Before ArtPrize, Grand Rapids had ‘Sculpture Off The Pedestal’
On a sunny day in early June nearly half a century ago, a brightly-colored, unusually shaped work of art was dedicated in downtown Grand Rapids.
Alexander Calder’s orange-red stabile, “La Grande Vitesse,” would become a symbol of Grand Rapids.
Former President Gerald R. Ford — then Congressman Jerry Ford — was instrumental in securing funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, making it the first work of public art in the United States funded by the new agency.
But a group of civic-minded women were just as important to the arrival of Calder’s work. Four years later, those women were back.
“Sculpture Off the Pedestal,” an unprecedented exhibition of 12 large, contemporary, outdoor works of art in public places, opened in September 1973.
Fred A. Myers, then director of the Grand Rapids Art Museum, was in the inspiration, but GRAM’s Women’s Committee made it happen.
“It was a challenging outlet for talented women of various backgrounds,” says Peggy Bransdorfer, a past president of the Women’s Committee who co-chaired Sculpture Off the Pedestal with Connie Oosting and Jerry Hazzard. “They could make use of their considerable skills at a time when it was frowned upon for women with children to work outside the home.”
With a budget of $17,800, including a grant from the NEA, matched with locally raised funds, the committee of some 50 women researched and recommended the artists who would be invited to participate, located sites for the artwork, and set themselves up as liaisons between the artists and local government, business and industry.
Seven works were fabricated in West Michigan under the artists’ supervision. Another five existing works were transmitted from elsewhere to Grand Rapids.
The Grand Rapids Art Museum’s Women’s Committee published a catalog for the show and housed artists in their homes for the exhibition that opened on Sept. 8, 1973.
“These women were so courageous,” says Joseph Becherer, vice president and chief curator of sculpture at Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park. “A project of this scope is absolutely monumental, and it was an extraordinary undertaking.”
In late summer of 1973, the public watched as 12 monumental works of art were erected downtown, bordered by Michigan and Monroe streets and Ottawa and Lyon avenues.
Some were temporary works. Others, such as Clement Meadmore’s “Split Ring,” came to Grand Rapids to stay. For many years it was located inside Woodland Mall in Kentwood. Recently, it was returned to view outdoors at 300 Ottawa Avenue in downtown.
Much like the installation of Calder’s “La Grande Vitesse,” the exhibition was not without controversy.
Many city residents weren’t ready for such an avant-garde exhibition. But the local art community supported the project. So did the business community.
“We knew the local businesses were very receptive, and we got nearly everything donated, including flights on corporate planes to bring the artists to town,” Bransdorfer says.
The exhibition, originally scheduled for three months, was extended for a total of 11 months.
In addition to “Split Ring,” other traces of the landmark exhibition remain in West Michigan.
Sculptor Mark di Suvero’s installation “Are Years What? (for Marianne Moore)” was part of the 1973 exhibition. Today, it’s in the collection of the Hirshhorn Museum and on display in its Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. But a later work, “Motu Viget,” popularly known as the “Di Suvero Swing,” resides on the grounds of the Gerald R. Ford Federal Building. “Untitled” by Dale Eldred can be found on the main campus of Grand Valley State University in Allendale.
Grand Rapids Project “X” by Robert Morris in Lookout Park, which prevents the hillside from eroding and provides a path that connects the top of the hill with recreational facilities below, remains as a permanent reminder of the show.
Years before the opening of Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, which made West Michigan a destination to see outdoor art, and decades before the launch of ArtPrize, which turned downtown into a sculpture gallery, “Sculpture Off the Pedestal” accomplished both.
“The Calder was the start of bringing contemporary sculpture into downtown Grand Rapids, and ‘Sculpture Off the Pedestal’ got the momentum going,” says organizer Mary Ann Keeler. “It’s amazing how one thing leads to another.”
