Assembling art, part by part

Portland Pres Herlad
Decmeber 8, 2006
By KELLEY BOUCHARD, Staff Writer

Early reviews are positive for a piece of public art that's being installed in Portland's Boothby Square.

On Thursday, a crew from Gnome Landscapes & Design of Falmouth started installing sheets of wave-shaped stainless steel that feature prominently in "Tracing the Fore," a city-funded land sculpture designed by a Massachusetts artist, Shauna Gillies-Smith.

Passers-by stopped and offered impromptu critiques of the work in progress at Fore and Pearl streets, in the city's historic Old Port.

"I like it," said Daniel Talbot of Portland. "The shape of (the square) always reminded me of a ship, so it ties in nicely."

"It really does look like a wave," said Diane Roderick of South Portland. "I can't wait to see it finished."

She'll have to check back next year.

The grass-and-steel sculpture, designed to mimic the rolling waves of the Fore River, was supposed to be completed in September.

However, rising costs, installation glitches and production delays mean the permanent display won't be finished until spring, when grass will be planted between the waves, city officials said.

Since the wave sculpture's selection in a 2004 design competition, the project's cost has increased from $65,000 to $135,000, largely because of an increase in the price of steel, officials said.

The project also had to be redesigned, to account for underground utilities that were discovered when the artist first tried to install the sculpture.

More recently, installation of the waves was delayed because a special brushed-stainless finish had to be applied to the half-inch-thick sheets, officials said.

Installation of the nine waves and surrounding loam berms is expected to be finished by next Friday, said Todd Marco, Gnome's project manager.

The sculpture's installation follows the 2000-01 reconstruction of Fore Street, which cost $600,000.

More recently, the Libra Foundation gave the city $50,000 in 2004 to buy back and reinstall the original granite horse-watering trough that once stood in the square.

Col. Frederick Boothby, a former Portland mayor, gave the trough and the land for the square to the city in 1902 as a public memorial to his late wife.

The trough was removed in 1946 after it was nearly demolished in a car accident. It was later owned by an antiques dealer in Wells for about 20 years.

Public art projects for the coming year were approved on Monday by Portland's Public Art Committee.

The committee's $49,000 budget represents 0.5 percent of the city's capital improvement budget, said Alice Spencer, committee chairwoman.

The committee plans to spend $35,000 to replace "Milkweed Pod," a 1975 wooden sculpture by Clark Fitzgerald that until recently stood in Winslow Park on Back Cove.

The committee is considering soliciting designs from Maine artists only, Spencer said.

The committee also plans to spend $12,000 on granite bases for bronze signs that will identify public art pieces throughout the city, Spencer said.

The committee also plans to lobby city officials to increase spending on public art to 1 percent of the capital improvement program, for which the city borrows as much as $10 million each year.

Spencer said that's the percentage that many cities commit.

Spencer said she hopes the city will encourage more developers to spend more on public art as part of commercial and residential projects.

She said the committee is working with Waynflete School students to develop a walking tour of the city's public art, complete with a brochure detailing the history and location of each piece of art.

Staff Writer Kelley Bouchard can be contacted at 791-6328