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June 27, 2008

Arts Project Begins With Community Support

To the editor:

Our community has just achieved two significant milestones in our efforts to create a world-class public art master plan. The Initiative for Public Art Reston (IPAR) Community Public Art Forum on May 29 engaged and energized all parts of our community, and the exciting “Imagine Art Here” Charrette on May 31 initiated the visioning for public art throughout Reston and was “over capacity” with about 100 participants.

At these events, our leadership and planning team were asked tough questions and heard invigorating ideas. How can the traditions of artworks at Lake Anne and Town Center be carried forward as Reston evolves? How can artworks help mark important community places, and create new community gathering places? What role will Reston’s civic organizations play as the plan moves forward? What sources of funding are there?

This is just the beginning of a conversation and we hope the Reston community will stay engaged as our planners begin to focus on the priority projects the community can undertake, and how we can find the resources to commission new artworks. The support and involvement of the entire Reston community is essential to creating a new generation of meaningful artworks for Reston.

Our consultants will issue notes and a preliminary report on the charrette shortly. We will be certain to keep in touch with everyone who has been involved with the Public Art Master planning process to date. You can also follow our progress by visiting our Web site, www.publicartreston.org. And if you haven’t taken our public art survey yet, please do so, and ask your friends and neighbors to do so, as well.

Finally, we all owe special thanks to the entire Reston Community Center staff for hosting both these wonderful events with all the logistics that were so flawlessly executed, Reston Association’s staff for putting the important maps of Reston together, the League of Reston Artists for photo-documenting the events and the entire IPAR board for its energy and thoughtful participation in these events.

Joe Ritchey
IPAR Board Chairman and President