Today it was time to pack up the remnants of the sixteen day arts celebration.
Each year the festival hosts a public art project. This year’s project was called “Taking Flight with the Arts, Create a Bird House. For 25 bucks anyone could pick up a bird house kit from the festival offices and create their own vision of a bird house. The completed bird houses were then put on display and sale, first at the three day Lake Fest and then in the Jim Rouse theatre for the ticketed events.
Amongst the 50 or so bird house entries was this one that I carried back to the festival offices. It was submitted anonymously and it was the only one not given price for purchase. I thought it was a rather poignant statement on the deepening housing crisis in America right now.
2 comments:
I was disappointed with the bird house art theme this year. For some reason it simply didn't grab my imagination like the crabs and fish of Baltimore or horses of Leesburg. The doors were ok last year. In fact there were a couple of simply impressive doors that some lucky individual purchased. Bird house? No I think it's time to go back to the drawing board and find an art work in Howard County to which we can focus the creative talent of our local artists.
I hope the Festival Board will view my comment as constructive criticism.
HH
Anon 8:52 PM,
For two years the public art project for Columbia Festival of Arts was doors. Last year there were so many doors it became a problem. Since the festival has no real permanent exhibit space, the doors had to be constantly moved around. Some of these doors were very heavy. I know this because I had to help move them several times. Many on the board were lobbying for something lighter to replace the doors this year, like perhaps matchbooks. :-)
By the way, if you are still interested in purchasing one of last years doors you can. There are about six of them still stored in the festival offices in Town Center.
In the end they came up with the bird house idea. Considering that this was the first year for the bird houses we got a surprisingly large number of entries so I guess it worked on some level.
The festival welcomes all criticism. It helps us make a better festival in the coming years.
-wb
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