Elaine Maimon On The Power Of Public Art During The Pandemic – Forbes

We are in the era of the open-air museum. Many sculpture parks are seeing a rise in visitors amid the pandemic. In fact, all outdoor attractions where people can safely participate in culture, while social distancing, will be popular in the coming months and years to come.

Just take the Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park at Governors State University in University Park, Illinois, which has seen a spike in visitors over the past year. Visitors have been perusing the sprawling sculpture park with 30 sculptures, from an artwork by Mark Di Suvero called “Yes, for Lady Day,” which was inspired by jazz legend Billie Holiday, to “Phoenix,” an artwork made of steel beams by Latvian artist Edvins Strautmanis.

“The sculpture park is a remarkable public service, it taps into the power of public art and higher education,” said Elaine Maimon, an arts enthusiast, author and the former president of Governors State University.

“To be an educated person, I believe very strongly that you have to be someone who understands what it means to live in the midst of art,” she adds. “You can’t just be someone who moves through the world but one who understands the artistry of the world.”

In fact, this very university was a place for public art, long before it became a learning ground. It all started when Chicago art patron Lew Manilow had a summer house on the site and invited sculptors to visit him. In the 1960s, Di Suvero created his sculpture here and several followed, as Manilow established the sculpture park in 1975, in memory of his father.

It taps into the creativity and imagination we need to get beyond the pandemic and how we will experience culture, going forward.

“We’re going to see a greater integration of outdoor and outdoor culture,” said Maimon. “We’re going to be seeing more destination planning. That’s going to be inevitable. Things like sculpture parks, which are contiguous with universities, are going to be more likely.”

While there are countless sculpture parks across the country—like Storm King Art Center in upstate New York, the Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden in New Orleans and the Tippet Rise Art Center in Fishtail, Montana—several universities across the country have sculpture parks on their grounds, too. They’re free to visit.

“Especially at public universities, we have an obligation to promote public art, it’s part of what our mission is, in terms of educating the general public,” said Maimon.

It isn’t just the visual arts, but the performing arts, music and literature are clearly being affected by the pandemic, too.

“Right now, the need for reform, change and new thinking has been accelerated because of Covid-19,” said Maimon. “We can go in one of two directions: it can lead to paralysis and everyone just freezes in place and does the next easy thing, or it can be a motivation for accelerating the kinds of transformational change that will lead to a better world.”

She adds: “I want to be part of doing the very best I can to have that transformational pathway taken. We’re at a turning point. The difficult transformative pathway is the one to take.”

Her philosophy of ‘living in the midst of art,’ as an art and education advocate, is a learning curve for us all right now—with entertainment, nightlife and cinemas shuttered, we’re forced to explore our own urban and natural environments.

The rise of visiting sculpture parks could teach us to look at things differently after becoming desensitized by our computer screens and smartphones. “From grade school to grad school, one of the most important goals of education is to teach students to see—really see,” said Maimon.

As a former English professor, she would take her students outside of the classroom by organizing trips to art galleries and museums.

“Students who are taught to see will become better scientists, making more astute observations; better accountants, seeing an error that others missed; better civic leaders, seeing solutions that are not obvious,” said Maimon. “Living in the midst of art provides a setting for constant improvement in how we see the world.”

Doing simple things like going on walks to discover new public artworks in our cities could be better for society and keep us sharp and curious.

“Northrop Frye, the literary critic, talks about ‘educating the imagination,’” she said, “which is essential, especially now.”

“We can’t predict the future, we don’t have algorithms for the future, but the people who are going to be successful are the people who know how to use their imagination. The arts are essential to that.”

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