Residents of Columbus might have noticed some new additions to the landscape popping around town.
An ten foot tall upside-down tree appeared on the courthouse lawn. An abstract, red dancer popped up at the corner of 4th and Washington.
The sculptures are two of eight pieces displayed as part of the Columbus Area Arts Council's 2014 Sculpture Biennial.
Most of the Biennial's sculptures are hard to ignore. Like the Courthouse lawn and Washington Street sculptures, they're large, modern and placed in public spaces owned by either the city or Bartholomew County.
Arts Council Executive director Karen Schrode is in charge of the exhibition.
"To me, it has something to do with public value," she says. "What do you value as a community and what you value as a culture?"
The project started out smoothly. But last July, the Biennial hit an unexpected roadblock. Schrode received an email from the Columbus City Attorney, saying Mayor Kristin Brown didn't like the original contracts regarding the three sculptures contracted to sit on city property.
"They just want the ability to remove the work in the event that there is a problem. It's very open-ended as to what that would be," she said.
The original contracts stated the sculptures would be placed for two years at an agreed-upon location. Brown, however, doesn't want to sign them until she gets permission to move the sculptures to another place.
Mayor Brown herself has a front-row seat to one of the sculptures: "Decathexis," cut from a locally-sourced tree, is on display outside City Hall.
The gnarled sculpture has created mixed reactions among residents, including City Council member Frank Jerome.
"People don't like the one at city hall. I've not heard anyone like it," he said.
Jerome says the City Council had no say in the contracts and he doesn't know why the mayor wants permission to move the pieces. While he agrees with the cities right to move the sculptures, he notes the city would foot the cost.
"They also have the expense," he says. "It's not that simple. I don't know how you would move the one at city hall, because it's sunk in concrete and you could damage moving it and everything."
Under the proposed revisions to the contracts, the city would foot the cost of moving the sculptures to a new location. If the artist didn't agree with the new terms, he or she would have the option to ship their sculpture back.
Artists pay to send their sculptures to the Biennial under the impression they'll receive two years of exposure. If they have to pay to send it back early, it could mean they wasted thousands of dollars.
Ruth Migdal, a Chicago artist, paid about $2,400 to ship her sculpture, "Flamenco", to where it sits at the city-owned property on Fourth and Washington Streets. She says she might not agree to a new contract.
"I don't like the fact that they're not honoring their original contracts," she says. "You can't do business with people who don't honor your contracts."
Migdal said she hasn't heard anything from the city, and only learned about the contracts after reporters called her with questions.
David Kadlec curated the 2014 Biennial. He says he's troubled by what he sees going on at City Hall.
"You don't come in and start messing with the arts," he says.
He continues: "The city could say, ‘We're going to move it out here in the alley next to the dumpsters.' The artist could say, 'I don't like that'. The city could say, ‘tough.''"
Calls to the mayor's and the city attorney's offices went unreturned.
While the mayor's office considers new contracts, the organizers are continuing their work on the Biennial. One of the final sculptures is scheduled to be installed sometime this month.
