Public Art in Tempe Lessons by Mary Erickson, Ph.D. with art teachers Nancy Feiring & Roxie May-Thayer

Public artworks are paintings, sculptures, or other artworks that artists make for a particular place where people in the community can see them. Some cities think art is important for everyone so they use tax money to pay for public art.

The Tempe public art program is managed by city of Tempe Cultural Services staff with input from the Tempe Municipal Arts Commission, a 15-member, mayor-appointed advisory board. Projects are funded through city of Tempe Capital Improvement Project Percent for Art funds.

People believe places are special for lots of reasons, for example because of their importance in history or nature. Let us look first at some public artworks inspired by the history of Tempe.

Clarke C. Riedy’s “Charles Trumball Hayden Memorial” is a bronze sculpture of the founding father of Tempe.

Hayden chose the location of his flourmill as he stood on top of a butte, later named for him. He ran a ferry across the river before there were bridges. He was also a judge in the Arizona Territory.

Laurie Lundquist designed the “Hanger Park Art Project” to honor the Hanger family, who developed a thriving dairy business when south Tempe was still farmland. The shade ramadas are in the form of simple clothing items that may have been worn by the farming families.

Seen from above the whimsy and nostalgia of coveralls and dresses are dancing, as they do on clotheslines. Can you see the two flapping pant legs?

Did you know the first date palms imported from the Middle East to the United States came right here to Tempe? They were planted where Arizona Mills Mall stands today.

Joe Tyler’s “Waiting for a Date” transit shelter celebrates that important event in the history of Tempe.

Laurie Nessel designed a window for the Tempe Historical Museum. She used old photographs of important events in the city’s history.

She mixed the photos with clear antique glass, hand blown glass, and stained glass. The flowing blue lines symbolize the Salt River and the brown lines symbolize Hayden Butte.

Another reason that people think particular places are special is because of things in nature. Let us look next at some public artworks inspired by nature in and around Tempe.

Laurie Lundquist shows us local birds and water plants in her “Rio Salado Rest Stop.”

On the back of this bench, she shows the Cooper’s Hawk in flight.

Barbara Grygutis’ “Luminaria” symbolizes the natural environment. Its shape suggests both a bird’s feather and the leaf of a tree.

Jeff Ziscke’s “Shadow Graph Bus Shelter” also uses symbols of nature.

Can you find these symbols? snake sun water desert plant bird storm system

Joe Tyler’s welded steel sculpture on the north bank of Town Lake is called “Populous Freemonti - Tree at the Narrows.” The Freemont cottonwood is a Native Arizona tree.

The names of Adopt-A-Tree donors are cut into the steel leaves.

Sometimes artists use repetition and variation in their artworks.

When artists use the same element (line, shape, color, texture) several times in one artwork, they are using repetition. When they change that element a bit each time they repeat it, they are using variation.

What shapes and colors do you see repeated in this transit shelter by Virginia Senior and Jeff Oesterle?

These photos show how the transit shelter looks from above and in the evening. The shapes are easier to see. The benches have also been replaced.

Meiny Vermaas-van der Heide designed this “Sixth Street Park Earth Quilt” near City Hall.

Even though all the repeated shapes have square corners, they vary in color, height and width.

Michael Maglich Repeated mythical flying creatures in his public artwork by the freeway. It is called “Sirens of the Superstition.” Are all the sirens the same?

Check out these close-up photos. See how the artist varied each siren?

This is a public artwork by Marilyn Zwak called “Tree of Life.” What elements are repeated? How are the repeated elements varied?

Look for even more repetition and variation in these close-ups.

Susan T. Gamble designed a public sculpture called “Greetings from Tempe”. You can sit on it while someone takes your picture. It is jam packed with repetition and variation.

What lines, shapes, colors and textures did the artist repeat and vary on the back and sides?

What repetition and variation can you find in just this one small part of the sculpture? Remember two reasons people can think a place is special? What historical or natural symbols do you see?

Look again at this public artwork and finish this sentence: Susan T. Gambles’s “Greetings from Tempe” is about ….