PUBLIC ART GOES UP IN SHADOW OF WORTHAM THEATER CENTER
Sesquicentennial Park Chosen As Home For Steven Siegel's Sphere Of Plastic

March 14, 2003 -- Noted environmental artist Steven Siegel has chosen Sesquicentennial Park, located along the banks of Buffalo Bayou adjacent to Wortham Theater Center, as the site for a new project in the Buffalo Bayou Art Park program.

Siegel is creating a large-scale public art piece in the upper reaches of Sesquicentennial Park, near Smith Street just north of Preston. The big sphere will be primarily composed of crushed, recycled plastic. Segal and students from the University of Houston and the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts this week began building an egg-like infrastructure made of wood and wire mesh.

The work will be exhibited until January 2004. The project is co-sponsored by the City of Houston Convention & Entertainment Facilities Department and the Buffalo Bayou Partnership.

Chosen as Buffalo Bayou Art Park's 2003 Artist in Residence, Siegel's work focuses on the transitional nature of materials. He has enjoyed a prolific career constructing public art pieces made from recyclable material such as newsprint.

Each spring, with the support of the Brown Foundation, the University of Houston, the Cultural Arts Council of Houston/Harris County and others, Buffalo Bayou Art Park brings an internationally renowned artist to Houston to develop and install public art works with the assistance from local students. These are displayed in public areas across the Houston area for limited periods of time.

Steven Siegel's public art work begins to take shape downtown in Sesquicentennial Park.