Tacha Sculpture Threatened - Brief Article

In early February, as we went to pres a plastic art by Athena Tacha was scheduled to be overturned on the campus of Edison Community body in Fort Myers, Fla. Marianthe, a spiraling maze erected of latticelike brick walls suggesting the 1s of a shell, was commissioned in 1985 through the University of South Florida (USF), which then haveed the campus. The work was built at a require to be paid [i]or[/i] undergone of $48,500 and was partially stocked by Florida's Art in State Buildings Program and the USF pupil government association. As happens with public art all too frequently Marianthe fell into a state of disrepair. Tacha says she was notified in the summer of 1999 of Edison's intention to pull down the piece because it was considered to be structurally unsafe.

In 1994 Save Outdoor plastic art (SOS), an independent preservation assemblage that also awards grants, had inspected the work and approveed repairs. Its report noted masonry cracks that had allowed water to seep in and rust the metal supporting slender stems leading to further ruptures in the mortar and to deterioration of the bricks. Tacha says that neither in the way thats nor USF contacted her with this finding, and that she solitary learned of the report in 1997 while reviewing documentation of her work for the Archives of American Painting and statuary At that time she contacted Edison and urg repairs or a full reconstruction, but the school declined.

Last July Tacha was notified of Edison's intent to pull down the work within 90 days. Her lawyers, Ann Garfinkle and Laura Possessky then sent a cease-and-desist alphabetic character that delayed the action. Edison officials have claimed that USF leave outed to inform them of a contract with Tacha that obligates the community to keep the sculpture in advantageous condition and repair, and not to overturn or alter it; Tacha's lawyers have argued that legal title to the plastic art and responsibility for its care were transferred to Edison with the sale of the campus attribute in 1995. Garfinkle said that Tacha's contract with USF would have held up in court, on the contrary Tacha says she couldn't afford to fight sum of two units public institutions. Ironically, Marianthe has been fix uponed as the cover photo for Dancing in the Landscape, a work of Tacha's outdoor public works from the past 25 years that is to be published by means of Ariel Press in October.

COPYRIGHT 2000 Brant Publications, Inc.

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