I’m an unabashed fan of artist Red Grooms — his subway car you can walk through was a favorite of mine as a kid — so I can’t help but like the idea of him designing a giant moving sculpture of pelicans and seagulls that will be activated every time a Florida Marlins player hits a homerun at the team’s new stadium. Even if it will cost a staggering $2.5 million. In public money.
The role, after all, of the Miami-Dade County Art in Public Places Trust is to fund art in public places. The bigger question here would be: Does a baseball stadium, even a publicly owned one, count as a “public place” if you have to buy a Marlins ticket in order to get in?
A baseball stadium absolutely counts as a public place. How is this any different from a museum that receives government funding charging an admission fee to see the art?
Do governments typically give art museums money for their acquisition budgets? If so, and if they don’t demand anything in return (free admission on Tuesdays or what have you), then I think there’s grounds to take issue with that, too.