Now here's the offer of a public meeting too good to refuse: today's get-together of the Public Art Committee, which convenes at 4:30 p.m. in the fifth-floor conference room at the Majestic Theatre, nice. (Ooh, note to self: Get David Byrne tickets.) Sounds very artsy: Among the agenda items are three works-in-progress scheduled to make their public debuts in coming months, including sculptor David Newton's recreations of the nine-foot-high Contralto and Countertenor statues set to make their reappearance at Fair Park following their mysterious disappearances long, long ago (though, more than likely, said Louise Elam of the Dallas Park & Recreation Department, the plaster giants "probably just disintegrated due to the temporary nature of the material.") Newton's the same guy who, in 2002, used $66,000 in private donations to recreate Fair Park's adorable "Woofus" statue, which, like Contralto and Countertenor, was originally a Lawrence Tenney Stevens work.
Also on the agenda: Bruce Taylor's seating element installation for Farmers Market. As Taylor wrote on his blog last summer, he's "having fun with some utilitarian pieces now [by] creating two benches for the Dallas Farmers Market area using stainless steel and cast concrete with granite." You can sneak peak this computer-generated rendering. (Though, a question: Is that for sitting or just for looking? Because it looks uncomfy.) The committee will also take a gander at Anitra Blayton's art for the Kidd Springs Recreation Center.