CCDC
Kudos To City For Choosing Local Art
March 2, 2014 
If the defective fountains on the front the Grove Hotel and in City Hall Plaza are any indication, Boise artists are just a drop in the bucket compared to the ancient Romans–at least their fountains work and don’t leak.
TREVI FOUNTAIN IN ROME
Bowing to pressure from the GUARDIAN and public, an art selection committee has come up with a local art project to be created out of steel panels to be placed on the City Hall Plaza with cutouts of leaves and branches as part of the renovation which has been underway for the past couple of years. Past selections have all favored out of state artists. Without regard to the art itself, we have advocated using local talent and they finally listened. We applaude the move to reward local talent, especially if the work doesn’t involve a fountain.
Local designers joined forces to construct the project. CTY and Ecosystems Sciences say they’ll collect $20,000 for their artist fee. The other $180,000 for the project will go to building it.
In addition to the steel “cottonwood grove” on City Hall Plaza’s south side, the artists will help design a seating area in place of the fountain on the plaza’s north side, Boise Public Arts Manager Karen Bubb said.
If memory serves, the fountain was a gift from Velma Morrison.
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Comments & Discussion
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Mar 3, 2014, 12:34 am
How about some actual art for our $200K rather than this garbage that looks like reconstituted leftovers from the junk yard. Blobs of metal vaguely resembling groves of trees and reflecting light in presumably inspiring ways doesn’t constitute art. Way to waste more tax money City Hall.
Mar 3, 2014, 2:17 am
I had thought that the drinking fountain was a gift of more than “just” Mrs Morrison. It was, as I recall, originally from the local WCTU (Womens Christian Temperance Union) so that “good” citizens would not have to enter saloons to find pure liquids with which to quench their thirst. It was re-furbished by a local group of women as a part of a commemoration of the WCTU and of other pioneer women’s contributions to early Boise development, I had thought. I do not recall it’s original location.
Mar 3, 2014, 10:18 am
“Bowing to pressure from the GUARDIAN . . . we have advocated using local talent and they finally listened.”
Cpongrats, Dave; we knew that with relentless pressure on City Hall you —almost single-handedly — could make it happen!
EDITOR NOTE–Thanks for the kind words! This is just one of a long line of issues we have influenced in the city and appreciate your acknowledgement of our continued success. P.S.–if you run for city council, you get my vote.
Mar 3, 2014, 2:26 pm
A Boise artist was chosen? Doesn’t Idaho deny gay marriage? So Mayor Beiter must hate gay people, huh? We should choose an artist from a gay-friendly place! (And those places obviously have more artistic people anyway.)
(Just pokin’ fun…)
On the serious side… I’d be sorry to see the existing fountain get removed. Why? My granddaughter and I have often stopped there to cool down when cycling on hot summer days. (They may seem distant now… but in late July we’ll be sad if we can’t detour to that fountain.)
Mar 4, 2014, 12:23 pm
Maybe we can charge the artist rent for display space rather than burn all that money.