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"Symposium", an ancient Greek term meaning "a convivial meeting to explore a topic" suggests an activity both entertaining and enlightening.
In a symposium, sculptors can work in the landscape free of studio confines. Working along side each other, they give and receive lessons in work technique. Visitors to the site witness daily progress of work, meet and discuss work with the artists, and deepen their appreiciation of sculpture and respect for sculptors. Socializing with the public after the work day is also welcomed by the artists.
Often, as in this Fort Worth Symposium, artists, in addition to executing individual works, create a monumental collaborative piece, one which none of them alone could make.
Here, Symposium artists will leave the piece as a gift to the host site.
Symposia will allow the city of Fort Worth to acquire monumental sculpture regularly, at a reasonable cost, and with public understanding and participation. In certain years, a single collaborative piece on a theme for a specific site might be desired.
Stone will often be the medium of choice for artists but other materials will also be utilized in combination with stone or independently.
Fort Worth could designate Symposia as its annual or biannual "art in public spaces" program. Private funds would complement city funds on a 2-to1 matching basis.
The Fort Worth Sculpture Symposia during the sesquintennial and the millennium years will create a lasting legacy for the city, its residents and visitors.
Symposia might afford a useful approach to securing sculpture (utilitarian and non-utilitarian) for Fort Worth's Sundance Square "Central Park" and for the Lancaster Blvd. Corridor, among other civic projects.
Our city has approximately sixty major outdoor sculptures, many dating back to the early 20th century and including some recent works of a few resident artists. There have been successful Texas-based sculpture symposia, but not recently and never one in Fort Worth. All works in Fort Worth have been commissioned or purchased outright. Except for Marton Varos' finishing details in public view on his monumental angels for the Bass Performance Hall, the public has not been privy to the creation of "public" sculptures. Monuments just appear on their sites, cloaked in mystery. People wonder how they evolved. Sculpture Symposia demystify both public art and their creators.
