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The "Houston Framework" planning pack, top, allows public-spirited
Houstonians to think about their city in new ways. Seven Wonders
is the main artwork in Houston's new Sesquicentennial Park.
| Public art is structuring the city's landscape. by Jim Zook "Houston is a city on the verge of becoming," says Jessica Cusick, director of civic art and design for the Cultural Arts Council of Houston/Harris County. "There's a feeling that now is the time to be here." According to her peers in other cities, she may be right. Cusick, a veteran of public art programs in New York and Los Angeles and a self-professed enthusiast for local politics, has recently drawn notices for her work in Houston, particularly for "The Houston Framework," a plan her agency published late last year. The plan was written by a group of designers and residents Cusick assembled to study the city and to figure out how to sell the idea that public art could improve Houston's environment. Using maps, they identified five different ways to think about the region -- "natural systems," "infrastructure," "neighborhoods," "gathering places," and "treasures." They also questioned long-held assumptions about what they considered Houston's neglected assets: Why was the city's network of bayous treated as a bunch of ditches good for nothing but flood control? Why were Houston's neighborhoods periodically overrun to widen freeways? How could the public have influence over public spaces when so many of those spaces were privately owned? Cusick hopes that questions like these will lead to a new era of public art in Houston, and many of her colleagues in cities that are considered public art meccas are optimistic. Barbara Goldstein, public arts manager for the Seattle Arts Commission, calls Cusick's plan brilliant, because it integrates art into the city's growth patterns rather than treating it as piecemeal ornamentation. "It's a rational way to plan for public art. Because Houston is a spread-out city, it's hard to understand," she says. "What's different about this plan is that it acknowledges that there are different ways of structuring the landscape, and it uses public art as a way of guiding people around the city." Despite the acclaim that she has received for the "Framework," Cusick still faces an uphill battle to get public art built in a city -- and a state -- that doesn't care enough to pay for it. Texas ranks next-to-last among the states in per capita support for the arts, and funding has been hard to come by on the city level, too. Last fall, San Antonio's city council revoked a year-old ordinance that set aside 1 percent of the public construction budget to finance works of art. Houston never even had such an ordinance. Public dollars pay Cusick's salary and overhead, but they don't pay for any of the art itself. And while many public art directors in smaller cities have substantial staffs, Cusick, who serves a county of more than 3 million people (one of the largest in the nation), has a staff of two. Even so, she has managed to secure more than $2 million in grants and philanthropic financing for projects now under way. Much of this money is funding projects in Houston's resurgent downtown: decorative bus shelters, sidewalk mosaics in the theater district, and freeway overpass sculptures that will be part of a major infrastructure expansion. Cusick also played a critical role in the completion of long-delayed Sesquicentennial Park, which opened earlier this year along Buffalo Bayou downtown. (The park, commemorating the city's 150th birthday, was officially dedicated this past May -- when Houston turned 162). Guy Hagstette, the architect who designed the park, credits Cusick with saving Sesquicentennial's public art after budget cuts threatened to eliminate it. The main work is a series of seven 70-foot-tall stainless-steel pillars, which feature children's drawings that portray the city's history and enterprise (such as energy, medicine, and agriculture). Other ongoing projects include logos and an interactive video for the city's new Wastewater Operations Treatment Lab, which were designed by a pair of computer artists, and sculpted bicycle bridges that will link stretches of a 1,035-mile bikeway system now under construction. Public and private support for Houston's established arts institutions, like the Menil Collection and the Museum of Fine Arts, has always been strong, but wealthy Houstonians have been less inclined to support art for the public domain. Rick Lowe, the artist who created one of Houston's most famous public artworks, Project Row Houses (22 shotgun houses that serve as a venue for rotating exhibitions), says public art in Houston suffers for this reason. "We do have our private arts supporters who are extremely active," Lowe explains. "Because of this, public entities feel it's less urgent to be involved." The arrival of a new mayor, however, may signal change. Since taking office in January, Mayor Lee Brown has increased funding for the arts, although unfortunately none of the money has been specifically earmarked for Cusick's office or her projects. But Brown has expressed interest in Cusick's efforts, and her admirers believe her political instincts may help her win him over. "So many times, arts advocates want the world to deal with them in art's terms, and the world could care less," says Hagstette. "Jessica has the ability to speak other languages, to figure out other agendas, and to discern how art can fit into them. That's her true talent." |
Keywords:
Jessica Cusick, "The Houston Framework", public art, Houston
