Present times beg the question: why sculpture?

Present times beg the question: why sculpture?

It seems, when one reads letters to the editor in newspapers and elsewhere a great confusion by much of the public about the value of public sculpture. Why spend money on such things. Why do we need this ? Why put it in that place?

I spent a year in Florence Italy. Every time I turned a corner, there was a wonderful piece of public sculpture. The city fathers of Florence in the far distant past, decided that a collection of great sculpture would attract what they needed at the time. the city wanted to attract the best and the brightest minds to the city state, and they knew a beautiful and interesting place to live was what those mind want in their environment. It worked.

The same principal works in contemporary times. Public art enriches, challenges and creates a cultural texture for the community

As a sculptor for the past 35 plus years and the editor of SculpturesPacific magazine, I have had the opportunity to observe reaction to my own and others public art. Challenge is certainly what media love to talk about and there have been some notable failures in public art for a whole variety of reasons. As art is so entirely subjective when viewed by the informed and uniformed many reactions can be anticipated.

An entirely anticipated negative reaction to new public sculpture in our economic climate is, “this money could be spent better elsewhere”. On the face it is a legitimate concern, but upon reflection the argument does not hold water. Budget priories are decided by individuals in committee who have their own personal agendas.

An economic argument for public art has been made and verified solely on attracting money and visitors to the community. dollars spent return far more dollars. Many studies show that the economic benefits from the cultural sector are significant, in fact out performing other investments a community can make. Enriching the life style of citizens with public art makes a notable difference. Just ask those who live in Florence.

Jock Hildebrand has been a working sculptor for more that 40 years and has contributed to public art around the world with his work. Jock is the senior editor and founder of the SculpturesPacific Magazine. He has organized and worked in many international sculpture symposium including the 2002 Okanagan Thompson International Sculpture Symposium which he founded and whose budget was 2.2 million dollars

Sculpture by Jock Hildebrand

SculpturesPacific magazine