Fayetteville art to serve as map

Outdoor topographical work will lead to Artosphere event

NWA Democrat-Gazette/DAVID GOTTSCHALK The section of School Avenue Thursday, March 15, 2018, near Dickson Street in Fayetteville. The Walton Arts Center, in collaboration with the city and University of Arkansas, Fayetteville's Community Design Center, has commissioned a topographic map that will go on School Avenue from Dickson to Mountain streets. Environmental artist Stacy Levy of Pennsylvania will create the piece.
NWA Democrat-Gazette/DAVID GOTTSCHALK The section of School Avenue Thursday, March 15, 2018, near Dickson Street in Fayetteville. The Walton Arts Center, in collaboration with the city and University of Arkansas, Fayetteville's Community Design Center, has commissioned a topographic map that will go on School Avenue from Dickson to Mountain streets. Environmental artist Stacy Levy of Pennsylvania will create the piece.

FAYETTEVILLE -- The Walton Arts Center, in collaboration with the city and University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Community Design Center, has commissioned a topographic map that will go on School Avenue from Dickson to Mountain streets.

Artist Stacy Levy of Pennsylvania will create the piece. Levy made the spiral wetland at Lake Fayetteville in 2013, which involved native plants seemingly growing out of the water in a pattern.

Thermoplastic line striping on the street will indicate the topographical contours of the land. Clusters of blue dots at the intersection with Spring Street will show pockets of water that lie underground.

The project serves as part of a $100,000 Our Town grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2013. The grant went toward an arts-integrated streetscape design project for School Avenue.

Construction of the Spring Street Parking Deck and Walton Arts Center expansion, along with coordinating with the artist's schedule, delayed the art project's start.

It's not the first time the Walton Arts Center has helped bring to fruition outdoor art that incorporates its surroundings. Livvy Pierce's installations featuring inspirational phrases crafted in moss popped up last year on buildings and in tucked-away places downtown.

Levy's spiral wetland in 2013 served as part of Artosphere. The topographic map project will as well, leading into the ninth Artosphere festival from June 10-23. The event celebrates the intersection of art, music and nature with various projects, performances and events throughout the region. This year's theme is water.

Levy said she hopes the School Avenue piece will communicate visually what people experience viscerally when walking up and down the street. Numbers will indicate slope on the lines, and a class from the university will develop signs showing passers-by what they're seeing.

"Just because we have streets and grids all over everything doesn't mean that those natural forms of topography have been done away with. They're still there," she said. "I'm trying to bring up that nature underlies the human-made grid of our road system. Nature's still under that grid and makes us tired when we're walking up to the library."

Additionally, the topographic map will serve as a precursor to a planned cultural arts corridor a block away along West Avenue, from the Walton Arts Center down the Razorback Greenway just south of the library. The Walton Family Foundation awarded the city a nearly $1.8 million grant to design the corridor in way that incorporates public art, transportation and entertainment.

Laura Goodwin, vice president of learning and engagement at the Walton Arts Center, said public art projects in general interrupt the trance of everyday life. They don't require a ticket, and anyone can enjoy them, she said.

"It just makes for a richer experience," Goodwin said. "Our community is a big small town. When you think about the scale of our town and the scale of our arts -- we are just so fortunate."

Programming will run in tandem with the art installation. A water pantry will be displayed in the city's parking office at the Spring Street deck. Water collected from city streets will sit in the office's window, showing the deterioration of the water quality over time. Also, a series of guided walks led by Levy and local historian Charlie Alison will include School Avenue. Other walks -- called Jane's Walks after Jane Jacobs, an author who advocated for a sense of community through walking together -- will be part of the larger Artosphere event.

The topographic map bears similarity to the city-sanctioned tactical urbanism projects in recent months, City Engineer Chris Brown said. Those projects, such as the four-way stop at Center Street and Church Avenue and a modified turn at Rock Street and Mill Avenue, allow residents to use impermanent materials to create street features.

The art installation is scheduled to begin in May, with an unveiling in late May or early June, weather permitting.

Metro on 03/20/2018

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