WNY art: Erie County preparing for works in Isle View, Botanical Gardens

By Mike Desmond

There’s a valid stereotype of artists as starving because it’s a tough line of work.

With checkbook in hand, Erie County is looking for some artists and offering two county-owned sites for outdoor artwork.

One artwork will go into Isle View Park in Tonawanda and the other will go into the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens on the city’s boundary with Lackawanna.

The county has up to $75,000 for each artwork.

However, it’s not a simple purchase since there is a committee to evaluate proposals, a deadline of April 20 to make a pitch on the proposal and each proposal will eventually be evaluated by the County Public Works Department, checking if the artwork will survive our local climate.

Since it’s public money, there is a bureaucratic process involved, toward an eventual vote on approval by the County Legislature in May or June.

This year’s county budget provides $135,734 and there is a total of $84,988.54 left from last year because not every part of the process is complete from 2025.

Assistant Project Coordinator Colette Balisteri is the staff support for the Art in Public Places Committee which actually makes the final decisions on who is chosen for the artwork selected for inside and outside placement.

She told the County Legislature’s Community Enrichment Committee, “The artist receives the location, maybe some parameters regarding maintenances and things that they should be considering when producing these proposals for art.

“And the committee receives those proposals, reviews pairs of submissions that are submitted … with regards to budget maintenance requirements, (if) it fits the location, how it reflects the location and the community. The art is ultimately chosen by the committee.”

Art in Public Places Committee Chairperson Alexa Wajed says it’s a little out for their focus for some artists,

“It is important that the artists, when they submit their work, that they have an understanding of the work that they’re submitting, that they’re understanding the specialized knowledge that is required in order to create the work, install the work, test the work and trust the work,” said said.

Wajed continued in an interview, “They submit previous works that they have done to show us that they, in fact, can create something from a concept to a physical form. And then there is some kind of a sketch, whether it’s a digital sketch or it’s a written sketch or picture of a mold that they’ve done. That’s all part of the proposal process.”

Wajed says artists will be encouraged to visit the future location of the artwork to get some “creative inspiration” from the location.

The chairperson is an artist and artistic entrepreneur.

While the county has a lot of indoor art submitted through the program, only two of last year’s choices are actually up for display because the process moves so far into the calendar it’s hard to get it done before fall.

The most visible project in the county’s public art program is on the vast Pearl Street side of the Convention Center.

There’s also the outside of the County Health Department building at 1500 Broadway.

The Buffalo AKG Art Museum has its own public art project, with outdoor works all across the city.

In July, the public art committee will issue a call for inside art, with installation planned for fall.

Last year, the committee purchased 22 small work from 17 artists, from 300 submissions.

The chairperson’s husband and business partner in Eat Off Art, Edreys Wajed, is also a voting member of the committee.

Alexa Wajed says a key issue is getting the word out about the program and the cash possibilities: “We have to reach the people. Right? We can’t always automatically assume that people are going to find out the information. So we have to use our local media outlets. We have to look at the different communities in terms of the news outlets and recognize that not everybody is on social media, because it’s just not that way anymore.”

Wajed continued that there are issues of spreading the word: Absolutely, people are like, ‘Oh, I had no idea this was happening. I had no idea this was an opportunity. I had no idea Erie County was acquiring artwork,’ which is pretty phenomenal. The fact that you have a municipality that is actually paying artists for work, instead of just saying ‘Hey, we want you to give us your artwork.’ No, we’re paying people for their art because we recognize art is work and artists are businesses.”

There are clearly other issues in the decisions, with County Legislator Lawrence Dupre saying to the Community Enrichment Committee he’s watching where artwork goes, “There’s been a lot of projects in my district, from Stitch Buffalo to William Street to the Downtown. So I just want to say thank you with the diverse artists that you use to do this, with Alex leading the group. I am just very proud of my district getting some more things.”

Wajed says the committee is aware of the demographics of the community, hoping for diversity in final choices: “Are we going to find sculptors that are Black all the time? You know, maybe, maybe not. We don’t know. Are we going to find females who are in sculpture? Maybe. Maybe not. So, we really have to look first. We need to look at the artwork. That’s first and foremost. Is the artwork viable? Enough? Good enough? Clear enough? Conceptually wonderful enough to be placed in this location?

Wajed says there are differences, with a diverse group of artists producing the chosen small works.

She says there were no Black people selected for large works last year, while there are now female artists with other produced public artworks.

The committee chairperson says there is a need for artists to make sure they try to communicate with everyone the importance of art.

She pushed back in history, local art history, to cite varying views of a large artwork in Martin Luther King Park,

“The Martin Luther King statue that was never, ever supposed to be a formal bust of Martin Luther King. It was an artistic expression, an abstract expression, of what Martin Luther King embodied, and that’s what the committee knew, was their goal and their purpose and that’s what they did,” she said.