Animal Sculptures: Milking the Idea of Art for a Cause

By NICOLE LEWIS

The United States is turning into an animal farm, all for good causes.

Festive cow sculptures have been put to pasture on the streets of Chicago and New York City

while the Big Pig Gig stampedes through Cincinnati, the buffalo roam in — where else — Buffalo, and rabbits have the run of Grand Rapids, Mich.

Delighting residents and tourists alike, the whimsical creatures — such as the angelic “Buffalo Wings,” the cubist “Pigasso” and graceful “Prima Cowlerina” — enjoy free rein of the cities for several months, then some are auctioned off, with the proceeds flowing to local charities.

Attention-getting and crowd-pleasing art, low overhead, and the opportunity to benefit charity have made the animal sculptures a hit with community leaders hoping to revitalize downtowns, lure visitors, and raise money.

Each sculpture’s production cost, usually a few thousand dollars including an artist’s honorarium, is paid by a corporate or individual sponsor. The sponsor can either keep the sculpture or allow it to be sold at auction to benefit a charity of the sponsor’s choosing.

The public-art frenzy started as a civic project in Zurich in 1998 and migrated to Chicago last summer.

Some 320 cows were on display throughout Chicago last year. About half were sold last November at the Charity Cattle Auction, which benefited a range of charities, including Amnesty International, Literacy Chicago, and Lyric Opera Chicago, by raising $3.4-million. “Handsome by Children’s Memorial,” a cow sculpture decorated with multicolored handprints, proved the top seller, earning $110,000 for the Children’s Memorial Foundation, the fund-raising arm of Children’s Memorial Medical Center, in Chicago.

Other exhibits already in the pipeline include flamingos in Miami-Dade County and lizards in Orlando, both in Florida.

Each city has taken a different approach in deciding how the sculptures will be used to help good causes.

In Lexington, Ky., where thoroughbreds stud the streets, an auction in December will be held to raise money for a charity of the sponsor’s choice and a fund set up by the event’s organizer, the Lexington Arts & Cultural Council. The fund will support future commissioning or purchases of public art.

In New Orleans, organizers of the Festival of Fins offered nonprofit organizations a chance to sponsor a fish sculpture at a reduced rate. That way the charities would be guaranteed that they would receive the proceeds when the fish are auctioned off next month; otherwise, they would have to simply hope that whoever bought the fish would decide to designate the money for their cause.

One of the event’s cosponsors, Youth Leadership Council, a group that promotes leadership through civic involvement, has sponsored 15 fish. Bidding starts at $1,000 for each of the 80 fish being auctioned, whose proceeds will benefit 57 charities, including hospitals, schools, and an animal shelter.

Selling tickets to the auction can be another way to raise dollars or offset costs not covered by in-kind donations. In Chicago, 2,000 people bought $20 tickets to attend the auction, held at a downtown theater and run by Sotheby’s, a professional auction company.

In some cases, nonprofit groups are the organizers of the sculpture displays and auctions.

In Cincinnati, the Big Pig Gig was spearheaded by Artworks, a nonprofit organization that offers job-skills training to teenagers. The group hoped 200 pigs would be sponsored; at last count, 415 pigs hog the streets.

When the animals go on the block next month in a live auction and on eBay, an Internet auction site, Artworks and a charity of each sponsor’s choice will split the proceeds.

Artworks also produced merchandise, which is turning into another revenue stream: A book about the exhibit has sold 13,000 copies so far and will soon go into a second printing. Hats, T-shirts, posters, mugs and other items with the pig theme are also being sold.

In Toronto, organizers held a pre-exhibit event dubbed “The Running of the Moose,” in which companies paid $1,200 apiece to allow their employees the opportunity to push the animal sculptures down a street. The event raised $40,000 for the United Way of Greater Toronto.

Although those displays appear to have popped up with relative speed, the sculpture shows require hours of organization by professionals and volunteers as well as plenty of in-kind donations, such as an auction venue and a company to install the sculptures.

Although the buffaloes have been a hit with the public, Buffalo organizers found the logistics of trucking around 400-pound bases and 100-pound buffalo sculptures a headache.

No plans are in the works to make Herd About Buffalo an annual event, says Monique Watts, director of special events at the Roswell Park Alliance Foundation, the fund-raising arm of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, one of the two charitable beneficiaries of the city’s sculpture auction. “We’ll definitely be glad when it’s over,” she adds.

Even with volunteer assistance, staff members have been stretched thin for the event, which requires people to answer constant questions and maintain the sculptures.

Organizers in New Orleans would agree that the event was a herculean effort in coordination, but organizers and residents alike only have positive feelings about the exhibit.

Nathan Mason, Chicago’s curator of special art programs and the city’s “cow-ordinator,” has been swamped with requests for information on the exhibit.

Mr. Mason says the city is planning another public art project for next summer, but is keeping mum about the theme. Other copy-cow cities will just have to wait and see.

For informational packets on organizing this type of exhibit, contact Nathan Mason, City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, 78 East Washington Street, Chicago, IL 60602; (312) 744-6630.

To see photographs of these sculptures, Go to http://www.festivaloffins.org, http://www.herdaboutbuffalo.com, http://www.lexarts.org, http://www.bigpiggig.com, http://www.city.toronto.on.ca/moose/home.htm, http://www.cowparade.net.