Public Art Update

Public Art Update

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Public Artist Bill Buchen Leads
Jam Session for Pompano Drum Circle

Pompano Drum Circle, an artwork created by Bill and Mary Buchen, is commissioned through Broward County’s Public Art & Design Program and was unveiled in November, 2012. Drawing upon the musical traditions of the diverse cultures represented in the Pompano Beach community, Pompano Drum Circle connects these traditions through the universal language of rhythmic percussion. Sited on a paved circle, a grouping of five sculptural instruments invites communal music-making while passing time waiting for the bus. Individual components of the artwork include: the Earth Drum, Earth Bow, Djembe, Tambor and Bata Drums. The artwork will creates a sense of place and enhances the visual appeal of the new Northeast Transit Center, Broward County’s newest bus transfer facility, thereby encouraging use of the facility and stimulating transit ridership. It is designed to appeal to a broad cross section of the public while reflecting the cultural and historic background of the community in which it is located.

The New York-based artist team Bill and Mary Buchen have created public artworks throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia since 1981. They have participated as members of numerous design teams creating public art plans for transit projects including San Francisco’s 3^rd Street Light Rail Transit System, the St. Louis Arts Delmar Streetscape, the Westside and Liberty Station for New Jersey Transit and the Transit Link project between Long Island City and Manhattan, NY.

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Artist Cheryl Foster Completes Artwork
for Roosevelt Gardens Community Center

Artist Cheryl Foster recently completed an artwork, located in Roosevelt Gardens Park at 2841 NW 11th St in Fort Lauderdale - a five-acre neighborhood park with a 4,500 sq. ft. community center that opened in November 2007 for Broward County's Public Art & Design Program

Foster created a multi-piece artwork for the computer room and lobby of the community center, in the form of a series of tableaus that illustrate themes important to the community: education, family values, diversity, sharing, learning, parents teaching and sharing with children, and strong male presence. For example, Rock Solid illustrates a strong family unit connecting to technology; Science Project displays an elder helping with a volcano science project; and Layup Shot shows a basketball duo. The paintings are displayed above eye level, and appear to float on the walls. Students using the computer room comment that they think the art is cool!

New Public Art & Design Airport Guide

Public Art Guide

Broward Cultural Division released a much-anticipated Public Art Guide for the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. This glossy, full-color, pocket-sized brochure includes a map and location guide, inviting visitors and airport guests to take a self-guided tour of the public art on view throughout this thriving transportation hub. The brochure is designed to be a visitor’s guide, a tourist’s keepsake and an artful inventory of one of the County’s most significant art locations.

The airport features 54 artworks that are highly varied in character, quality and expression, and represent the highest concentration of artworks within a single site.

Artworks are highly-varied in character, quality and expression and medium. A stainless steel sculpture graces the entry to the greenbelt immediately south of the Airport. In the consolidated Rental Car Center, the entrance portals bring light and glass together in a mesmerizing vision of architecture, engineering and fine art; and a stunning display of terrazzo artwork, inspired by Florida’s mangrove islands, spans the facility on Level’s 2, 3 and 4.

To obtain a Public Art Guide, call 954-357-7457. For a complete ONLINE TOUR of the County’s public artwork please visit the Broward Cultural Division website.

Broward County’s Public Art
Goes National!

Broward County Cultural Division is pleased to announce that its 244 piece public art collection can now be found on The Public Art Archive™, website. This forum provides a worldwide framework for the County’s public art program while welcoming visitors into a comfortable navigational format. The website’s ease of use will increase accessibility to public art information and attract new audiences to the program.

Visitors to the Public Art Archive website will find detailed information on a wide variety of Broward County artworks, from a sculptural installation that depicts the 3,000 year history of the written word in Libros at Northwest Regional Library, to a complete integrated circular space with intricately-designed wall panels and terrazzo floor designed with wavy lines of different colors to commemorate the Middle Passage route of slave ships from West Africa across the Atlantic Ocean to America in The Harrambe Room, at the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center.

In Broward County parks, artworks may take a viewer through the colorful front doors of the Secret Woods Nature Center Exhibition Hall, which features a glass mosaic fresco that represents the flight of butterflies; or visitors to Sunshine Ranches Equestrian Park may witness the winter and summer solstice through two saddle-shaped forms made of concrete, placed to align on those days with the sunsets.

The Public Art Archive™, a new project of the Western States Arts Federation, or WESTAF (www.westaf.org), is a sophisticated searchable database of public art in the U.S.. The Archive makes public art and its processes more accessible to the public, displaying images of each piece alongside an extensive description, including audio and video supplementary files when available. The Public Art Archive™ is the sister project of WESTAF's CaFÉ™ system (www.callforentry.org), an online application and adjudication system used by public art administrators everywhere. WESTAF's arts-based technology projects are in use in all 50 states as well as internationally.