Public Art installed at Gresham Center for the Arts Plaza

Four sculptures, by Seattle based artist Claudia Fitch, were installed at the Gresham Center for the Arts Plaza on Thursday Oct. 21^st. The quartet of forms range in height from 18 to 27 feet in height, and serve as colorful beacons at the plaza’s door step.  The work, which Claudia has named FineTunedTule, is based upon the theme of the four arts – visual art, music, literature and dance and is directly inspired by four formal tools/instruments representative of the arts respectively: the paintbrush, the trumpet, the fountain pen and the tutu.

Claudia writes about the work, “I am fascinated by the finely contoured shapes of all these tools (the tulle construction of the tutu being no less precisely delineated). And, like in the verbal pun of the working title, I saw an opportunity in these tool forms to play with their elegant sculptural shapes in a kind of cross referential way, switching functionality with humor, and punning on their visual similarities and differences.”

A public dedication of the public art sculptures will be held Saturday, October 23^rd, 2010 from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm, with formal presentations to begin at 12 noon. All are invited to attend. The plaza is located at 401 NE 2^nd Street, Downtown Gresham.

Construction of this project, designed by GreenWorks, was completed in June of 2009 and serves as the City of Gresham’s living room, where many public events and performances have already been held. The plaza is the first step in realizing a vision for an arts district centered on the plaza.