March 20, 2006

Two Artists, a River and a Debate over Public Space

The artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude were last seen swathing New York's Central Park in waves of saffron fabric for "The Gates" in February of last year. Next up: a plan to horizontally suspend panels of fabric in a rural setting over sections of the Arkansas River in central Colorado. A group called Rags Over the Arkansas River, or ROAR, is petitioning state and federal agencies to deny the project. They have gathered at least 750 signatures so far. The project's opponents fear it will bring increased traffic and general mayhem, along with a potentially negative impact on wildlife. Katy Siegel, a public art scholar and associate professor of art history at New York's Hunter College, says Christo and Jeanne-Claude's work is important because it engages millions of people who don't visit galleries or museums. "It's good to be talking about these things," she says. "What is public? What's in the public interest? How do we use public space?"