This exhibition explored the blurred territory and shared history where the university meets the city. Installed along Apache Boulevard from Forest to Mill Avenue just north of Gammage Parkway, the project featured three artists:
Christie Beniston — Open Border (Ceramic)
Open Border was designed to dispel the idea of a border between a community and a university -- a border that does not actually exist. Twelve colorful ceramic poles, reflecting the 12 ASU colleges, were installed in Tempe’s Birchett Park. “There is no barrier to what a person can learn or achieve through education,” says the California artist who earned her BFA degree from ASU.
Mary Lucking — A Few Pieces of Advice to Help You on Your Way (Mixed Media)
A Tucson artist, Lucking created six “chalkboard” signs with messages
suggested by ASU students. Combining two forms of public media – chalkboards
and street signs – she invited viewers to think about what they are
taught, how they learn things and where they learn them. All signs were placed
along the Apache/Mill curve on the Gammage Auditorium lawn.
Mary Neubauer — Digital Shoreline (Polyurethane)
Modeled from computer-generated data, the forms in Digital Shoreline found a temporary home in front of the ASU Music Building. They reference such statistics as average area rainfall, ASU class times, 100 years of Tempe’s population growth, ASU enrollment trends, and regional temperatures from 1960 to 2001. “Using computer modeling and programming, I have found ways to collect and visualize this information,” says Neubauer, an ASU School of Art faculty member.
Shared Terrain was a collaboration between the ASU Office of Public Art and the City of Tempe Cultural Services Division. Support was provided by the City of Tempe Municipal Arts Commission, ASU Public Art Fund, ASU Herberger College of the Arts and the Arizona Commission on the Arts, with funding from the State of Arizona and the National Endowment for the Arts.
