Public art in Boston got a boost last week when the mayor’s office announced the nine winners of the city’s first Public Space Invitational. The contest drew 72 entries in three categories: the streetscape, City Hall, and random awesome design (or RAD, for “ideas that defy classification or location”).
What was most cheering — aside from the shot in the arm for Boston’s often moribund public art scene — was the sheer variety of objects and ideas presented. The winners include “Seat Light Control,” which reimagines vertical street light control boxes as attractive public benches; “Portable Reading Room,” which would create a library setting on the Rose Kennedy Greenway; the “Tidraphone,” an interactive tidal vibraphone on the waterfront; “Rhodes,” a life-size live-stream video connecting Boston with another city; and two installations that promise to enliven the gray interior of City Hall, including a 51-foot ceiling sky mural in the building’s lobby. The contest required that all projects fall within a $1,000 to $4,000 construction budget and be implementable within six months.
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The affordability and efficiency of the projects are key. The Public Space Invitational may or may not produce any artistic masterpieces, but with it the Walsh administration has sent a message to the community of artists, designers, and engineers that Boston is a place where creative ideas about our common spaces will be nurtured and rewarded.