Calling All Artists! Public Art Project at New Maple Leaf Reservoir Park

Seattle's Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, in partnership with Seattle Parks and Recreations and Seattle Public Utilities, issued a call for professional artists to install public art projects at two new parks; one of which is the new Maple Leaf Reservoir Park.  Funded by SPU and the 2008 Parks and Green Spaces Levy 1% For Arts fund, one artist will be selected to collaborate with design consultants and city staff to "create engaging areas or installations that are integrated into the parks' design, enhance the experience  of visiting the parks, and promote discovery or define a space or activity within the park."

The application deadline is 11pm, Thursday, March 11.  Artists whose work addresses environmental sustainability issues and use green design are encouraged to apply.  For more information on the call and application process, go to: http://www.seattle.gov/arts/publicart/calls_for_art.asp#parks.

Last Weekend for Mapplethorpe Polaroids at the Henry

flickr photo by antisocialanimal

Born in Queens, NY in 1946, Robert Mapplethorpe was an American photographer known for his black and white portraits. The Henry Art Gallery has been exhibiting some of his most controversial photographs - his Polaroids:

Robert Mapplethorpe’s sexually explicit photographs of male nudes, produced between the late 1970s and his death in 1989, made him one of the most notorious photographers of the 1980s and a lightning rod for criticism by social and political conservatives. These highly stylized, neoclassically inspired works did not emerge fully formed, however. Mapplethorpe’s mature work was preceded by a largely unknown body of over 1,500 photographs made with Polaroid materials, which spans the six-year period from 1970 to 1975.