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Home My WebLink About2001-07-31 Proclamation City of Iowa City PROCLAMATION Whereas, Irving B. Weber was a fifelong resident of Iowa City, Iowa, from December 19, 1900 to March 16, 1997; and Whereas, Irving Weber for many years shared his memories and historical facts with his fellow Iowa Citians; and Whereas, the Iowa City Host Noon Lions Club, of which Mr. Weber was a member, has published eight books of Mr. Weber's which set forth an invaluable history of Iowa City which includes not only historical facts but memories of events which shaped our city; and Whereas, on December 12, 1989, in demonstration of the communlty's appreciation for the historical legacy which Mr. Weber furnished for us, the Iowa City City Council bestowed upon Irving B. Weber the title of Official Historian of Iowa City; and Whereas, it is only fitting that the Iowa City community honor Irving Weber's work and remember Iowa City's history with a community festival. Now, therefore, I, Ernest W. Lehman, Mayor of the City of Iowa City, Iowa, do hereby proclaim Saturday, August 11, 2001, to be Irving B. Weber Day in Iowa City and encourage all to take part in the day's festivities. Mayor Signed in Iowa City, Iowa, this 31st day of July, 2001. March 4, 2001 TO: Att: Sandra Hudson Iowa City Arts Commission Civic Center 410 E Washington Street Iowa City, Iowa 52240 FROM: Tom Muller 1350 Burry Drive Iowa City, Iowa 52246 Phone: 351-6376 Dear Sandra and Members of the Arts Commission, As a follow-up to oar discussions that have taken place with Del Brown, representative of the Iowa City Noon Lions Club; Frank Conroy, director of the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop; and others, I would like to request that the Commission consider the following: 1) That the Commission devises and approves a plan for the acquisition of two bronze sculptures: one of Irving Weber and one of Paul Engle. 2) That the plan is programmed to acquire the Irving Weber sculpture first, with the Paul Engle following. 3) That the Commission determine the amount of funds that the city has available for this project so that goals and plans can be formulated to secure the balance of funds liom other sectors. 4) That the Commission appoint a special interest group to include non- Commission members who, under the guidance and approval of the Commission, can actively pursue the realization of this project. I sincerely feel that success in the planning and achievement of this project will promulgate interest in future acquisitions and serve to promote the concept of Iowa City as the Athens of the Midwest. Respectfully, Tom Muller .( MAX-CAST, INC, ® A fine arts foundry® 611 B Av .ue Kalona, IA 52247 tel. 319-656-5365 fax.319-656-3187 email: max-cast kctc.net Tom Muller 1350 Burry Dr. Iowa City, la 52246 Dear Tom: Thanks for stopping by last Wednesday to discuss the Paul Engle / Irving Weber projects. I talked it over with Doris that al~emoon and she suggested you have a copy of the enclosed article ~'om last years' TRADITIONAL BUILDING magazine, "Commissioning a Bronze Sculpture". You might want to make copies for the committee. We studied our time and materials records of life-size bronze statues and multiplied them by our current rates. Here are some ballpark numbers for a six-foot figure. Rubber mold $5,000 Casting and f'mishing bronze $14,000 Bronze Plaque 4"x6" $ 450 You and I did not discuss installation costs. They would depend on where the sculptures were going to be placed and how much site work would be needed. We estimated $1,000 to $2,000 each. We looked up our numbers on the park bench and found them not very belpful. The finishing time and metal weights had been lumped in with the seated figure. I remember we had a good deal of trouble with it, since the sculptor had given us one bench to mold, while he used another to model the figure. As a result, the guy would not fit on the bench properly and we had a world of grief cutting and re-welding to mate them-up. Another problem we could avoid would be to use, as a pattern, a bench with cast ends, the more ornate ones popular now and in the days of ornamental cast iron. The bench we used was one with channel iron ends. It was very challenging to mold and needed lots of pattern work to make it castable. It might be more historically correct since they pretty much had a hammer-lock on the park bench market for at least fifty years until the ornate cast ones made a come back in the last twenty years. At any rate, I think the cast ornate ended bench could be done for $3000 to $4000, while the channel iron (cheap and simple model, but way more difficult to cast) would be in the $5000 to $6000 range. Comparing our prices with those in the article, they are pretty close for the foundry work. The modeling sculpting enlarging all for my quote of $5000 is mighty inexpensive. Rule of thumb is a third for the foundry, a third for the sculptor and a third for the dealer or gallery. In this case there is no dealer, so the foundry costs ought to be about equal to the sculptors fee. At $20,000 to $25,000 for foundry costs sculpting and enlarging probably should be considerably more than $5000 per figure. Hope we are not cutting our own throats on this, but Doris and I would very much like to do these pieces and expand our portfolios in this direction. We are a little burned-out on doing art fairs and cranking out small pieces ad infmatum. In a way, we would be donating some of our time in exchange for a chance to do some large figurative pieces. You will notice that the other bronze ligurative pieces being considered by the committee cost nearly twice as much and are not unique. The rubber molds allow the artists to make editions, so these same sculptures may appear on the streets and pl~Ta~ of other cities. Paul Engle and Irving Weber would be unique to Iowa City. I hope this is more helpful to you, particularly the enclosed article. Doris and Paul usually do the estimating and bidding around here. As I am inclined to "give away the farm", I happily relinquish the honor to them. Good luck with the committee. Give us a call for any assistance you may need. Sincerely, Steve Maxon SPECIAL REPORT SoareeL~t .............. 36-40 PUBLIC ART &SCULPTURE Portfolio .............. 42-48 COMMISSIONING BRONZE SCULPTURE Bronze is an ideal metal for outdoor sculpture: lt's strong, resists corrosion, and ages well. But there's a lot to know about how tx3 find a sculptor, how to assess pricing. and how to specify artwork. A sculptor with plenty of public commissions shares his experiences below. ragton National Guard. A little over 9 ft. tall, it's sited along Interstate 5 just to find out who the artist ~vas and tell me how it inspirc~ them. ix delivery-truck at Cypress Gardens, FIn, for only a year Within that time people touched and representanonal public sculptare 3~xrough the ages, governments, religions, and ~vealthy patrons have used bronze work to communicate pathurl .... concrete; it'; strong without bcmg brittle; and it allows tar a wid .... y of , need to know? As a sculptor who has emerged h~ the production of public ~ ! ~ :, should not be an af- ~Vho O~vns It? terthought. Theardcd- . Another price factor is the subject matter and how exclusive it is. All sculptors designer, and other , X ~ ," copynght their work, even if it is one of a kmd lf you want a lif~size of your planners need to .~, ~, ,,.,. clty's founder, chances are it will be the olxly statue produced and them work closely with the wou Idn't be any interest m making addi riohal castthgs If, however, you wanted a blue-heron lomblain or a figure that has a potential for other buyers, the arhst that tile finished pro- mlghtreducethepriceiorrelmquishedexclusiviW.(i likemostart~sts, alsosel ject has cohesion, photos for postcards, greeting cards, civic bre~hures, or h'avel and muaism. So work needs to be in level to be on the ..... 5 ~* i, Ill committee that sets up the project. Establislxing hard and fast dot .... kes it