| In 1969, Grand Rapids, Michigan dedicated La Grande Vitesse, a gigantic red stabile by Alexander Calder, as the heart of an ambitious urban renewal effort. It was the first public art work funded by the Art in Public Places program at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).;Nearly forty years later, the sculpture's style and spatial impact are now frequently criticized by art historians and public art practitioners. Critics find the style of La Grande Vitesse too safe to provide the kind of challenge today's urban denizens require to break out of their routines and question the quality of public life. Detractors also charge that La Grande Vitesse was imposed on a local space in a top-down, elite-driven process that had little to do with the real lives of the citizens of Grand Rapids. They argue that, at a time when the public sphere is increasingly privatized, commercialized, and fragmented, sculptures like this afford little space for the kinds of citizen interactions that are vital to democratic life. And yet, the work remains very popular in Grand Rapids. It is the centerpiece of an annual arts festival, backdrop for political demonstrations and campaigns, and it acts as a ubiquitous logo adorning myriad civic goods and services. It remains a point of pride and a locus for constant community activity. Its advocates are numerous and enthusiastic.;This dissertation shows how publics have responded to La Grande Vitesse in shifting and dynamic ways over time. It argues that publics are not "stuck with" art works, but use public art in the contemporary moment to produce meaning and express agency. Through such productive viewership, citizens renew public art. They are not passive subjects or "non-art" publics. Rather, they are creative agents who participate in asserting civic meaning. These tactical forms of engagement are visible and important to the public character of public art. This dissertation's examination of surprising, unintended, and changing acts of public art viewership offers a new understanding of public art works and the processes that bring them into being. |
