Des Moines Art Center Plans to Tear Down "Greenwood Pond: Double Site" - Renowned Land Art Installation by Acclaimed Artist Mary Miss
Media Contact: Nord Wennerstrom | T: 202.483.0553 | M: 202.255.7076 | E: nord@tclf.org
Planned demolition breaches contract with the artist – Work is designated a “Landslide” at-risk site
Washington, D.C. (January 16, 2024) - ұ (ұ), a national Washington, D.C.-based education and advocacy non-profit, today revealed the Des Moines Art Center’s (DMAC) plan to tear down Greenwood Pond: Double Site, a seminal work by artist Mary Miss, an internationally acclaimed leader of the land art movement. DMAC Director Kelly Baum notified Miss of this intention, which the Art Center has not yet been made public, on December 1, 2023. The DMAC’s decision raises numerous legal and ethical issues and questions about the art center’s stewardship of the artwork and commitment to the artist. And it appears to violate the DMAC’s 1994 contract with the artist in which it pledged to “reasonably protect and maintain” the work, which was commissioned for its permanent collection and opened in 1996. In a statement to ұ, Miss said Greenwood Pond: Double Site is “the only large-scale sited work of mine that is owned by a museum to date.” ұ designated the installation a Landslide “at-risk” nationally significant cultural landscape.
Most of Greenwood Pond: Double Site surrounds a 1.6-acre lagoon within a 6.5-acre section of the city-owned Greenwood Park, and is comprised of treated wood, metal mesh, concrete, and other readily available materials. In an October 20, 2023, Facebook post and an October 24 the DMAC announced that “public access” to the work has been “temporarily suspended” while it undergoes a “complete structural review,” and that a “timeline for reopening public access has not yet been established.” Shortly thereafter, and without meaningful consultation with the artist, Baum notified Miss of the planned demolition. Miss said she is “shocked that this [demolition] decision has been reached so quickly on the future of Greenwood Pond: Double Site.”
Greenwood Pond: Double Site was included in ұ’s 2014 Landslide report and digital exhibition Art and the Landscape, which focused on eleven examples of land-based art threatened with demolition, neglect, poor maintenance, vandalism, and lack of funding. The 2014 designation helped the installation gain national media attention and attract more than $800,000 toward a $1.3 million of the artwork and Greenwood Park, which led to its re-designation from “at-risk” to “saved.” However, given the DMAC’s recently stated intention to tear down the work, it has again been designated as at “at-risk.”
In its Landslide designation, ұ is calling on members to the public to contact DMAC Director Kelly Baum to halt the proposed demolition of this significant work and consult with the artist to explore ways to insure the future of this important artwork.
Given the intention to tear down the installation ұ has many questions about the DMAC’s stewardship:
•&Բ;&Բ;&Բ; What are the DMAC’s policies for deaccessioning (the process for removing artwork for a museum's permanent collection)?
•&Բ;&Բ;&Բ; What alternatives to deaccessioning were considered and why was the artist not involved in that decision-making?
•&Բ;&Բ;&Բ; As is standard in the field, why wasn’t Miss included as part of the “comprehensive team including the City of Des Moines, a structural engineer, and professional contractors among others [the ] to consider future plans” for the work?
•&Բ;&Բ;&Բ; Was a “professional conservator” consulted, as required by the contract with the artist?
•&Բ;&Բ;&Բ; What are the DMAC’s maintenance conservation protocols concerning permanent works in its collection and how were they applied to this artwork?
•&Բ;&Բ;&Բ; How and why did the DMAC permit Greenwood Pond: Double Site to deteriorate to the point where demolition was thought to be the only option?
•&Բ;&Բ;&Բ; Baum claims “rebuilding” the installation would cost $2.65 million; how was this estimate calculated?
•&Բ;&Բ;&Բ; Has the DMAC looked into any funding sources?
•&Բ;&Բ;&Բ; Does the tear down plan violate the DMAC’s contractual obligation to “reasonably protect and maintain” the work?
•&Բ;&Բ;&Բ; Has the DMAC consulted with the Des Moines Founders Garden Club, which has been involved in the work since its inception and features the site on its ?
•&Բ;&Բ;&Բ; Has the DMAC consulted other prior funders committed to the project?
“In commissioning Mary Miss’ Greenwood Pond: Double Site for its permanent collection, the DMAC pledged to ‘reasonably protect and maintain’ the work,” said ұ’s president & CEO Charles A. Birnbaum. “The DMAC’s plan to tear down this widely hailed work is not only unreasonable, it undermines the Art Center’s fundamental role as a responsible steward of our shared cultural legacy.” Unfortunately, this is not the first site by Miss in the Landslide program; two works were included in ұ's Landslide 2020: Women Take the Lead: Staged Gates in Dayton, OH, and South Cove in Battery Park City, N.Y.
Critical context for Greenwood Pond: Double Site:
•&Բ;&Բ;&Բ; Greenwood Pond: Double Site is Miss’ “most ambitious and complex work of the early 1990s – and perhaps the richest of her career to date,” according to , professor of European and American architecture at Boston University, in the essay Mary Miss and the Art of Engagement in the monograph (Princeton Architectural Press, 2004). He stated: it “represents the most complete expression of Miss’ collaborative, community-based approach to art.”
•&Բ;&Բ;&Բ; “Greenwood Pond: Double Site is the first urban wetland project in the State of Iowa and also the first in the nation. It moves away from the notion of sculpture as ‘object’ and toward art understood and realized through its relationship with nature and outdoor space,” according to , former director of the Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation.
About Greenwood Pond: Double Site
The installation features a multi-level gravel and boardwalk path system that curves along the edge of the pond, which is planted with wetland grasses, allowing visitors to explore the natural surroundings. To the south, a ramp diverges from the path to bring visitors down to the level of the pond before disappearing into the water. On the north side, another path also breaks away to enter the pond, where it transitions to a concrete-lined trough that allows visitors to descend until they are at eye level with the water’s surface. A series of structures throughout the site provide areas for gathering – these include a large, covered pavilion, a seating area, an arched wooden trellis, a small bridge pavilion, and a stepped stone terrace.
According to a Des Moines Register article on October 19, 1996, the day the work was unveiled, Miss was “one of several internationally known environmental artists who came to Des Moines in the late 1980s at the invitation of then-Des Moines Art Center Director Julia Brown Turrell to consider creating at site-specific work of art at a place of the artist’s choosing in Greenwood Park.” The museum selected Miss, Richard Serra, Bruce Nauman, and later Andy Goldsworthy, to develop works for the museum grounds in Greenwood Park, a 147-acre Picturesque park laid out by the Des Moines Parks Board in 1894, and the DMAC’s home since 1948.
The project was supported by the Des Moines Art Center with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, Melva and Martin Bucksbaum, Carolyn and Matthew Bucksbaum, City of Des Moines, Des Moines Founders Garden Club, Herbert Lewis Kruse Blunck Architecture, George Milligan Memorial, Judy Milligan McCarthy, The Nathan Cummings Foundation, Norwest Banks N.A, Louise Noun, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, The Science Center of Iowa, and McAninch Corporation.
About Mary Miss
The internationally renowned New York-based artist Mary Miss created her first temporary site-specific installations in the 1960s, later producing permanent works such as Greenwood Pond: Double Site. Her works are interdisciplinary, often informed by the history and ecology of their settings, and include elements of architecture, sculpture, landscape architecture, and installation art. In 2009 Miss launched the an initiative that encourages artists to collaborate with scientists, planners, and other experts to create place-based artworks that engage the public with the environment and issues of sustainability.
Miss has received numerous awards and honors and her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art (both in New York City); Harvard University (Cambridge, MA); and the Tate Modern (London, UK). The artist was recently featured in the widely hailed 2023-24 Nasher Sculpture Center exhibition . A complete biography is available on the .
About ұ
ұ (ұ) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit founded in 1998 to connect people to places. ұ educates and engages the public to make our shared landscape heritage more visible, identify its value, and empower its stewards. Through its website, publishing, lectures, and other events, ұ broadens support and understanding for cultural landscapes. ұ is also home to the Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize.
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