1998 SOS! Achievement Award Winners
Choosing the second-annual SOS! Achievement Award winners was difficult indeed. From the pool of 21 high-quality applicants, reviewers selected four first-place winners and nine honorable-mentions. The awards were formally announced in August.
Awards were presented for excellence and innovation in preserving public outdoor sculpture and for generating awareness of the need to preserve these endangered artworks. The first-prize winners received awards of $1,000 each, while each of the nine honorable-mention winners received awards of $500.
First Place
Cultural Affairs Division,
Broward County, Florida
Following an intensive two-year planning effort, the Cultural Affairs Division of Broward County, Florida, implemented a two-percent-for-art ordinance in May of 1995. The ordinance established a permanent maintenance trust fund for Broward’s collection and designated funds for educational outreach. In addition, the new funding source has enabled the Cultural Affairs Division to appraise its collection for insurance purposes and set conservation priorities.
Cambridge Arts Council,
Cambridge, Massachusetts
In 1996, the Cambridge Arts Council (CAC) established a comprehensive treatment and maintenance plan for its entire collection of more than 100 contemporary artworks. It also hired conservation professionals to conduct a full assessment of its collection and to treat those pieces most in need of immediate attention.
Now that the most urgent conservation needs have been met, the council is focusing on ongoing routine maintenance. The Cambridge Arts Council has also stepped up efforts to increase public awareness by annually hiring interns from conservation-training programs to work on the collection and engage the public in dialogue as they work.
Save Our Cemeteries, Inc.,
New Orleans, Louisiana
Save Our Cemeteries, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation, restoration, and increased appreciation of Louisiana’s historic cemeteries, learned last January that funerary sculpture was being stolen from New Orleans cemeteries and sold throughout the nation in antique stores and at flea markets. Outraged, the organization took action.
Save Our Cemeteries initiated a national publicity campaign and a partnership with the New Orleans Police Department, which have since led to the recovery of approximately $1 million in cemetery sculpture. The group commissioned the creation of a database to track every tomb in every cemetery in the state. In addition, the City Council of New Orleans has adopted a resolution to create a Cemetery Preservation Advisory Committee, chaired by Save Our Cemeteries, and amended a city ordinance increasing fines and penalties against thieves caught in the act.
Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum,
Austin, Texas
The Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum partnered with Austin’s Art in Public Places Program in 1997 to launch an expanded SOS!TLC (Tender Loving Care) maintenance training project. Museum docents and 46 Elderhostelers, under the supervision of two professional conservators, cleaned and waxed 54 bronze sculptures by Charles Umlauf. Also participating were 20 city and state maintenance workers charged with caring for Austin’s publicly owned outdoor sculptures. The program was such a success that national Elderhostel will participate in the program again this fall.
Honorable Mentions
San Francisco Art Commission,
San Francisco, California
With funds obtained from a successful public-private partnership, the San Francisco Art Commission hired conservation professionals to assess and treat six of the seven historically and artistically significant monuments located on Market Street, one of the city’s main thoroughfares. The seventh monument, Lotta’s Fountain, which survived the 1906 earthquake and is the oldest in the collection, will undergo conservation treatment this fall.
Department of Cultural Affairs,
Chicago, Illinois
As part of a $10 million effort by the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority to revitalize Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood, known as the “Black Metropolis,” Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs hired a conservator to assess and treat Leonard Crunelle’s Victory Monument (1927), which honors African-American soldiers who died in World War I. The sculpture is among eight structures in this historic community to be designated Chicago Landmarks.
Department of Recreation and Public Property,
Sanford, Maine
In conjunction with Sanford’s Department of Recreation and Public Property, the town’s Planning Office initiated an effort to assess and treat a sculpture of Sanford businessman and benefactor Thomas Goodall (1917) by John Horrigan. The assessment was funded by the William Oscar Emery Trust, while a generous donation from 101-year-old Sanford resident Clifford Holdsworth paid for conservation treatment.
General Federation of Women’s Clubs of Connecticut, Inc., Southington, Connecticut
The Southington chapter of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs of Connecticut, Inc., helped raise awareness in its community by publishing an 81-page self-guided tour book, Southington’s Sculpture and Other Interesting Legacies, in honor of this local club’s 75th anniversary. Over 200 books have been sold and additional copies have been donated to libraries, schools and local government offices.
St. Jude School,
Fort Wayne, Indiana
In 1997, students at St. Jude School in Fort Wayne, Indiana, embarked on a yearlong effort to educate the public about the city’s outdoor sculpture. With the assistance of a $2,000 Historic Preservation Education Grant from Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana and the Indiana Humanities Council, first- through eighth-grade students conducted field and library research to produce a catalog of over 80 sculptures entitled Who Put That There? Outdoor Sculptures of Fort Wayne.
University of Hawaii at Manoa,
Manoa, Hawaii
At the University of Hawaii at Manoa, art instructor Laura Ruby and university public information officer Donn‘ Florence joined forces to research the university’s collection of outdoor sculpture. Although no central office maintained records about these works and their provenance, Ruby and Florence uncovered the title, artist, and acquisition information for more than five dozen pieces. As a result of their efforts, a self-guided tour brochure has been produced to increase public awareness of the collection and to raise funds for conservation treatment.
Maryland Military Monuments
Commission
Since the creation of the Maryland Military Monuments Commission, 70 of the 300 memorials it administers have been treated by conservators with funds obtained from veterans’ organizations, private businesses and individuals. To increase public awareness about these monuments and its preservation efforts, the commission has held rededication ceremonies, produced a videotape and published the Maryland Military Monuments Commission Highway Map. The recent incorporation of the commission’s budget into that of the Secretary of State’s Office has enabled the M.M.M.C. to send out a Request for Proposals for cyclical maintenance of 21 monuments.
Historic Kansas City Foundation’s Adopt-A-Monument Program,
Kansas City, Missouri
Historic Kansas City Foundation’s Adopt-A-Monument Program, in cooperation with P.S. One Red Bridge Elementary School, participated in implementing a yearlong school curriculum to raise awareness about endangered local sculpture. Activities for the students included a mini-workshop conducted by a conservation professional, the production of a calendar of endangered local monuments and fountains, and fund-raising events, including a penny drive, which led to the adoption of the Mary A. Fraser Memorial Fountain (1951), artist unknown, at the Kansas City Zoo.
Forest Hills Educational Trust,
Boston, Massachusetts
After a full assessment of its collection had been completed, Forest Hills Educational Trust in Boston initiated an Adopt-A-Monument program to raise funds for the conservation treatment of its most endangered cemetery sculpture. Since the program began, four sculptures have undergone treatment including Jacob Wirth Monument (1893) and the Randridge Monument (1891), both by Adolph R. Kraus. The Risen Christ (1927) by Anna Colman Ladd and John Reece (1896) by William Ordway Partridge also were treated. Meanwhile, a plan for ongoing maintenance has been put into place and additional educational programs have been created to increase public awareness.
2002 Achievement Award Winners