City seeking online comments about sculptures

The city of Bellevue wants to know what you think of this year's Bellevue Sculpture Exhibition and is inviting people to answer that question publicly with online comments.

A gallery of photos is on the city's Flickr page, where people are invited to post comments and their own photos of the artwork.

“The conversations we have about art deepen our enjoyment of it,” said Mary Pat Byrne, the city’s arts specialist. “We’ve taken comments in a variety of ways over the years, but this is the first time we’ve had an open forum where visitors can make public comments and others can respond, so they’re really conversing.”

"Bellwether 2010: Art Walk Bellevue," features 35 sculptures and installations at City Hall and Downtown Park. Two installations – at the Galleria and the corner of Northeast Fourth Street and Bellevue Way – occupy spaces along a downtown route for which permanent public art is planned.

City officials recognize that some comments may be critical of the art.

“We show a wide variety of works so that people are likely to find something they love, something they’re “iffy” about and something that challenges or broadens their ideas of what sculpture can be,” Byrne noted.

The exhibition focuses on sustainability, a priority for the city, and many of the artists tackle the issue through their work's message, materials and/or methods used to make the art. The artists, most from the Northwest, took both serious to light-hearted approaches.

The Bellevue Sculpture Exhibition, now in its 10th edition, is a juried event with a high profile for the regional arts community.

The exhibition runs through Oct. 17.

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