CITY'S MUNICIPAL ART OFFICE TO HOST ART WORKSHOP
School Children to Receive Instruction in Cleaning, Waxing Bronze Sculpture

March 23, 2004 --

WHAT: Sculpture Cleaning Workshop

WHEN: 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m., Friday, March 26, 2004

WHERE: International Sculpture Garden, Hermann Park

WHO: Municipal Art Office, Building Services Department, City of Houston

DETAILS: The Municipal Art Office (MAO) is sponsoring a sculpture-cleaning workshop as part of its ongoing effort to heighten awareness and appreciation for public art among all age groups. Pamela Ingersoll, MAO manager, along with art collection specialist Erik Stolz, will spend the afternoon teaching children the basics in bronze sculpture maintenance.

The Art Office serves as the city’s curator of public art overseeing art conservation, preservation and installation. It also manages the Civic Art Program whereby 1.75% of capital improvement plan monies go toward the installation of art whenever new facilities are constructed. MAO also administers the Adopt-A-Monument program.

MAO has received the Smithsonian Institute’s Monumental Defender Award for being the “model civic arts conservation program in the United States.” MAO is featured on the Washington D.C. Heritage Preservation website.

Other noteworthy upcoming events include the placement of a bronze bust of Ecuador’s President Vicente Rocafuerte and the installation of a Mahatma Gandhi statue in Hermann Park in April.