Charlotte's public art program has come a long way since the Public Art Commission - a volunteer body charged with selecting artists for public artworks - was created in 1981.  The Charlotte Convention Center is home to the first public art projects commissioned under the Public Art Commission.  A walking tour organized by the Arts and Science Council focuses on the few blocks surrounding Trade and Tryon Streets.  Of course, the program is not without controversy.  Who can forget the infamous bushes created by Maya Lin (designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial) for the now-demolished Charlotte Coliseum?  For more recent examples, read about the mosaic trash cans - and other projects - discussed in depth here and here. 

So what's the problem?  Well, I think Charlotte is trying too hard.  Bear me out for a minute.  Good art evokes emotion.  You might love it or hate it, but you should feel something.  If you are completely indifferent ... yikes.  Charlotte will never get anything really great if we all have to agree.  I'm not sure that good art can be selected by committee, much less approved by elected officials.  Remember that Van Gogh died penniless.  Even 60 Minute's Andy Rooney "understand[s] perfectly well that good art is always ahead of public taste."  (For the record, Andy doesn't care for modern art in public places.)    

You're probably wondering why I am on this tangent.  I saw this piece in September's Metropolitan Home and fell in love.  I would choose this in a heartbeat for one of Charlotte's buildings currently under construction!   

Isn't this amazing?  As the magazine Home explains, designer Michelle Brand "makes litter glitter.  She painstakingly cuts and shapes delicate flowers by hand from discarded soda bottles and fashions them into crystalline curtains and chandeliers."  This particular design, Cascade, "takes about 600 bottles to produce."  So not only is it fabulous, it's eco-chic as well.  Wow!    Actually, I bet this would look great in the new Ritz-Carlton ... although then you couldn't exactly call it public art!  For more works by Michelle Brand, visit the Lisa Fontanarosa Collection. 

I'm interested to hear what you think.  Controversial or not?  And would it pass the Public Art Commission's muster?      

Photos from the Charlotte Observer and Lisa Fontanarosa