Sunday, October 26, 2008
'Waterfalls' brought in $69 million for NYC
washingtonpost.com: "Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the public artwork by Olafur Eliasson that put four waterfalls in the East River and New York Harbor brought in an estimated $69 million for New York City, exceeding initial expectations of $55 million. The work drew 1.4 million visitors from June 26 to Oct. 13 to view the installation off Manhattan's East Side."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
Art that helps support the economy and doesn't just drain money? Even though I think the data is a bit skewed, I hope this idea gets perpetuated around the country to further fund arts even in such a difficult time in our economy.
I can't believe I didn't see these this summer -- more over that I didn't know about them. NY seems to have developed a leaning towards these types of installations over the last couple decades. From the plastic bag art to the cows and now huge waterfalls, its good to see NYC bringing in more and larger scale installations. I'm glad that the city was able to recoup the money it put into the project -- especially with the economy being what it is. I can't imagine how much fun it would have been to design the architectural lighting for them!
I think that art that helps the environment and community in a more concrete way than it has in the past is great direction for art to head towards. Its so easy to make a piece of art that while preaching a valid point or idea, it can negatively affect finances or the environment. I think that artists who create art that has a more conrete function are really smart and I hope to see more of them.
I love hearing about stuff like this- because the naysayers to public art always bring up money as a factor to overcome in big installations. Most artists who do this scale of installation are more than prepared to deal with the costs, and it turns out to be a net gain for the city, exactly like the Gates and these Waterfalls.
Really? I saw the waterfalls, they looked unfinished, not fully thought out, and a bit silly. I'm all for public art but I felt this one just fell short. I goes to show you the power of marketing.
This sounded like an incredible project that I would have loved to have been able to see. Unfortunately I was nowhere near NYC this summer, and the TV images were impressive, but didn't nearly do it justice. Let's hope for more interesting projects like this in the future.
It's extremely impressive to see art bring in this much money. It makes me hopeful that this will inspire more artists to bring this type of work to different cities. I am usually one of those people who is skeptical about the money that art installs can bring in, but this type of stuff is making me change my opinion. It appears that some install work can make it, so we should see some more like it in the future.
I always wanted to know where they get their #'s from for this sort of thing. Never was able to find a good answer on how they are able to work up their estimates on monetary influx from a touristy thingy.
I agree with everyone else that it would be pretty awesome if projects like this continue to keep showing up more and more.
Post a Comment