Land Artist Awarded Nearly $1M in Iowa Museum Settlement

Artist Mary Miss and the Des Moines Art Center (DMAC) in Iowa have reached a settlement on a lawsuit regarding the museum’s move to deaccession Miss’s environmental artwork “Greenwood Pond: Double Site” (1989–96) without the artist’s approval after the work deteriorated considerably.

The settlement reached this week outlines that DMAC will pay Miss a total of $900,000 in exchange for the artist’s release and dismissal of all claims against the museum, and that DMAC may proceed with the demolition of Miss’s artwork.

“I hope the resurrection and reconsideration of this project will lead to further reflections on the relationships between artists, environmental issues, communities and our public cultural institutions,” Miss said in a press release distributed by the Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF), which has advocated for the work since 2014. “I trust this experience can help to develop stronger bonds moving forward.”

The center commissioned Miss to develop the project in the surrounding Greenwood Park in 1989 as a part of its permanent collection. It took almost seven years and many helping hands for Miss to complete “Greenwood Pond: Double Site,” a work of land art that intentionally guided visitors throughout different levels of the pond’s wetland ecology using a variety of designed landscape features along the water’s edge.

https://hyperallergic.com/983383/land-artist-awarded-nearly-one-million-in-iowa-museum-settlement/

************************************************************************************************************

Too bad, it was a really lovely piece.