Artists Picked for Congress Sq. Park; Public Presentations on August 8th

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Lin Lisberger, Chair of the Portland Public Art Committee.

Lin Lisberger, Chair of the Portland Public Art Committee, Will Fund Raise for Commission Funds for Artist.

By Carol McCracken  (Post # 2,623)

Four out-of-state artists have been selected as finalists for the Congress Square public Art commission.  The artists will be invited o Portland for interviews with the selection committee, a site visit and a public presentation on Monday, August 8th. The commission will be offered by the Portland Public Art Committee.

The selected artists work will include developing a concept for public art to be sited in Congress Square in collaboration with WRI, a design team selected last month who will create a concept for Congress Square as a whole.

The four artist finalists are:

Ned Kahn (California), Patrick Marold (Denver, CO.) Matthew Ritchie, (New York City, and Sarah Sze, (New York City, NY.)

The Congress Square Artist Selection Committee is comprised of representatives from the Portland Public Art Committee, Friends of Congress Square Park, Maine College of Art, Portland Music of Art, and the local architecture community.

The finalists will speak at a public forum on Monday, August 8th to be held at the Portland Museum of Art auditorium from 5:30 – 7:30 pm.  The event will be free and open to the public, although RSVP will be required for capacity reasons and will include a presentation from each finalist and a question and answer session.

Interest in the Congress Square Redesign project has been high because of the unique opportunity to combine urban design and public art to transform Congress Square into a welcoming accessible public open space in the heart of the city with a focus on arts and performance said a press release issued today.

The concepts developed by the winning design team and artist will be used to help raise funds to finance the project.  If this project is implemented, it is anticipated that significant fundraising by the Portland Public Art Committee will be required.  The City of Portland is also pursuing grant funding to finance the project.  The money that was to have been used for the Portland Trails benches to compliment the construction of the Midtown project has been rededicated to the Congress Square Park project.