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“How public art gets lost – and saved – in Philly”

Philadelphia is probably in a better position than almost any city in the country to protect its public artworks – if we know what’s happening.  — Penny Balkin Bach

In “How public art gets lost – and saved – in Philly” by Samantha Melamed for Philly.com, Association for Public Art Executive Director Penny Balkin Bach offers some insight into how public artworks are lost or saved in Philadelphia.

Bach shares that the 1998 removal of Ellsworth Kelly’s iconic wall sculpture was “this sort of slap-in-the-face wake-up call that we needed as a city and as a cultural community to pay more attention to these kinds of things…Having the public’s eyes and ears alert is probably our greatest protection.” She points out that “Philadelphia is probably in a better position than almost any city in the country to protect its public artworks – if we know what’s happening.”

The article looks at several public artworks that were lost, saved, and those that are in limbo, including Joseph Greenberg Jr.’s Heroic Figure of Man (lost), Maxfield Parrish’s The Dream Garden (saved), and Robert Indiana’s AMOR (in limbo).

Read “How public art gets lost – and saved – in Philly”

Related Artworks

Artwork

AMOR

(1998)

by Robert Indiana (1928 - 2018)

Sister Cities Park, 18th Street and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway

On the occasion of the World Meeting of Families and Pope Francis’ visit to the U.S., the Philadelphia Museum of Art in partnership with the Association for Public Art presented the installation of Robert Indiana’s AMOR.

Artwork

The Dream Garden

(1914 – 1915)

by Maxfield Frederick Parrish (1870 - 1966)

Curtis Building lobby (interior), 6th and Walnut Streets, entrance on 6th Street; Hours 7:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m., M–F

The second largest Tiffany mosaic in the world, this mural is composed of hundreds of thousands of glass tesserae in more than 260 color tones, weighing in excess of four tons.

Artwork

Symbiosis

(2011)

by Roxy Paine (b. 1966)

Benjamin Franklin Parkway, 24th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue (Iroquois Park)

Hand-fabricated from thousands of pieces of stainless steel pipe, plate, and rods, Symbiosis is part of Roxy Paine’s “Dendroid” series.

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