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REVIEW: Great sculpture, poorly presented

By Judith Winter

“Grounds for Art - Street Level Sculpture” in downtown Cedar Rapids offers a great free outdoor cultural experience AND grounds for disappointment. The disappointment has absolutely nothing to do with the art.

The great outdoor cultural experience:

There's a nice variety of work on both sides of the river, along the bike trail, and all seem to be handicapped accessible.

Of the 26 pieces, some are so small they're easy to miss - like the etched stepping stones in front of Wells Fargo Bank in the 100 block of First Ave NE. Others, like the rusty “War Dance” at Second Avenue and Second Street SE, the stately “Storm Warning” at 118 Second Ave. SE and the waiting-to-be-embraced “Heart of the Matter” at Third Avenue and Second Street SE have enough aesthetic bulk to readily compete with the downtown architecture.

Easily blending into the environment, “Red Road Home” at 200 First St. SW looks like three giant pods that could have fallen from the overhead trees.

“Prayer Booth” - at first glance it seems to be a phone booth - is tucked away on the back side of the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art where a previous visitor committed the sin of neglecting to put the seat, er, kneeler up, as per the printed directions. Just the thought of a public prayer booth is bound to stir up interesting conversations.

“Umbrella,” behind the Science Station near the river, brings to mind Georges Seurat's painting, “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte.” Wouldn't it be fun to picnic there and reenact a version of the painting?

One of the few not made of metal, “Dichotomous Circle,” made of rope and wood, makes great use of positive and negative space. Half of the circle is empty space, varying lengths of rope comprise the other half.

Now my grounds for disappointment: lack of attention to detail and lack of sensitivity to the art community.

Maps that were in The Gazette (Sunday, May 18) and are available at the Cedar Rapids Convention and Visitors Bureau, 119 First Ave, SE, are not always accurate - I never found a sculpture that was supposed to be at 200 5th Ave. SE.

Why the rush to put outdated photos on the map and Web? This exhibit is up through April 30, 2009. Since one purpose of this exhibit is to promote Cedar Rapids, wait until the pieces are installed here, then photograph them here.

The plaques with each sculpture state only the titles, the artists' names and www.groundsforart.org, so I assumed I could get more artist and sculpture information online. Boy, was I wrong. The sculptures shown there are inaccurate. Some have writing over them so anyone homebound can't get a good look. There is however, extensive information about a planned national media blitz.

For all the visitors downtown Cedar Rapids wants to attract, how about including on the map the locations of nearby eateries and restrooms? This is a good three-hour-plus walking tour.