Walking through the city of Baton Rouge, visitors and natives often discover numerous examples of public art infused into the infrastructure of the state’s capital city. But they may not know the history behind the pieces they see.
A new exhibit called “Monuments and Metaphors: Art in Public Spaces” at the Louisiana Art and Science Museum attempts to shed light on the rich history behind some of the artwork featured in various public arenas in Baton Rouge.
From the work of sculptor Frank Hayden to the popular contemporary murals by The Walls Project, the exhibit provides a broad range of artistic mediums for viewers to tap into by highlighting both historic and more recent pieces.
“The exhibit tells the hidden story of the public artwork that you see every day,” said Douglas Kennedy, LASM communications coordinator.
“Monuments and Metaphors” spotlights 50 different works dating from the ’30s to today. Because the pieces are still located in their current homes throughout the city, the exhibit includes large-scale photographs depicting the original works and are accompanied by preparatory drawings, scale models or 3-D prints.
Museum curator Elizabeth Weinstein said the exhibit reveals parts of the creative process involved in creating various forms of public art.
“It kind of opens up the idea of what public art is and how it helps define a community,” Weinstein said.
For instance, one of the works featured in the exhibit is Angela Gregory’s sculpture of the civil war hero and last governor of the confederacy in Louisiana, Henry Watkins Allen.
Gregory’s process in creating the piece was to start by crafting a tiny scale model of Allen and then gradually make the model larger and larger until it reaches its final, lifesize product.
Visitors can almost see the lapse of time as the original tiny mold, displayed in the exhibit, transforms into the public work that monuments a significant member of Louisiana history.
A somewhat smaller display — “From Clay to Bronze Revisited” — extends past the exhibit and offers visitors a more detailed insight into the bronze casting process often used in outdoor public art.
According to the exhibit’s news release, “Step-by-step explanations, a video and models compare the lost-wax process as practiced by Frank Hayden with the possibilities offered by 3-D technology seen in the work of local artist Brad Bourgoyne.”
Bourgoyne said there is obviously a significant limit of how much can be shown, both in terms of the variety of techniques and the processes that are used, but the exhibit does a good job of conveying and informing viewers in a museum atmosphere.
“I think it’s really helpful for people to kind of see the different steps of the process and then also, hands-on, see the mold and things like that,” Bourgoyne said.
Though both the exhibit can provide a brief introduction for art students or anyone interested in creating their own work, it’s mostly beneficial for visitors who have no practical experience with art.
“A lot of the time, the only thing people experience with art is the finished product, and they really don’t have an idea of what is involved in making it,” Bourgoyne said. “And once you start to actually see the process unfold, it demystifies it, and you begin to understand the creative process, not as something that’s unusual or special but actually an extension of what people do all the time.”
Bourgoyne said in times of troubled budgets often time art is one of the first things is cut, and part of what LASM is doing with interesting exhibits is gaining public support of public art and artistic expression in general.
“Monuments and Metaphors: Art in Public Spaces” is on display at the Louisiana Art and Science Museum until June 28.
You can reach Michael Tarver on Twitter @michael_T16.

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"Monuments & Metaphors: Art in Public Spaces" is a new exhibit that explores the importance and upbringing of public art on a local level. The exhibit will be on view from March 21 - June 28 at Louisiana Art and Science Museum downtown.