Let me tell you I love bronze sculpture. Smooth female
nudes are my personal favorites.
Excuse me if I am not overjoyed at the thought of an
imaginary character on a television sitcom gracing the
Nicollet Mall.
Then again, why not? It should fit in nicely with an
out of scale bronze flying bird in a quasi Japanese
rock fountain spritzing water which leaks out the
corner of its base and a twisted mass of somewhat
shiny metal, resembling twisted trolley track or piano
keyboards or whatever was in the artist's mind at the
time, that also limply spritzes water on those rare
occasions when the pump is working.
Hey! Maybe CNN will cover it's unveiling live just
like Ralph Kramden's statue in NYC!
Call me an "art snob" but does anybody out there in
cyberspace second my opinion.
Why for instance wouldn't it make greater sense to
raise money privately and commission a statue to
honor, say Judson Bemis, who just died and who for
years as a resident of the Twin Cities championed the
arts and was instrumental in raising money for The
Minnesota Orchestra and it's home on Nicollet Mall?
I do not agree with the sentiments of Mary Altman,
public art administrator, of the city of Minneapolis
when she is quoted in the Strib saying that the goal
of her office in making art more accessible "means
that you have to reach people at their level of
interest.
A lot of citizens will respond to this piece. And it
will be a much broader audience than your 'art
audience.'"
First of all she essentially is dissing us by saying
the only thing regular everyday people can relate to
is a fictitious character in a TV sitcom. Perhaps
there is a degree of truth in that, but to celebrate a
character in a medium that has done more than any
'advancement' of the 20th Century to insure that the
populace will only relate to something as vacuous as a
TV sitcom is
both ludricrous and insulting.
She is also assuming that the audience for this 'art'
or more accurately 70's Pop Culture icon is going to
be a bunch of aging baby boom couch potatoes. What of
all the Hispanics who now live in our city or those
from Ethiopia, Somalia, Liberia, Ukraine, etc. What
are they to think of this? In all my travel in Mexico
where I saw many plazas and statues and in Paris where
I spent eight months and saw the whole city not once
did I see a statue of a character played by an actor.
I can just hear visitors from far and wide who flock
to Minneapolis to view this incomparable art.
"Oh look Honey, it's Mary Richards."
"Yeah, yeah. I thought that guy said there was a Taco
Bell on this corner. I'd rather see that cute little
chihuahua."
"Gee, Honey. i thought I saw that chihuahua down by
the Federal Courts Building playing with a stack of
balls."
What is it about this city? Do they put something in
the water? Is this some sort of reaction to the Snoopy
craze in St.Paul? Do we have Pop Culture gap with the
Capitol City? I can hear the Mayor's aides now,
"Hey, we can't build as much affordable housing as St.
Paul, maybe we can narrow the gap and confuse the
voters with a Mary Richards statue."
"Sounds good to me. What do you think, Buck"
"I dunno, maybe it'll fly? You guys only brought me on
to handle transportation issues."
If Sharon Sayles Belton really cared about celebrating
a woman of this city who dared to break the glass
ceiling for real, the first day after she took office
in 1994 she would have proposed the city commission a
bronze statue to honor Nellie Stone Johnson, a woman
who blazed the path she so ungraciously follow.
I protest!!!!
Timothy Connolly
Ward 7
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