Gateway West: Pappajohn Sculpture Park

[hawk61401]

I hope Larry Bradshaw doesn't mind me posting the Des Moines Flickr Friend PhotoWalk on here. There are many great shots of the Sculpture Park from great talented photographers. I can see that Larry's photos continually get better and better. His great website has them too. http://www.livingdowntowndesmoines.com/

the PhotoWalk: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1014797@N22/pool/page2/

[Better Life dude]

The photos of the sculpture park at night are AWESOME! Nomade is totally cool, but we would expect that. The two scary/funny guys sculptures are a riot to look at when they are in the same frame. You can see every detail of the artist's thumb marks. The white olive tree is stunning. The whole park takes on a different feel at night.

Thanks Mulder -and the other photographers on the flickr montage. You made my day.

[hawk61401]

This article is two months old but thought I would post if anyone hasn't seen it. The city or the Iowa Division of Tourism could have spent millions of dollars promoting Des Moines, but without the park even millions couldn't have changed the city's image so dramatically. Click on Nomade for the slide show.

DES MOINES—One thing Des Moines, Iowa, can offer that the larger metropolises of New York or London or Paris or even sprawling Berlin can’t is space

http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/32697 ... can-dream/

[Mulder.DSM]

I hope Larry Bradshaw doesn't mind me posting the Des Moines Flickr Friend PhotoWalk on here. There are many great shots of the Sculpture Park from great talented photographers. I can see that Larry's photos continually get better and better. His great website has them too. http://www.livingdowntowndesmoines.com/

the PhotoWalk: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1014797@N22/pool/page2/

Thanks for the compliments! I really do enjoy photography, I just wish I had more free time to do more of it.

PS My blog has been really slow lately in getting new posts up, I just haven't had the time. If anyone knows anyone that would like to write/post for the blog, please let me know: [email protected].

[Ingersoll1978]

The Pappajohn's are donating another fine piece of sculpture to the park. According to the Des Moines Register, it will be an untitled piece by Keith Haring and be placed in beween Nomad and T8 on May 19th. It's a really cool looking piece (and colorful)!

Here's a link to the article:

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/articl ... -sculpture

[dogbo]

Cool. Will be nice to have something in the empty space.

[hawk61401]

The Pappajohn's are donating another fine piece of sculpture to the park. According to the Des Moines Register, it will be an untitled piece by Keith Haring and be placed in beween Nomad and T8 on May 19th. It's a really cool looking piece (and colorful)!

Keith Haring would have turned 52 on May 4th. To the Keith Haring fans in Des Moines ..... Blik, (they are the maker of self-adhesive surface graphics), is honoring Keith Haring's birthday by releasing four new Haring licensed wall graphics: "Untitled Face," "Robot DJ 84," "Untitled Heart" and "Spaceship Pyramid" as part of their line of Haring wall decalia.

here is blik: http://www.whatisblik.com/

explore the line: http://www.whatisblik.com/shop/explore?designer=8

[hawk61401]

How lucky are we in Des Moines?

Grounds For Sculpture is a landscaped sculpture park centrally located in Hamilton, New Jersey, and mid-way between New York City and Philadelphia. http://www.groundsforsculpture.org/index.html

From May 2 - Sept 19, you can see sculptural work of Keith Haring. The prices are:
Adults $12
Students (13+) and Senior (65+) $10
Children (6-12) $8
Members and Children (5 and under) free

In Des Moines, beginning May 19, you can see a work of Keith Haring at the sculpture park for free.

[Philby]

How lucky are we in Des Moines?

Grounds For Sculpture is a landscaped sculpture park centrally located in Hamilton, New Jersey, and mid-way between New York City and Philadelphia. http://www.groundsforsculpture.org/index.html

From May 2 - Sept 19, you can see sculptural work of Keith Haring. The prices are:
Adults $12
Students (13+) and Senior (65+) $10
Children (6-12) $8
Members and Children (5 and under) free

In Des Moines, beginning May 19, you can see a work of Keith Haring at the sculpture park for free.

The prices you listed are for admission to Grounds for Sculpture, which over 10 times the size of our sculpture park here in des moines (35 acres vs. 3-4 and 250 sculptures vs 20ish)....not exactly apples to apples...

Yes it is cool that we have a work by a renowned artist on display for free in DSM, but we're not even the first city in Iowa to be able to make that claim (Iowa City has had an indoor mural of his since '89).

Regardless, this is an awesome addition to the Sculpture Park, and yes DSM is lucky to have the Pappajohns who so selflessly donated their art collection to the city.

[hawk61401]

The prices you listed are for admission to Grounds for Sculpture, which over 10 times the size of our sculpture park here in des moines (35 acres vs. 3-4 and 250 sculptures vs 20ish)....not exactly apples to apples...

Read the post again ..

I wasn't comparing apples, oranges, cherries or bananas. I was comparing the price of seeing a Haring sculpture in New Jersey compared to seeing a Haring sculpture in Des Moines.

[Philby]

Read the post again ..

I wasn't comparing apples, oranges, cherries or bananas. I was comparing the price of seeing a Haring sculpture in New Jersey compared to seeing a Haring sculpture in Des Moines.

No, you were comparing the price of seeing a Haring sculpture at the Grounds for Sculpture park to seeing one at the Pappajohn sculpture park. If someone in New Jersey wanted to see a free Haring they could go to the public sculpture at the Schneider Children's hospital in NYC (or any of the 5 murals in NYC if we're talking about Haring in general not just his sculptures) or if someone from Philly wanted to see a free Haring they could go to either the mural in their hometown or the sculpture in Kutztown, PA (his hometown).

[hawk61401]

Read the post again ..

I wasn't comparing apples, oranges, cherries or bananas. I was comparing the price of seeing a Haring sculpture in New Jersey compared to seeing a Haring sculpture in Des Moines.

No, you were comparing the price of seeing a Haring sculpture at the Grounds for Sculpture park to seeing one at the Pappajohn sculpture park. If someone in New Jersey wanted to see a free Haring they could go to the public sculpture at the Schneider Children's hospital in NYC (or any of the 5 murals in NYC if we're talking about Haring in general not just his sculptures) or if someone from Philly wanted to see a free Haring they could go to either the mural in their hometown or the sculpture in Kutztown, PA (his hometown).

OMG Why are you dissecting and analyzing a simple post to death? My post was simply about two locations in the U.S. , one in Des Moines, one at The Grounds of Sculpture (it's in New Jersey) where the one charged for admission to see a Haring sculpture and the Haring sculpture in Des Moines could be seen for free. You're either an expert on Keith Haring exhibits throughout NYC and Philly, or!, you had too much time on your hands today so you went googling and researched all of that, didn't cha?

[Philby]

Read the post again ..

I wasn't comparing apples, oranges, cherries or bananas. I was comparing the price of seeing a Haring sculpture in New Jersey compared to seeing a Haring sculpture in Des Moines.

No, you were comparing the price of seeing a Haring sculpture at the Grounds for Sculpture park to seeing one at the Pappajohn sculpture park. If someone in New Jersey wanted to see a free Haring they could go to the public sculpture at the Schneider Children's hospital in NYC (or any of the 5 murals in NYC if we're talking about Haring in general not just his sculptures) or if someone from Philly wanted to see a free Haring they could go to either the mural in their hometown or the sculpture in Kutztown, PA (his hometown).

OMG Why are you dissecting and analyzing a simple post to death? My post was simply about two locations in the U.S. , one in Des Moines, one at The Grounds of Sculpture (it's in New Jersey) where the one charged for admission to see a Haring sculpture and the Haring sculpture in Des Moines could be seen for free. You're either an expert on Keith Haring exhibits throughout NYC and Philly, or!, you had too much time on your hands today so you went googling and researched all of that, didn't cha?

I always have too much time on my hands! And yes I did have to google that.

I wasn't trying to dissect your post to death, simply clarifying that Des Moines is hardly the only place someone can see a free Haring, especially not someone from Jersey when Haring has half a dozen free pieces of art across the river in NYC.

I love that DSM has a sculpture park and how that changes outsider's view of the city, but I also don't want to make the park into something it isn't.

This wasn't something that the citizens of DSM thought was important enough to put some public funds towards, this was the decision of a very philanthropic citizen that DSM happened to benefit from (and I suspect his decision was somewhat forced because some of the better off citizens of DSM didn't like the sculptures in their neighborhood). This could have just as easily ended up in Mason City if Poppajohn had decided to start his career back in his hometown instead of DSM. (yes I had to google that too)

Its annoys me that I live in a place that sees so little value in art that when a huge present like this happens to fall in our laps, there were more people upset about losing the greenspace for a 3 day music festival than there were people excited about having a world class sculpture park in our downtown core yearround...

[hawk61401]

Its annoys me that I live in a place that sees so little value in art that when a huge present like this happens to fall in our laps, there were more people upset about losing the greenspace for a 3 day music festival than there were people excited about having a world class sculpture park in our downtown core yearround...

There you go again. Saying something that I have to agree with. Des Moines has it's share of negatory neanderthals. One of their favorite spots to group and spew their trash are the comments section of the DMR. If they had their way, there wouldn't be a beautified Fleur Dr, a riverwalk, WFA, and many other things. Those who do want our city to rise to the next level want it handed to them. There's a WFA because we had some gutsy county supervisors to envision it and a casino to pay for it. If we didn't have The Prinicipal, there wouldn't be a riverwalk. There wouldn't be a civic center if the city leaders had accepted the people's vote. The bond referendum for the civic center was defeated. So yes, many improvements in Des Moines are accidents, not because the citizens put their money and vote on the line for a better Des Moines.

Aaaah, but the upside .... Des Moines websites like this where 763 members have a common bond of wanting the best for their city.

[DMRyan]

I'm still waiting on my landscaping to be placed in this park. Last fall, I noticed a series of small colored flags put all over the sculpture park, which I was optimistically hoping would be marking the location of additional plantings. They were removed this year and nothing has been done to make this park look more complete.

Looks like the foundation for the install of this new piece is well underway and it should be a head turning addition to the sculpture garden. It is nice how this garden was built to accomodate many more sculpture pieces in the future.

[dogbo]

The Pappajohn's are donating another fine piece of sculpture to the park. According to the Des Moines Register, it will be an untitled piece by Keith Haring and be placed in beween Nomad and T8 on May 19th. It's a really cool looking piece (and colorful)!

Keith Haring would have turned 52 on May 4th. To the Keith Haring fans in Des Moines ..... Blik, (they are the maker of self-adhesive surface graphics), is honoring Keith Haring's birthday by releasing four new Haring licensed wall graphics: "Untitled Face," "Robot DJ 84," "Untitled Heart" and "Spaceship Pyramid" as part of their line of Haring wall decalia.

here is blik: http://www.whatisblik.com/

explore the line: http://www.whatisblik.com/shop/explore?designer=8

Here's a DM teacher that may have been such a big Haring fan that it caused her a momentary lack in judgement:

http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/ ... +-+NEWS%29

[CJG]

Here's a DM teacher that may have been such a big Haring fan that it caused her a momentary lack in judgement:

http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/ ... +-+NEWS%29

What a waste of police time, calling them in to investigate an art teacher for showing a video on artwork that is published on youtube.com. IMO, she should be charged with filing a bogus complaint.

If a parent is going to be that puritanical they need to become home-schoolers because their kid is likely to hear a swear word or see a piece of anatomy in a book. Perhaps the mother should take the time to study art and not blush at seeing a breast or a penis. We all have one or the other, right?

I also wonder if the mother has seen the breasts at the art park or on the war memorial at the Capitol complex ... I sure hope she doesn't call the police and have them investigate the Pappajohns for causing her precious little child to see a boob.

[hawk61401]

Excellent points, CJG !

I have posted this picture before on here, and other sites. The anatomically correct naked angel never received any complaints or was asked to be removed in it's 25 years at Merle Hay Mall. In many ways we are more uptight about nudity when the angel was installed (1974) or the War Memorial at the Capitol complex (1894)

If a kid and his mother think a penis is gross, she has and he will have guilt trips about sex and nudity. The alternative: wrap yourself in one huge condom and attempt to insulate yourself from nature and the world.

[DMRyan]

Excellent points, CJG !

I have posted this picture before on here, and other sites. The anatomically correct naked angel never received any complaints or was asked to be removed in it's 25 years at Merle Hay Mall. In many ways we are more uptight about nudity when the angel was installed (1974) or the War Memorial at the Capitol complex (1894)

If a kid and his mother think a penis is gross, she has and he will have guilt trips about sex and nudity. The alternative: wrap yourself in one huge condom and attempt to insulate yourself from nature and the world.

^
I wonder where that sculpture ever ended up? That was always one of the more memorable things to see at Merle Hay Mall when I was growing up.

[hawk61401]

I wonder where that sculpture ever ended up? That was always one of the more memorable things to see at Merle Hay Mall when I was growing up.

I received an email about 3 weeks ago from someone that I would say is a credible source. He said it's at a private residence on Des Moines' east side.

[CJG]

I remember that sculpture as well and didn't know that it had been removed - what a shame. Moreover, I never noticed that the subject was nude. I guess I am more impressed with the beauty of a piece of art than I am immediately drawn to look at the private parts of a human form.

[hawk61401]

Louise Bourgeois known for her giant metal spiders, died today in New York at the age of 98.

What is that spider worth in the Pappajohn Sculpture Park? In 2006, a buyer paid $4 million for an 8-foot spider. In 2008, another spider fetched $4.5 million.

There was that recent ruckus about the Des Moines art teacher who showed a video of Keith Haring's artwork depicting two males. Those who were offended or would have liked the art teacher to have been prosecuted would have probably been more shocked at Louise Bourgeois works of phallic breasts, penises, sex organs, and deformed copulating couples.

We have a world class sculpture park with a fascinating story for each of it's artists. Here's a Louise Bourgeois work ... Please watch the entire video ..

[Ingersoll1978]

Here's a pic of Keith Haring's new piece in the Pappajohn Sculpture Park:

[dogbo]

Those who were offended or would have liked the art teacher to have been prosecuted would have probably been more shocked at Louise Bourgeois works of phallic breasts, penises, sex organs, and deformed copulating couples.

To be fair, IMO it isn't outrageous or out of the norm for people to hold different standards for acceptable artwork for themselves as opposed to their 9 year old children...especially when we're talking about artwork that goes BEYOND the nude form. i.e....several of the previous comments on this thread simply referred to nudity....I don't believe that was the source for the objection by the parent(s) per the one or two clips on the Youtube video that went beyond simple nudity.

All that said, I agree that prosecution of the teacher is totally going overboard and I'm glad it didn't come to that.

[DMRyan]

I wonder if the sculpture park backers will try the Adventureland strategy of rolling out a new piece of sculpture every year to keep the interest there.

I like how colorful the new piece is, but am still waiting on something that incorporates a water feature at garden!

[hawk61401]

In the 10-13-2010 issue of The Architects Newspaper, the sculpture park is spotlighted with The University of Chicago's Light Bridges, and the Chicago Riverwalk into how lighting can transform public spaces into desirable places.

http://www.archpaper.com/e-board_rev.as ... Position=4

[hawk61401]

This is one of those "wow" pictures of the western Gateway at night during the Des Moines Arts Festival:

http://bit.ly/eSArR3

[DMRyan]

Anyone heard anything about this year's sculpture garden addition? I've heard there's a new piece coming sometime this year, to go on the NW corner of the park near the former Blue's on Grand.

[DMRyan]

The next sculpture in the garden will be the 12-foot tall White Ghost, done by Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara. It will be installed on April 14th.

It is shown here on display in NYC.

[dogbo]

I like it! Here's the story from today's Register:

'White Ghost' to join sculpture park
1
0:45 PM, Apr. 1, 2011
Written by
MICHAEL MORAIN

Finally, some good news from Japan: A 12-foot tall sculpture by the Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara will be added to the Pappajohn Sculpture Park in downtown Des Moines.

The fiberglass and steel piece, called "White Ghost," is the latest gift to the Des Moines Art Center from John and Mary Pappajohn, the park's namesakes.

The artist's studio, north of Tokyo, was rattled by last month's earthquake but suffered no serious damage. He created the sculpture for an exhibition at New York's Asia Society, which displayed it with an identical piece on the median in Park Avenue.

Link to full article: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/articl ... |Frontpage