We have a winner. The public has selected “Go!” as the artwork to be installed on the south façade of 79 Perry Street, a mixed-use building owned by Sam Savarino & Chris Jacobs.
Art Services Initiative of WNY, Inc., a tenant at 95 Perry Street, released an RFP & organized a panel to review submissions. Panel participants included Tod Kniazuk (Executive Director of Art Services Initiative of WNY, Inc.), Aaron Ott (Public Art Curator at Albright-Knox Art Gallery), Gerald Mead Jr. (Artist and Professor at Buffalo State College) and Jax Deluca (Executive Director of Squeaky Wheel Buffalo Media Resources).
Two proposals were selected as finalists: “Sluice” (above left) and “Go!” (right). “Go!” is a painted mural design by Bruce Adams and Augustina Droze. It incorporates a retro-futuristic pop-Bauhuas ambiance, with elements drawn from Buffalo’s industrial heritage and the surrounding area. “Sluice” is a sculpture installation by Shasti O’Leary-Soudant. It echoes the graceful and cylindrical funnel shapes of the region’s surrounding grain elevators, and functions as a water sculpture when it rains.
Savarino Properties, management entity of 95 Perry Street, let the public to determine the winner. Votes were cast on their Facebook page for over a month. On March 1st, the voting period closed and the votes tallied. “Go!” won by a small margin.
“We are proud to be a part of the public art scene in Buffalo.”- Sam Savarino, President & CEO of Savarino Companies
“It was incredibly close. I think that speaks to the quality and beauty of the two proposals.”- Julia Spitz, Vice President of Savarino Properties
Installation of the piece will begin in late Spring.
Savarino and Art Services Initiative of WNY, Inc. are also working together to install public art inside the enclosed atrium at Five Hundred Seneca, a mixed-use building in the Hydraulics District opening in May.