The city is installing new artwork along the downtown waterfront this week, and the artist of the new sculptures is speaking about his work tonight.
Cliff Garten, whose series entitled Aquileans is going up along Juneau’s waterfront, is giving a free presentation at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center. He will discuss his approach, design and conceptual ideas behind the sculptures and interact with curious attendees.
Aquileans, Garten has said, is inspired by Alaska’s landscape and the sculptures combine a whale fluke and an eagle’s wings in flight. Standing 20 feet tall, the sculptures will line the Seawalk from Marine Park to the Mount Roberts Tramway, and the city expects them all to be installed by the end of this week.
Garten’s work stands in public spaces all over the world, and the Americans for the Arts organization recognized his Ethereal Bodies 8 work in San Francisco as one of the best public art projects of 2017.
The sculptures were chosen as part of the City and Borough of Juneau’s 1% for Art program, which requires 1 percent of the city’s funding for cruise ship berth improvements to be spent on artwork. The selection process began in 2014, and a panel chose Garten’s proposal after reviewing 28 applications.
