APPLETON, WI (WTAQ) – A controversial piece of Sculpture Valley in Appleton will be on the move. Residents have spoken out against The Collective, which was placed on the west end of the College Avenue bridge, and city officials are listening.
“Art is one of those things where people have different levels of appreciation for it and I’ve had comments on the whole spectrum on The Collective. Put it in the landfill to ‘I love it, keep it there’,” Alderman Chris Croatt says.
The piece is being called ugly and scary – and has stirred up some debate in Appleton. That’s why Croatt voted to rescind the offer of the sculpture’s current location.
“Everything went through the process and got approved, and the piece of art got placed. That’s when things started to happen with citizens saying ‘I didn’t know this was happening, I would’ve liked to have input’,” Croatt says, “The original arrangement was supposed to have neighborhood input, and that did not take place. Now that the neighborhood is expressing their concern, I took that into account when I made my vote.”
The city voted this week to approve the removal of “The Collective” from its College Avenue home. The process of communicating with the community and ensuring proper feedback is expressed before placing artwork is also being tweaked.
“There has to be a component of public notification when it’s in a residential area like this. That’s probably the biggest piece because the question was asked at the Municipal Services Committee of – ‘is there anything like this in a residential neighborhood?’ – and the answer was probably not, no.”
The vote is to remove it from the current location. The piece will not completely disappear, and will likely find a new home in the area.
“Really what we’re talking about is rescinding approval of “The Collective,” on this location. I think some neighbors are going to have an issue with any piece of art there, while some just have an issue with this particular piece,” Croatt tells the WTAQ Morning News with Matt and Earl, “It wasn’t part of the policy or process in the beginning to have that neighborhood input, but it’s being changed to require that going forward.”
“The Collective” may soon find a new home slightly off the well-beaten path that is College Avenue. Details on that decision have not yet been announced.
