Artists outraged by removal of groundbreaking work along Des Moines pond

DES MOINES, Iowa — A Des Moines arts organization is preparing to take down a groundbreaking work of art that sits along a pond in a historic city park, surprising the New York artist who created the work decades ago and leading to a barrage of opposition from other artists and local residents.

The decision to remove the work — a series of walkways, shelters and viewing areas called Greenwood Pond: Double Site, designed by artist Mary Miss — has outraged national arts advocates and surprised local residents, who have grown accustomed to walking through the site stroll. But the Des Moines Art Center, which oversees the artwork, said the mostly wooden structures need repairs costing $2.6 million, and that future maintenance would cost millions more.

Art Center Director Kelly Baum said there is no way to raise enough money to pay for the work, so demolition will begin this spring.

“It’s difficult and it’s challenging and it’s a real shame for me, for the board, for the staff and for the city, and I know it’s for Mary,” Baum said.

The decision has baffled Miss, who saw the permanent exhibition, completed in 1996, as a highlight of her long career as a landscape artist. With land art, the artists create works that use land formations and natural elements such as rocks and plants.

Although demolition seems likely, Ms. said she thinks the work will be saved somehow.

“I’d be shocked if it were just torn out,” Miss said. “It doesn’t deserve it. People don’t deserve this to happen.”

The art center invited Miss, an internationally known landscape artist, to propose a permanent work in the 1980s and she proposed a beloved but dilapidated pond on a hillside from the art center in the 130-year-old Greenwood Park of to renovate the city. The park is sandwiched between some of the capital’s most opulent neighborhoods and is connected to an even larger park and miles of hiking trails.

After discussions with neighbors, art lovers, garden club members and naturalists, Miss Greenwood designed Pond: Double Site on a 2.6-acre strip around the water. Completed over six years, the work immerses people in a wetland with numerous vantage points, from a sunken walkway that brings the water to eye level to an elevated platform that offers stunning views of the pond.

The work gained national acclaim and students of landscape art and architecture now study the site to understand how Miss melded the wooden structures with the natural environment.

The work was constructed with metal mesh, concrete and most visibly treated wood that deteriorated over the years during Iowa’s frigid winters and hot, humid summers. The art center paid for a restoration in 2015, but said that after almost a decade a technical investigation found the work had deteriorated to the point where it was dangerous in places.

Last month the center blocked access to some parts of the work and shortly afterwards informed Ms that it would all be removed.

Miss said the work clearly needs repairs, but she noted that her contract with the art center stated that Greenwood Pond: Double Site was a permanent work, not one that would be torn away after thirty years. She also questioned how the arts center allowed it to deteriorate, what its cost estimate for repairs is and why it is unwilling to launch a fundraising campaign to fund needed repairs.

Miss asked the art center to make public the technical report detailing the problems and repair costs.

Baum said the center will not make its internal documents public.

Numerous artists, organizations and Des Moines residents have joined Miss in demanding that the art center halt its plans to demolish the work. Stephanie Daggett Joiner and her husband, David Joiner, who live about a mile from the pond, have helped organize local opposition to the artwork’s removal, including launching a website.

Daggett Joiner said she would consider the work’s removal a personal loss.

“I think it’s really incredible in the summer, when the flowers are blooming and you have the prairie and the birds. It is a pleasure for many senses,” she said. “It gives you a feeling of peace.”

RJ Tursi, who was at the pond with his two young children, said one of the reasons his family lives in the area is its proximity to the park.

“We see ducks here. They see frogs and turtles, different birds like red-winged blackbirds and mourning doves,” Tursi said. “The idea of ​​a lot of construction coming in and ripping this stuff out is disappointing.”

The Cultural Landscape Foundation, a Washington-based education and advocacy organization, has made preserving Miss Greenwood Pond’s work a priority by educating other artists and seeking media attention. Later this month, the group will host an online program bringing together land artists to discuss the fragility of such works.

Charles A. Birnbaum, president and CEO of the foundation, said the work was a milestone in the land art movement. Most early land performers were men, so Miss’s role in the field was especially notable, Birnbaum said, and makes the potential loss in Des Moines even more troubling.

“What we see is that we have situations where the landscape is malnourished, it’s not taken care of, it’s under-cared for and the landscape itself is blamed for not looking better,” he said.