Tuesday 13th May 2014
There is a disappointing trend emerging in the American cultural world. Perhaps not surprising in concept, but the numbers are a bit unnerving: only 21% of American adults have visited a gallery or museum in the past year, but over 80% have visited a fast food restaurant over the course of the previous week (though no word as yet about whether or not there is a correlation between the two ;-) ). While it may be easy to decry the loss of American culture, ditching the Whistler for Honey Boo Boo, a project has sprung up in America that seeks to bring artwork by famous American artists back to the forefront of the American landscape, both culturally and literally.
Based off a successful project that took place in the United Kingdom in 2013, the American version is titled 'Art Everywhere US', and aims to place works by prominent American artists on billboards across the nation. The British project replaced 22,000 billboards around the UK with works by British artists, and the American version is ready to top that this summer, with what will be the world's largest outdoor art exhibition, with over 50,000 billboards converted into artistic masterpieces.
Five museums are participating in the project to help raise awareness: LACMA, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Dallas Museum of Art, and the National Gallery of Art have each put forward 20 pieces from their collection for consideration. An online voting poll will determine a final 50 pieces that will be placed all around the country.
"I think part of the idea behind the whole project is to put art in unexpected places and encourage those double-takes," says the CCO of the Whitney Museum of American Art, Jeff Levine, in an interview with Fast Company. "I have this image of driving on Route 66 in a convertible and seeing a Georgia O’Keefe billboard,” he adds. “I think for some of these artists whose work is actually geographically specific, some of the possibilities are really incredible."
Hopefully, it will spur increased interest in the arts, although it's hard to say if the downswing in gallery attendance really marks a decline in interest in art itself, or simply a decline in the interest of visiting a gallery. In an age of choice, the notion of curated content can be a bit off-putting to some, especially those art enthusiasts in younger demographics.
Posted on May 13th 2014 on 08:11pm