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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
SCOTTSDALE PROGRESS | WWW.SCOTTSDALE.ORG | SEPTEMBER 13, 2020
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Local artist’s work garners international honors BY KRISTINE CANNON Progress Staff Writer
O
ne year ago, Mustang Library became home to 20 small, bronze sculptures of finches reading pages from published books. The public arts project was installed around the library and the adjacent Mustang Transit Center near the roundabout on 90th Street. Since then, “Birdie Umwelt,” created by local artist Mary Lucking, has not only been admired by library-goers and Scottsdale residents, it also won Merit Honors in the Public Spaces category at the eighth annual international CODAawards: Collaboration of Design + Art. “Scottsdale Public Art is honored to be recognized by the CODAawards for ‘Birdie Umwelt,’ public art created by Arizona artist Mary Lucking with fabrication from Bollinger Atelier and E2 Innovations,” said Kim Boganey, director of Scottsdale Public Art, in a prepared statement. The CODAawards celebrate projects that successfully integrate commissioned art into interior, architectural or public spaces. “Birdie Umwelt” evolved out of a partnership with Scottsdale’s Transportation Department. “It was created as way to quietly herald the importance of literacy for those using mass transit near the Mustang Library area,” Boganey said. Part of the Scottsdale Public Art Permanent Collection, “Birdie Umwelt” includes a stylized birdhouse sculpture inspired by the library’s architecture. In addition to the aforementioned 20 finch sculptures, “Birdie Umwelt” also includes a series of bird and feature images sandblasted into walking paths along the greenbelt.
Scottsdale residents Ron King and Clareen Heim check out one of the new “Birdie Umwelt” sculptures at the Mustang Library and Transit Center. (Pablo Robles/Progress Staff Photographer)
“‘Umwelt’ is a German word for ‘environment’: ‘Um’ is what surrounds us, and ‘welt’ is our world. So, it really is the world that surrounds us. And I think that’s a wonderful part of this extraordinary piece,” Scottsdale Arts President and CEO Gerd Wuestemann said at the project’s opening and dedication last May. “Birdie Umwelt” – which was part of the city’s Mustang Transit Center capital improvement project that included new transit amenities, pedestrian and bicycle improvements, a new signal and a roundabout – took six years to complete. The project began in 2013 with a national call for artists and artists, and once Lucking was chosen, the first 10 bird sculptures, the birdhouse and the sandblasting were completed November 2017. The art was so well received that the installation was commissioned by Scottsdale Public Art to become part of
the city’s Fine Art Collection. The city expanded the project in 2018 to include 10 additional books and birds, all of which were added last spring. “Public art sometimes lives at a large scale, visible from afar, like the highway art or the piece up at the SOHO development. And sometimes public art can be small and poetic, something that you have to discover when you spend a little time. I think this is one of those pieces that inspires poetry, that makes us think a little bit more about life and how we relate to our environment,” Wuestemann said. Lucking, who specializes in projects that include art incorporated into urban and rural walking and biking trails, public transit stations, college campuses and neighborhood parks, was inspired by the birds she frequently spotted nesting around the library. She said she wondered what books
Local artist Mary Lucking spoke during the opening and dedication of the new “Birdie Umwelt” sculptures last May. (Pablo Robles/Progress Staff Photographer)
in the Mustang Library the birds might find the most compelling. Thus, Lucking’s concept became: What would birds read? “I come to every project with an open mind, working with the community and design team to create a piece that responds to the specific qualities of the space,” Lucking said in her artist statement. “My aim is to delight, to intrigue and to invite people to look more deeply at what is already there.”
see BIRDIE page 30
