FYI: Big Orange

Sun Jul 31 15:44:32 UTC 2005

Big Orange, FYI.
--Barry Popik, held prisoner in his girlfriend's apartment without Newspaperarchive and ProQuest (she has a dial-up without Adobe Acrobat).
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(FACTIVA)
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 Article 1

Oranges weighing 90 pounds? It's for the sake of public art

RIVERSIDE
The Big Orange just might become Riverside's new nickname by this time next year.
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The city is one of the latest to join a recent craze in public art and tourism projects: whimsically painted, outsized creatures or objects.
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Chicago started it all in 1999, with its Cows on Parade. Dozens of other cities followed. Los Angeles had a Community of Angels. Boston had a Cavalcade of Cod. Rhode Island had Mr. Potato Heads. Temecula had Painted Ponies.
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Riverside will have the Giant Orange ARTventure.
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Oranges might seem a natural pick for the city, which was once a center of citrus agriculture.
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But some of the people who initially tossed around the idea of a cow-parade-style fundraiser weren't crazy about citrus. The event chairwoman - or grove supervisor, as some are calling her - said she wasn't convinced.
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"I thought a painted orange would look like a beach ball," said Kathy Allavie, a member of the Riverside Art Alliance, the fundraising arm of the Riverside Art Museum.
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But she and the others warmed to the idea of fiberglass fruit after they saw photos of the Big Apple Fest in New York City.
(There was a Big Apple Fest in New York City??--ed., in a moment of sarcasm)
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If giant fruit can make it there, it seems, it can make it anywhere.
(That's bad!--ed.)
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Several businesses have expressed interest in sponsoring oranges, Allavie said. Each sponsor will pay $5,000 to choose a design and have a plaque identifying the business placed under the orange.
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The designs can refer to the nature of the sponsor's business, but can't include a logo or any other overt form of advertising, said Daniel Foster, executive director of the Riverside Art Museum.
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The oranges won't look like beach balls. Each will have a stem and leaves, Allavie said.
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Some prominent artists have shown an interest in the project, Foster said, though he declined to reveal names.
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He expects artists from inside and outside Riverside to compete for the chance to paint an orange.
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"We feel this is very much a regional project and not exclusively a local project," Foster said.
The oranges will be bolted into concrete foundations to prevent theft, Foster said. A clear coating will be applied to guard against graffiti.
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Sponsors can keep their oranges after the exhibit ends, or donate them to be auctioned. Allavie said she expects about half of the oranges to be auctioned.
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Foster said he expects the project to bring in more than $100,000 for the museum.
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More than 100 communities have done some version of Cows on Parade, said Nathan Mason, curator of special projects for the public art program of the city of Chicago. Mason helped organize Cows on Parade, which was based on a similar project in Zurich, Switzerland.
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Mason thinks there is something about cows that makes them especially popular as public art.
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But he said all the projects share the appeal of showing how artists approach the same canvas.
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"They can see how different artists solve a problem - what do you do with a weird white cow?" Mason said.
"Oranges, I think, should be fun, because they're big and round." * * *
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GIANT ORANGE ARTVENTURE
WHAT: 30 fiberglass oranges, each 4 feet in diameter and weighing 90 pounds, painted by artists
WHERE: Scattered around downtown Riverside, from Fifth Street to 14th Street and Market Street to Lime Street
WHEN: Starting late May or early June 2006, and running through September 2006
WHY: To raise money for Riverside Art Museum
PHOTO; Caption: 2004 / THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE / Riverside is following the lead of Temecula's Painted Ponies exhibit with Giant Orange ARTventure, fiberglass oranges that will be painted in various styles.