| 6/22/2007 9:06:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article | Christo and Jeanne-Claude jump start ArtWalk weekend
by Jason Starr
Mail Staff Writer
A predominantly supportive capacity crowd at the Steam Plant Theater and Performing Arts Center on Thursday listened to artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude outline the history and status of their proposed Over the River project.
The event was a fund-raiser for the Steam Plant and provided a chance for locals to question the artists about their controversial vision of suspending fabric in sections above the Arkansas River through Bighorn Sheep Canyon.
Most of the crowd's questions and comments were complimentary, but the session was not without confrontation.
Members of the formal opposition group - Rags Over the Arkansas River - attended and asked the artists about crowd control, safety and environmental concerns
ROAR board member Cathey Young asked how the artists plan to evacuate the more narrow portions of the canyon in the case of an emergency during the two-week display period when an estimated 250,000 viewers could be clogging the canyon.
Project spokeswoman Jonita Davenport said the question will be answered during the permitting process, which is underway.
"That is all going to come out in the EIS (environmental impact statement)," Davenport said. "That's why we requested the EIS. There is no more detailed process. The department of transportation is not going to allow this project to go forward if they don't believe we can build it in a safe environment."
Earlier this year, the artists submitted a comprehensive proposal to the lead permitting agency, the Bureau of Land Management. The BLM is studying the proposal and plans to release it to the public in the fall.
Davenport offered a glimpse of the proposal's contents Thursday, saying it includes all of the 3,000 public comments the BLM took during public scoping last year, potential environmental impacts and mitigation, wildlife reports, installation and removal plans and a traffic management plan.
Davenport declined to answer a question from ROAR member Ken Tiegs about the estimated number of viewers of the project. She said that figure is in the proposal.
Later Tiegs said: "I have to applaud you. You do have quality art. I prefer your art on a canvas not in a canyon."
One questioner asked "What's the point" of the project.
"We wish to create a work of art of joy and beauty," Jeanne-Claude responded.
Others thanked the artists for their visit, asked about their philosophies and influences and offered to help install the fabric panels.
The artists have completed 19 works of public art, most of which were on display for two weeks then removed.
"We borrow (public) space and create gentle disturbances for a few days," Christo said. "We have never done a project without the most ferocious resistance. Even the most ferocious opposition makes our project bigger and bigger."
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