Public Art at the Tempe Center for the Arts Lessons by Mary Erickson, Ph.D. with art teachers Nancy Feiring & Roxie May-Thayer

Five public art works are installed at the Tempe Center for the Arts.

Artists made five artworks especially for particular locations at the Center.

As visitors enter the Center, they might miss the first public artwork if they are not paying attention. It is in the pyramidal marquee over the entrance.

Ned Kahn’s “Mare Undarum - Sea of Waves” is made from corrugated sheet metal and eight thousand clear marbles.

Kahn makes artworks that “reveal forces in the environment by converting them to natural patterns.” Look straight up into the pyramid and you will see tiny mirrors dangling in the wind.

As the mirrors move, they reflect sunlight onto the marbles and make them “blink.” Sometimes they make little light spots on the cement below your feet.

As soon as visitors enter the Center, another public artwork stretches out before them, under their feet.

Ramona Sakiestewa’s “Aqua Corriente” (Running Water) is the carpet in the lobby. Born of Hopi ancestry and raised in the American Southwest, she taught herself to weave with prehistoric pueblo techniques.

Sakiestewa based the design for the carpet on a watercolor painting.

Sakiestewa says “the patterns in the carpet are meant to ebb and flow around the architectural volumes of the interior spaces.”

The third public artwork visitors see is set right into the window wall across from the “Theater” and “Studio.”

Mayme Kratz and Mark Ryan’s “trueNorth” is made of concrete, resin, stainless steel and fire. It is a campfire on the edge of water inspired by the Native American legend of the “Great Spirit.”

The Great Spirit assigned one of the four elements (earth, wind, water, and fire) to each of the coordinate directions. “To North, the Great Spirit gave Fire.” The fires in “trueNorth” are lit at night and for special occasions.

When you look out through the narrow window in “trueNorth” you are looking due north.

The artists embedded small “treasures” from the building site in the resin rods.

From the “trueNorth” campfire, visitors need only turn to the east to see the fourth public artwork at the Tempe Center for the Arts.

Ned Kahn designed the reflecting pool and the wall of mirrors inside the window of “Lakeside.” This work is also called “Mare Undarum – Sea of Waves.”

Wave generators create random circular ripples like huge raindrops.

The mirrors break up the reflection of the pool as if it were digitized into pixels.

Kahn says “I was inspired by the image of rain in the desert or the discovery of a pool, hidden in the rocks of a seemingly dry stream with ripples of light reflecting onto the stone above.”

The fifth public artwork at the Tempe Center for the Arts is in the Sculpture Garden, which visitors can reach by walking through the “Gallery.”

Brower Hatcher’s “Aurora” is made of glass, stainless steel, river stone and lighting.

The sculpture features a semi-circular canopy composed of five interlocking leaf forms which are inspired from desert seed pods.

Hatcher says his “work reflects an ongoing interest in the underlying geometry of organisms and living systems.”

The public artworks are transformed as day turns to night.

Come again and again to experience the Center at different times and seasons.