Public Art Program Responds to Unexpected Surprises and Learnings

If you install a couple hundred works of art in public spaces indoors and outdoors over 40 years, which is what the Cambridge Arts Public Art Program has done, you need a knowledgeable team to address these impacts in every case. You need to be ready for unanticipated surprises and continuous learning.

Thanks to the City’s Percent-for-Art Ordinance of 1979, the people of Cambridge own an impressive Public Art Collection that brings art into daily life for all. Our Collections Care Program not only takes care of an artwork after it is installed but works throughout the design phase so that decisions about materials and methods best serve our ability to care for the collection. Meanwhile, the science of materials and technologies keeps changing and artists continue to expand their interpretations of the public realm, offering new prompts for our imagination.

After receiving a message from the Department of Public Works that a truck accidentally struck a sculptural bench at David Nunes Park, we set about working with the artist, Vivian Beer, to repair the damage to “Thunderhead.” As we were inspecting the sculpture’s needs, we realized that there was additional damage: scratches and cracks caused by repeated skateboarding activity.

Vivian decided to cut the sculpture in half to fit it on her truck and take it back to her studio in New Hampshire, where she set about restoring the broken and bent steel. We decided to replace the legs with a thicker gauge stainless steel to prevent continued deformation from skateboarding activity. Vivian also re-sandblasted the entire sculpture to remove marks of wear and tear born over the years since its 2012 installation. Shout-out to our colleagues in the Department of Public Works for assistance through deinstallation and reinstallation.