in 1998, is one of the benefits we enjoy with the expanded facility of the new ICA.”

Okay. That’s true. But isn’t this the first year the ICA hasn’t done a public art project? The answer is yes, if you scan down the list that ranges from Wodiczko’s 1998 project to the “Art on the Harbor Islands” thing from 2007. I also mentioned that the public art projects are free to the public, while an exhibit inside the ICA requires visitors to pay admission.

“We were originally planning to do [Wodiczko’s project] outside but we decided to do it inside because it could be up longer,” said Bessire.

I asked if this was about money.

“Any institution has limited resources and limited staff,” he said. “You have to focus and think about our priorities. We will continue to do work outside when an artist or project comes to us with a project that we think will have a lot of impact.”

Will the ICA continue to do public art projects in the spirit of Vita Brevis?

“Yes, we will continue to be doing public art projects but they won't occur as often as in the past,” he said.