Last month, as part of the US State Department's Funded Voluntary Visitor Programme, Deborah McCormick, Director of the Art & Industry Biennial Trust and Chair, Lady Adrienne Stewart traveled to Los Angeles, Seattle, New York and Philadelphia on a fact finding mission to gain insight into American public and visual art programmes and to foster Pacific Rim cultural networks between New Zealand and the US.

Images: The Gates by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, 1979-2005 Central Park New York City.
Last month, as part of the US State Department's Funded Voluntary Visitor Programme, Deborah McCormick, Director of the Art & Industry Biennial Trust and Chair, Lady Adrienne Stewart traveled to Los Angeles, Seattle, New York and Philadelphia on a fact finding mission to gain insight into American public and visual art programmes and to foster Pacific Rim cultural networks between New Zealand and the US.

Images: The Gates by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, 1979-2005 Central Park New York City.
The cities outlined below offer much to consider in terms of models that might be used to augment public and visual arts programmes in Christchurch (and New Zealand), especially in positioning New Zealand (to the international market) as a cultural tourism destination. The 'percent for art' model seen in Seattle is a particularly captivating way of invigorating and increasing civic involvement in our built environment while the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority Public Art Program (Metro), employs an initiative which could easily be embraced by New Zealand's progressive developers and civic planners.

The Art & Industry Biennial Trust have been developing similar public-private funding alliances to those in the US with the SCAPE Art & Industry Urban Arts Biennials (SCAPE Biennial). As New Zealanders we are fortunate to have a country that embraces art and cultural development (here and offshore), with a significant number of our leading visual artists already exhibiting and living overseas. We also have an extremely positive image in America, culturally and artistically as well as being a 'clean green' tourist destination placing us in an excellent position to develop and enhance cultural partnerships.

In addition to Not A Cornfield, an impressive temporary public sculpture which transformed an industrial brownfield in the historic centre of Los Angeles into a cornfield Deborah and Adrienne met with the Metropolitan Transit Authority Public Art Program (Metro), which commissions artists to incorporate art into a wide array of transport projects. Established in 1989, they have commissioned over 250 artist projects partly resourced through a state incentive to allocate 0.5% of rail construction costs to the creation of original art works.

In Seattle, Christchurch's Sister City, one of the main drivers for public art is the Mayor's Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs. Their commissioning model was one of the United States' first major initiatives to recognise the role of the arts in the urban fabric, adopting a 'Percent for Art Ordinance' in 1973, a move which embraced the role of artists in civic life, mandating the inclusion of artworks in public works construction and other public places funded through "one percent for art" from public works improvements. They also visited the Seattle Art Museum (SAM), which incorporates the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle Asian Art Museum and the Olympic Sculpture Park (OSP). OSP, which is scheduled to open next year, will transform a large undeveloped waterfront property in downtown Seattle into a unique melding of green space, urban planning and public art.

In New York their was an opportunity to meet with the commissioner for the City of New York Parks and Recreation Department who was fundamental in the planning of Christo and Jeanne Claude's, The Gates. This temporary installation relied heavily on civic cooperation and community brokering, taking over Central Park for sixteen days at the beginning February 2005. Traditionally New York's slowest tourist season, The February Gates exhibition radically affected visitor numbers, attracting over 4 million people to Central Park alone and securing an additional half a billion tourist dollars for the city. They also met with the Public Art Fund, whose operational model mirrors Art & Industry's. The Fund are New York's leading presenter of artists' projects, new commissions, and exhibitions in public spaces and have been committed to working with emerging and established artists for over 25 years to produce innovative exhibitions of contemporary art for neighborhoods throughout New York City. Like Art & Industry the Fund brings artworks outside the traditional context of museums and galleries, provides increased access to contemporary art - and affords artists new opportunities to extend their practice. This meeting provided an excellent resource of professional American artists working in public art. It also demonstrated the level of excellence present within the US public arts world and how, through the hosting and presentation of US artists and practitioners, they may enrich our own arts sector.

At the Philadelphia Art Museum the organisation recognised that traditional museum spaces are often inaccessible to the public and are developing a new contemporary space to meet a changing, and more demanding audience. This movement towards embracing new exhibition models and non-traditional artforms was also evident at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Their contemporary curator encourages project-based work which recognises and comments on America's artistic history, (as well as the Academy's collection) in a manner which embraces current practice and new methodologies.

The excellent compilation of galleries, museums, institutions and organisations visited during the tour revealed that it is possible for a country to take full control of its (cultural) identity and make a mark on the international urban/cultural spotlight through its own effort, vision and determination.

Cross-cultural exchange opportunities between the US and New Zealand are very promising and Deborah and the Trust will build on the relationships forged during the trip to enrich Christchurch city's cultural identity through the work of Art & Industry and its SCAPE Biennial programme.

Art & Industry's fourth SCAPE Biennial 06 (SB06) will run for a 6-week period from 22 September 2006. For further details or to be added to the Art & Industry Database please contact Programme Manager Emma Velde or visit the Art & Industry Website.