ART PORT

Public art infrastructure for permanent and temporary installations

STATEMENT

It’s incredibly difficult to start out as a public artist. We have found that one of the most time and money consuming aspects of public art is simply attaching it to the ground. Sounds easy, but the plinth or footing of a sculpture is full of invisible requirements, typically mandated by cities and community groups. The footing must be pass a rigorous and expensive engineering requirement, it must connect easily and structurally to the art work, and it must blend into the environment to let the art work take center stage.

The Art Port is an attempt to solve all of the hidden requirements, and lets artist focus on what they do best, art.

DESIGN DOWNLOADs / CREATIVE COMMONS

To make the Art Port truly useful to the most people, it needs to be freely available to cities, businesses, and community groups. In this way it can be a tide that lifts all boats. The way this works is that if you decide to use the Art Port designs, you must also share them in a similar way as you see here:

We offer all the plans, 3D files, engineering stamps, and knowledge of the Art Port under a Creative Commons License (CC-BY SA 4.0). With co-authors of Studio Capacitor, City of Boise Arts & History, Tamarack Grove Engineering PLCC, New American Public Art LLC.

DOWNLOAD Plans and Specifications PUBLIC Google Drive folder (31mb) : In this folder you will find

  • Build ready plans

  • Structural stamps

  • 3D models

This link to the 3D model online should also have options for downloading the model in a variety of formats : https://a360.co/2FZaMFJ

SPECIFIC DESIGN DECISIONS :

  • Beginning with the dimensions of standard materials, the Art Port is designed to get the most out of small art budgets with grand concepts. The base plate is 46”x46” square intentionally, filling the standard dimensions of half a 4x8 sheet, but slightly under for fabrication tolerance. 

  • The hole pattern is taken from weld table philosophy; ⅝” holes, 2” on center. The simplicity of this pattern allows artists to easily prototype attachment systems at their studio, leading to successful and smooth installations.

  • The gap between the concrete and base can be covered by a custom façade piece. This gap is 5.5” inches, which is intentionally a standard width of an off the shelf piece of lumber. Each artist may want to create their own custom façade, with specific accreditation, statements or sponsors. This can be done as easily as buying and cutting two 8’ 2x6’s, or as fancy as the artist can imagine.

  • The maximum artwork dimensions are up to 20’ tall and 3000lbs.

ARTIST QUOTES :

"I like it. Make it simple, make it mainstream. I can think of a bunch of places and organizations that would benefit from this, developers and artists." 
- Stephanie Inman : Treasure Valley based, national accredited public artist

"The simpler (connection system) for the artist the better. The fact that the attachment system of the Art Port is simple, means that the City or a contractor can easily install the work. This can be a huge cost savings for the artist, if they can simply ship the work to the location, and don't need to travel there themselves."
- Ken McCall : Treasure Valley based, national accredited public artist