Fort Worth’s public art managers said they are working as best they can to repair two of the city’s sculptures after separate hit-and-run drivers damaged the installations in recent months — but the exact timeline is in the air.
The East Rosedale Monument Project, made from a reimagined vintage bus shell, suffered damage to its front bumper after it was hit in early November. Located on East Rosedale Street in the Historic Southside, the public artwork was created by local artist Christopher Blay to commemorate stories and leaders of the Civil Rights Movement.
Nearby, the Carousel installation central to a roundabout at the intersection of East Rosedale and Mitchell Boulevard was damaged in April. The artwork, which features six stainless steel parrots, lost one of its birds in the collision. The piece was created by North Carolina-based artists Jim Hirschfield and Sonya Ishii.
Carousel, a public art project in Fort Worth’s Polytechnic Heights neighborhood, is under maintenance. One of the artwork’s steel parrots was knocked free when a vehicle collided with the installation in April. (David Moreno | Fort Worth Report) Public art program manager Anne Allen said her team, which works for Arts Fort Worth, is collaborating with the city’s risk management department to determine if there are funds available for the repairs without dipping into their regular maintenance budget.
Arts Fort Worth is the nonprofit contracted by the city to oversee the public art program, which includes more than 160 commissioned, acquired and donated artworks. The public art management team is made up of Allen, Alida Labbe, Adam Neese and Michelle Richardson.
Public art projects are funded through voter-approved bond packages. Fort Worth officials allocate roughly $505,000 annually to the nonprofit for administration of the public art program, which includes ongoing care of the collection.
Labbe said the team has the difficult challenge of balancing the costs of needed annual maintenance — inspections and conservation efforts — and any funds required for “major unexpected expenses” like hit-and-runs.
The Arts Fort Worth team declined to disclose the total cost needed for repairs as the numbers are still being finalized. There is no set deadline for repair of the two artworks, but frequent updates will be posted on the Fort Worth Public Art social media pages, staff said.
“It’s a priority for us, and we’re working just as fast as we can to repair them, wading through a complicated process,” Neese said.
When Blay found out about the damage to his East Rosedale Monument Project, he said he was disappointed that there wasn’t enough information available to learn whether the hit-and-run was accidental or intentional.
“Everyone in the Historic Southside is as disappointed as I am that something so crucial to Fort Worth, and important, has been damaged,” he said. “They are eager to have it immediately repaired.”
The Fort Worth artist is working alongside the public art team to search online and in-person for a similar 1970s bus that can be used for the reconstruction of the project’s front section.
A bus located in New England would require substantial shipping costs, Labbe said. The team is looking to find a vehicle in this region that would be less expensive to source, but will move forward with the first option if nothing else is found, she said.
The Arts Fort Worth staff retrieved the parrot broken from the roundabout Carousel and are keeping it in storage.
Once city funds are found and approved by council members, the public arts team will move forward with contacting construction crews, art conservators and fabricators to make the repairs.
Each public artwork requires specialists to maintain the original design as the pieces were designed to be unique to their site, Neese said.
“A very important part of this process is not only rectifying the materiality of the work, but also the intent of the artists as they integrated that piece into the landscape of their community,” he said.
The Arts Fort Worth team said they are in talks with the city’s Transportation and Public Works Department about installing bollards to prevent future damage around the East Rosedale installation but, to date, nothing is set in stone.
For Blay, the separate hit-and-run incidents serve as opportunities for Fort Worth officials to consider a “rapid response program” to ensure public art projects that are damaged are restored in a timely manner.
“Things like this happen that are beyond everyone’s control, so it’s important to have enough funds in place to immediately address destruction,” he said. “The life of a public artwork doesn’t begin and end at the commission and installation. It is a long-term commitment by a city and by a community.”
Is there a Fort Worth public art project damaged or in need of attention in your neighborhood? Contact program manager Anne Allen at aallen@artsfortworth.org.
David Moreno is the arts and culture reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at david.moreno@fortworthreport.org or @davidmreports.
The Fort Worth Report’s arts and culture coverage is supported in part by the Meta Alice Keith Bratten Foundation and the Virginia Hobbs Charitable Trust. At the Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
