The Athens-Clarke County Cultural Affairs Commission has picked a colorful hanging sculpture of metal rods and fabric-like panels to help fill the huge atrium of the expanded Classic Center. The expansion could be completed in February. The 65-foot-wide abstract sculpture—”Ladder and Nest,” by St. Louis designer Maureen Kelly—was chosen from 39 proposals, including paintings, murals, wood and metal sculpture and projection art. A lot of it was “fine work,” cultural affairs chairwoman Marilyn Wolf-Ragatz told Flagpole, but not necessarily suited to the space.
“Ladder and Nest” will be lit internally with programmable LEDs, and will be visible from outside the building through a large window as well as inside. “This piece will keep that space from feeling cavernous,” Wolf-Ragatz told ACC commissioners at last week’s work session.  Â
Kelly’s fabric-and-metal designs tend towards the whimsical, and they hang in various commercial buildings in the U.S., including the Hilton San Diego and New York Botanical Garden. She often uses stainless-steel fabric; one plus for her proposal was that it will require little more than a yearly dusting to maintain. The work is budgeted at $150,000.
Commissioners now routinely consider including public art when the county builds new buildings; spending up to 1 percent of construction budgets is a rule of thumb. Including art in the new jail was considered a bridge too far for most commissioners, but no one balked at the hanging for the Classic Center. The Cultural Affairs Commission will also help choose designs for murals at the renovated Rocksprings pool—perhaps designed by children at the adjacent community center—and along Baxter street in front of the library. In addition, “they have a lot of local art work and children’s’ work that will be hanging inside” the library, Wolf-Ragatz said.Â
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