HISTORY:
Temporary artistic installation have been demonstrated to provide the opportunity for creative place making while helping inspire and providing perspective no matter what the subject at hand.
Art in Public Places ("AiPP") is a robust City of Miami Beach program for curating and commissioning permanent public art. The program, created in 1984, allocates funds from City construction projects and joint private/public projects for artworks commissioned by the City of Miami Beach’s public art program that add value to the art collection, attract international attention, and celebrate the diversity and heritage of Miami Beach. Recent examples of this include the permanent installation in Soundscape Park and the Franz Ackerman mural on the southeast corner of the new MBCC.
Non-construction related art and temporary installations of public art are not mentioned in the AiPP ordinance. Recently, for example, on December 18, 2018, AiPP unanimously motioned to decline to issue a Call to Artist for a temporary art installation on the 41st Street corridor. AiPP specifically encouraged the City to explore the use of marketing and creative agencies to identify potential locations and source temporary artistic elements that could stimulate social media engagement and pedestrian traffic.
Temporary art installations, such as Giralda Plaza's Umbrella Sky and Sunlit Sky in Coral Gables, curated by the Portugal-based creative agency Sextafeira, have driven economic development in the area and generated an estimated revenue of $238,958 for a 10 week installation at a cost of just over $100,000 for each installation.
Accordingly, staff is exploring the acquisition of temporary art installations, that can for short periods of time, educate and inspire our community and our guests. Through the use of Request for Letters of Intent ("RFLI"), staff would like to solicit multi-disciplinary creative, graphic design, and/or digital communications agencies to develop, implement and curate a potential temporary art strategy that can stimulate our local business corridors, increase pedestrian traffic and engage and transform our community.
There is no true way to find the value of temporary public art, as there are no real ways to measure inspiration or insight that any public artwork may help inspire. Temporary public art is there to be experienced, and the beauty of art is that if a hundred people all see the same artwork, there could be a hundred different ideas and interpretations of the same work. It is important when gauging a value of a temporary artwork to take in account the effect it has on the community it is in and how members of the community view the artwork; this is the best way to find the value of a specific piece of temporary artwork in a community.
Temporary public art can offer social and physical benefits. Depending on its size, temporary art can act as an impromptu meeting place or local hangout. Sometimes the artwork can also shine a light onto a particular event rooted deep within the community, acting as a talking point for an important social conversation for the community. Temporary art can also be a sign of maturation and identity within a community. Permanent public art, selected by AiPP, is available in Miami Beach and can be seen every day; whether it be a memorial, statue, fountain or picture, public art surrounds and enlivens the City we live in. It is an effective showcase for our artists and a way to tell our story to our residents and visitors. However, temporary public art can also play a distinguishing role in our City’s history and culture. It can reflect and reveal our neighborhoods, enhances meaning in our public spaces, and adds uniqueness to our community. It can provide an intersection between past, present, and future; between disciplines and ideas. Temporary public art can matter because our communities gains cultural, social, and economic value through such art.
When reflecting on how the City of Miami Beach can become an art and culture leader in the region, state, country and globally, the staff would thinks it is prudent to explore availability of temporary artistic installations locally, regionally and globally and whether and where the City can temporarily engage, attract, retain and inspire our residents, guests and tourist alike and reenergize our business corridors and neighborhoods.
Using the Coral Gables temporary art installations as a model, with a budget of $300,000, the City of Miami Beach could explore one activation in a high traffic area (Lummus Park, Collins Park or Ocean Terrace) and one in a corridor in need of stimulation (41st Street or Rue Vendome) to test the appetite of Miami Beach residents and tourists to temporary art installations and its impact on the surrounding communities.