Behind the scenes: developing a piece of public art

Visitors to the Johnson Heritage Post (JHP) Art Gallery will soon be greeted by a piece of public art as they approach the gallery.

Gallery Manager Aliya Marxen told WTIP that the project is several years in the making, and was originally planned as a mosaic inlay for the walkway leading to the gallery front doors. She said that the plan changed due to the impracticality of maintaining a mosaic through North Shore winters, and that the new plan is a sculpture made of granite.

Marxen said that the Cook County Historical Society, which the gallery is part of, received artist proposals from about a dozen artists, and ultimately chose Maeve Gathje for the piece.

Gathje is a Minnesota-based artist with ties to the North Shore. She has worked on several large public art pieces across the state, in several media. In an interview with WTIP, she said, “I really think public art has an ability to capture the landscape it’s in, the people. So a lot of what I try to do in my own art, my own public art practice, is to make an object that kind of can sing with the place it’s placed.”

As part of the planning process, Marxen conducted a survey through the JHP, gathering information from the community about what they value in the area. She said that the public involvement element was important to both the JHP and Gathje. Marxen said, “Well, one of the reasons that we were really drawn to Gathje’s Request for Qualifications is because they really spoke about how important it is to interface with the community when doing a community piece of art.”

The piece will be comprised of thee large blocks of granite. Gathje plans to polish the smooth surfaces to a mirror shine, then cut images into the surface that represent elements of the area and community.

In March, Gathje used cardboard mock-ups of the stones to try out different arrangements in front of the JHP. Gathje was able to select the stones she will use for the sculpture, and has received the survey responses. After a couple of weeks on the North Shore, she said that she was ready to head back to her workshop and finalize her plans.

Gathje said, “Stone is such an permanent medium. Like, when I touch it, it is there forever. Like whatever I do to it.  A lot of the way I work is intuitive, so I’ll pace around them, I sort of trace the faces I’m going to put these images on. So by this point, I know what parts of the rocks I’m going to polish to a smooth face. And I can start to plan out the actual imagery that will go on the surface. But with this medium, I like to live with it for a while.”

Gathje gets a feel for one of the stones she will use in the sculpture

WTIP’s Kirsten Wisniewski spoke with Johnson Heritage Post Art Gallery Manager Aliya Marxen, and artist Maeve Gathje, about the public art piece that will be installed this summer. Audio from those interviews is below.

Kirsten Wisniewski April 25, 2024