To the editor:
In response to your editorial in the June 4-11 Sandy Springs Reporter, I have a few comments to make. Art Sandy Springs has held two sculpture exhibitions and contests in its three-year history. We have purchased four sculptures and donated them to the city of Sandy Springs. We leave the sculptures in place for at least a year post-contest as part of a contractual agreement with the artist.
All the pieces on exhibition at the library are for sale and leaving the sculptures in place gives them public exposure.
All works of art placed on the library grounds are in the top 10 of the works submitted as decided by our panel of judges. Our judges have been owners of art galleries, an art curator, professors at Georgia State University College of Art, a well known collector and the editor of Art Papers.
The soldier sculpture that you didn’t favor had no hands and no weapons. It was meant to be provocative and apparently it was.
“Spooky Tooth” was on the Purdue University campus for over a year. The university attempted to purchase “Spooky Tooth” but Art Sandy Springs already had an agreement with Andrew Crawford. “Spooky Tooth” was judged to be the winner of the 2010 Art Sandy Springs sculpture contest. It is a beautiful metallic piece that changes appearance in different lighting situations and is very graceful.
We like “Spooky Tooth.” We are sorry that you don’t but at least you looked at it and thought about it and wrote about it.
Jerry Stapleton, MD, President, Art Sandy Springs