Delray Art, Knowles Park
What do you think of the new piece of "artwork" in Knowles Park? The orange bowl of spaghetti. Its appearance when entering Delray Beach from the south on Federal Hwy appears to be construction debris left on the side of the road from an underground cable laying project. Its striking boldness is an eye sore the way it stands now.

I attended the Arts Council meeting Monday night the 19th to voice my opposition to the color. What I learned was astounding. The Arts Council was budgeted about $160,000 for year 2008 which was last month reduced by the city board by $45,000 due to budget cuts to balance the current year budget. With cash left over from last year, the balance for the council to spend was $129,000. A proposal to purchase this piece of "art" was submitted to the Palm Beach County Board under a matching art fund project and its title from the artist was "Tidal Wave" which was subsequently changed to "surf foam" or something like that by our local board. A New York artist was hired and the piece was purchased and constructed for a cost of $50,000.00 !!!!! 25K from the taxpayers of Delray Beach and 25K from Palm Beach County. Another $3,000 was incurred by Delray Beach for installation so our bill for this monstrocity was $28,000.00.

The color of this $28,000 expenditure was to be "New Holland Red" but the local arts council thought the red was too similar to...get this...the Walgreens sign across the street so they changed it to what they told me was a soothing, fire place oriented orange. When is the last time you saw a fireplace in south florida?? I told them it was DOT orange and was the same color as traffic cones, construction signs, barricades and was just plain unappealing. I thought the color should have been a "Carolina Blue" since the park is on the intracoastal, in a city on the water, it looks like a wave and the artists working title was tidal wave. They thought I had three heads..how could I come up with an idea like that and "question" their "artistic" capabilities. The Chair, Ms Koskoff was congenial and listened to my points and we debated but board member Carolyn Pendleton-Parker wanted to dismiss me as soon as she could. As a Landscape Architech, her arrogance and rudeness was very much in line with what I have experienced in the past when you challenge so-called artists as to their qualifications or interpretations. Their bubble is being encroached upon and they become pompous and pretentious and unable to see what the rest of the "common folk", the taxpayer sees in a piece of art work, an orange pile of road construction debris.

The Arts Council will be holding 2 workshops this week with the artist present to explain the piece in Knowles Park, Thursday May 22nd from 6-8 PM and on Friday May 23rd from 9:30-11:30 AM. If you have any objections to the color of the piece, or the piece itself, please attend one or both of these workshops and vocally express your displeasure. Bring a sign as council members from Delray Beach and Palm Beach County will both be in attendance. Ask them how they can spend $53,000.00 of your tax dollars with ZERO accountability to the public on a bowl of orange spaghetti.