Portsmouth, for all its indoor arts, has few outdoor public sculptures. Art-Speak, a city-sponsored group decided to do something about that. Each summer they sponsor a fresh collection by local artists. See this year’s group below.
Six Outdoor Installations in Downtown Portsmouth
If you are reading this during the summer of 2008, you can still catch these temporary art installations sponsored by Art-Speak. Walking among the six sculptures is good exercise, or take bikes as we did. The outdoors is the gallery and historic Portsmouth is the setting. Neatly printed labels direct visitors around town starting with the giant ant next to the Portsmouth "Ant-theneaum". Assembled from found objects, the ant temporary lost his head in the hands of a vandal, stirring up controversy. But there was much more to be seen including giant bookmarks and two solar-powered sculptures along the waterfront.
If their time has passed, this brief gallery below will show you what you missed. Then click to the Art-Speak web site to see what is happening for next year’s Overnight Art exhibit and others.
VISIT ARt-SPEAK official web site for updates
Here is an overview of this year’s installations as seen below:
Roger Goldenberg’s Bookmarks for the Big Reader at the Portsmouth Public Library on Parrott Avenue
Jeanne Givens History in Liquid Motion at the Memorial Bridge Park
Jamie Calderwood’s Inside/Out sculpture at the alley next to 16 Congress Street
Susan Schwake’s Dialog banner at the Hanover Street Parking Garage
Jason Probert’s Umwelt Bench #5 in Prescott Park
Nathan Walker’s Giant Ant in the flower bed in Market Square
(c) SeacoastNH.com. All photos by J. Dennis Robinson.
FROM ART-SPEAK:
Overnight Art is a public art competition resulting in a summer-long scattered site exhibit of outdoor art in downtown Portsmouth. The project is intended to showcase the talents of artists working in the seacoast area, and also to highlight the important role public art plays in our communities by enhancing our environment, sparking our imaginations, generating conversation, and stimulating our minds. Please join us in celebrating the outstanding talent and creativity of our local artists.
