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October Issue 2004

Charlotte Area Transit System Announces Artists Who will Create Works for South Corridor Light Rail System with Exhibition

The Charlotte Area Transit System's Art-in-Transit Program announces the commissioning of 19 artists to create public art for its South Corridor Light Rail Project. To attract qualified local and non-local artists, CATS issued a nationwide Call to Artists. A panel of art professionals was appointed by the CATS Art Advisory Committee to select artists from this call for the South Corridor. The panelists attended station art community meetings with business owners and residents in neighborhoods corresponding to the proposed station areas prior to the selection of the artists.

In Nov, 2003, the selection panel convened to review slide submissions from over 300 artists. Based on artistic excellence, seventeen artists were chosen to create art for multiple opportunities as identified by the two design team artists in the CATS Public Master Art Plan. The CATS Art-in-Transit Advisory Committee approved the diverse group of artists from different parts of the country.

"The panelists selected a diverse group of artists from across the country who will be instrumental in creating art in Charlotte that will be responsive to the past, present or future of the communities near the stations," said CATS Art-In-Transit Program Manager Pallas Lombardi.

Artists from the Carolinas are Thomas Sayre, Hoss Haley, Tom Thoune and Shaun Cassidy; from the South are Yuriko Yamaguchi, Nitin Jayaswal, Leticia Huerta, Roberto Behar and Rosario Marquardt; from the North are Dennis Oppenheim, Jody Pinto, R. M. Fischer, Andrew Leicester and Nancy Blum; and from the West Coast, Carl Cheng and Richard Elliott.

Ed Carpenter, an artist working with light and glass from Portland, OR, was selected earlier to create art for the new South Boulevard Rail Facility, bringing the total number of South Corridor artists now to nineteen.

Five of the artists will have an impact on the south side of Charlotte by creating large-scale natural phenomena markers. Dennis Oppenheim of New York City brings to the project years of experience in public art. He has had solo exhibitions in most major museums in cities throughout the world. Oppenheim will create work for the Tyvola Plaza site at the Tyvola Road Station and will also address 7th Street Station in Uptown Charlotte.

New York public artist R. M. Fischer will make a new landmark from an old one near the Scaleybark Road Station. He will apply his skill to the old "QP" (Queen Park) Tower located in the former Queen Park Cinema parking lot at Scaleybark Road. He believes the 1950's tower represents the "cultural matrix of Charlotte's urban development." Fischer intends to make sure it continues to resonate as a symbol for the area. He has also been commissioned to design and construct a clock for the exterior of the CATS South Tryon Bus Facility.

Carl Cheng, a public artist from Santa Monica, CA, will create a marker at the Woodlawn Station along Old Pineville Road. Cheng, who was trained in industrial design, will bring to bear his thirty-five years of experience working in natural phenomena.

Washington state artist, Richard Elliott, is noted for his use of color and reflected light. He was asked to create a Natural Phenomena Marker for the Archdale Station. He plans to apply a pattern of colored acrylic reflectors that will respond to light to the elevator tower at the elevated platform there. The marker for the Arrowood Station will be created by artist Nitin Jayaswal of Gainsville, FL. He studied fine arts and has his masters in architecture. Jayaswal and the other artists will spend time researching the history and culture of the south corridor communities and the region.

Leticia Huerta, from Helotes, TX, was selected to design elements of the eleven southernmost stations. Huerta will base her designs for platform paving, column cladding and windscreens on textile patterns. She designed platform paving and column cladding for the Dallas Area Rapid Transit art program.

Nancy Blum's art has incorporated the delicacy of flowers into cast iron in her City of Seattle's manhole covers. She will design and fabricate drinking fountain bowls for the water fountains at each station platform. Blum lives and works in New York City.

Sculptor Shaun Cassidy, currently lives and teaches in Rock Hill, SC. He is one of three sculptors contracted to create small metal sculptures for installation at station platform areas. He is considering affecting track fencing between the double platforms.

Asheville sculptor Hoss Haley, whose metal work is a part of the Mint Museum of Craft + Design's collection, will create small metal sculptures at the Trade Street, Carson Boulevard, New Bern, Tyvola Road and Sharon Road West Stations. Haley has been an artist-in-residence at Penland School for Arts and Crafts for several consecutive years.

Japanese-born Yuriko Yamaguchi, who lives and teaches outside of Washington, DC, was also selected to produce small-scale sculpture for five stations. Her public work can be seen at Hart International Airport in Atlanta. During Yuriko's initial visit to Charlotte, she learned about area history from Dr. Tom Hanchett at the Levine Museum of the New South. Yamaguchi also did research at the Carolina Room of the Mecklenburg Public Library and visited elementary schools in the south corridor.

Argentine natives, Roberto Behar and Rosario Marquardt reside in Miami Beach and are known for their monumental and whimsical architectural creations in Miami. They will study the Archdale Drive Light Rail Station area and propose art for that environment.

New York artist, Jody Pinto, who has successfully completed many collaborative public art sitework projects in various cities, will address the Uptown station area at 3rd Street. Pinto is known for her brilliant use of lighting in her works.

Thomas Sayre, of Raleigh, is incorporating sculptural art into the long Scaleybark Median Strip Landscape. Sayre is experienced in North Carolina public art, having created site work in Charlotte as well as for the Exploris Children's Museum in Raleigh.

Charlottean Tom Thoune will create a wall frieze at the East-West Station in the South End. Thoune's mosaic on Tryon Street at Spirit Square is familiar to the local public.

The South Corridor loosely follows South Boulevard from I - 485 to Uptown, and is the first of five transit corridors CATS is developing. One percent of the design and construction budget is dedicated to the integration of public art into the corridor at stations, maintenance facilities, and other passenger amenities, in accordance with FTA guidelines. The incorporation of public art is intended to enhance the transit experience for both riders and non-riders throughout the region.

CATS invites the public to an exhibition of the South Corridor Light Rail Project to view the public art proposals. The exhibit, My Place, My Choice, My Ride, My Story, will be on view through Oct. 23, 2004, at the Middleton-McMillan Gallery, located in Spirit Square in Charlotte.

Artists with works and study materials on exhibit includes: Thomas Sayre, Tom Thoune, Hoss Haley, Shaun Cassidy, Alice Adams, Ed Carpenter, R.M. Fischer, Carl Cheng, Dennis Oppenheim, Richard Elliott, Nitin Jayaswal, Leticia Huerta, Nancy Blum, Yuriko Yamaguchi, Roberto Behar, Rosario Marquardt, Jody Pinto, and Andrew Leicester.

CATS will also conduct an artist forum at Spirit Square from 6-7:30pm on Oct. 13, 2004.

CATS encourages all professional artists from any locale who have been involved in public art, public art-in-transit, the visual arts, as well as professional artists who are just becoming interested in public art, to submit current slides and materials listed on our website to be considered for the CATS' Art-in-Transit program. The selection process is ongoing.

For more information on CATS' Art-In-Transit program, visit us on the web at (www.ridetransit.org).


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