Agenda - Parks and Recreation Commission - 01/09/2025

Home

was religion that bonded people together in what Augustine called the Christian "brotherhood" and institutionally defined human relationships in the common world. In spite of an expanded cultural awareness, the contemporary art community does occasionally misstep when it comes to engaging the appropriate `public' in the purchase and display of public art. In 2017, the prestigious Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota included a sculpture "Scaffold"by white, Los Angeles-based artist Sam Durant, as a centerpiece in the newly renovated Minneapolis sculpture garden. The institution's Executive Director, Olga Viso, first saw the work at a European exhibition several years earlier and convinced the museum curators to purchase the piece for $450,000. The sculpture is representative of the gallows previously used in U.S. government executions, such as the hanging of 3 8 Dakota men in Mankato after the U.S-Dakota War in 1892. It wasn't long after its debut that protesters converged upon the site. Native American community leaders called the sculpture offensive, and demanded that it be removed from the exhibit that sits on former Dakota Tribe land(Eler 2017). The artist and the Walker Art Center both acknowledged mistakes in the process of creating and installing the sculpture. The artist called it a "miscalculation" when they failed to consult the area's Dakota tribe. In the eyes of the Dakota, the sculpture was a painful reminder of a history of cultural genocide that has left permanent scars upon the community. The "Scaffold"was ultimately dismantled and removed from the site, disassembled, and the wooden remains were given to the Dakota community for proper disposal and were buried in a non- disclosed location. However, the removal of the sculpture renewed debate in the art world regarding the questions of white privilege, cultural appropriation, and racism. Local Minneapolis art critic Alicia Eler(2017) writes, "People are highly sensitive to the continued prevalence of white people among our society's gatekeepers, including at the Walker. Whether 32