With Settlement Talks Stalled, What's Next for "Greenwood Pond: Double Site"?
Settlement talks the past two months between Land Art Movement leader Mary Miss and the Des Moines Art Center, which commissioned the artist to create the environmental sculpture Greenwood Pond: Double Site for its permanent collection – and which they now plan to destroy – have yielded no results. The talks follow a lawsuit filed by the artist on April 4, 2024, against the Art Center for breach of contract and violations of the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA). The next hearing about Miss’ suit is scheduled for August 25, 2025, though another ruling about whether demolition of the site can proceed could come this month. Throughout this process the artist has been represented by Ben Arato, along with Steve Wandro and Alison Kanne, with the Des Moines-based firm Wandro, Kanne & Lalor, PC. In addition, attorney Christine Steiner, a leading national expert on VARA, has been providing pro bono counsel.
To date, Mary Miss and Wando have won two important court decisions: in the first, on April 8, 2024, Judge Stephen Locher of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa issued a temporary restraining order and ruled that “Miss has shown a likelihood of irreparable harm”; a month later on May 3, Judge Locher issued a preliminary injunction and wrote that “Miss is likely to prevail on the merits of her breach of contract claim.”
However, Judge Locher is expected to rule soon on a July 26, 2024, motion by the Art Center to “dissolve” the preliminary injunction, which would allow for the site’s demolition. The motion was accompanied by a supporting brief and declaration. Wandro is expected to file a “resistance” to the Art Center’s motion no later than this Friday, November 8 to keep the site from being demolished.
While TCLF has been involved with Greenwood Pond: Double Site for more than a decade – the environmental sculpture was included in TCLF’s thematic report and digital exhibition Landslide 2014: Art and the Landscape – the current saga began a little more than a year ago. On October 20, 2023 the artist received an email from Art Center director Kelly Baum saying that portions of the installation would be closed and removed because it had deteriorated to the point that it posed a risk to the public. Subsequently, on December 1, 2023, the artist was told that “it would cost $2,652,000 to rebuild the work 1:1 with Cumaru wood” and that “the cost is prohibitively expensive for us, and fundraising to remake the work simply isn’t feasible.” Two days later Miss responded: “I must say I am a bit shocked that this decision has been reached so quickly on the future of Greenwood Pond: Double Site. I had thought there would be further discussions and explorations of alternative approaches.”
At no point did the Art Center engage with Miss about how the environmental installation could be rehabilitated. The decision went straight to demolition. On December 8, 2023, the artist contacted TCLF: “Unfortunately, things have taken a very bad turn with the Greenwood Pond project in Des Moines. … Would you have time for a call in the next few days?”
Since then TCLF has and continues to actively and vigorously advocate on behalf of Greenwood Pond: Double Site and the artist. Along with a strategic media campaign that has yielded dozens of articles in major publications throughout the U.S. TCLF has also secured more than 50 letters from artists, art patrons, former museum directors, scholars, and others who have written the Art Center imploring the leadership not destroy the work and instead to rehabilitate the installation and honor its contractual and ethical obligation to properly maintain it as they would any other work their permanent collection.
Max Anderson, former director of the Whitney Museum of American Art, Dallas Museum of Art, and three other museums, has said that Greenwood Pond: Double Site “enjoys an importance and a prominence in public art second to none in this country”; nevertheless, the Des Moines Art Center is intent on demolition.
NOTE: On Thursday, November 7, 2024, a live in-person event, "Artist Mary Miss and Experts Discuss the Future of Greenwood Pond: Double Site," will be held in New York City, 6:00-8:00 PM, featuring Mary Miss, Max Anderson, TCLF's Charles A. Birnbaum, and Christine Steiner.
