Sorry, I seem to be late to the party, but I was following the develops of the famous earth work “Spiral Jetty” by Robert Smithson and the lease battle the Dia Foundation and the state of Utah were having back in spring of 2011. Today I decided I would check in on the battle and see if it was settled. To my surprise it seems that the Dia Foundation HAS lost it’s lease to the iconic earthwork. The link below outlines from the Utah perspective where the case stands in which they say “The Spiral Jetty would continue to be protected as state land and the public access would remain the same, Curry said. “Dia’s not holding the lease is not going to change anything regarding the Spiral Jetty.” However it seems strange to me that the lease contained no provision for an automatic renewal at the end of its 20-year term nor any priorty terms to give an arts organzation to negotiated for a new lease.The worrisome aspect of this story from what I gather from on-line sources is that piece of truly unique American art- American heritage- will be held in the sways of the people of Utah. Which from a majority of accounts seem pretty indifferent to the work. For some viewing it as an east coast intelligentsia thing. Plus it doesn’t help to have multi-national oil and gas companies knocking at the door for exploration. We do hope the UMFA (Utah Museum of Fine Arts) will be able to steer the ship of conservation stewardship.All this back and forth however seems to be stressing out the Jetty itself, as of late August it has disappeared, completely submerged, can you blame it? read more: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/51970092-78/dia-jetty-lease-spiral.html.csp 
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Sorry, I seem to be late to the party, but I was following the develops of the famous earth work “Spiral Jetty” by Robert Smithson and the lease battle the Dia Foundation and the state of Utah were having back in spring of 2011. Today I decided I would check in on the battle and see if it was settled. To my surprise it seems that the Dia Foundation HAS lost it’s lease to the iconic earthwork. The link below outlines from the Utah perspective where the case stands in which they say “The Spiral Jetty would continue to be protected as state land and the public access would remain the same, Curry said. “Dia’s not holding the lease is not going to change anything regarding the Spiral Jetty.” 

However it seems strange to me that the lease contained no provision for an automatic renewal at the end of its 20-year term nor any priorty terms to give an arts organzation to negotiated for a new lease.

The worrisome aspect of this story from what I gather from on-line sources is that piece of truly unique American art- American heritage- will be held in the sways of the people of Utah. Which from a majority of accounts seem pretty indifferent to the work. For some viewing it as an east coast intelligentsia thing. Plus it doesn’t help to have multi-national oil and gas companies knocking at the door for exploration. We do hope the UMFA (Utah Museum of Fine Arts) will be able to steer the ship of conservation stewardship.

All this back and forth however seems to be stressing out the Jetty itself, as of late August it has disappeared, completely submerged, can you blame it? 

read more: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/51970092-78/dia-jetty-lease-spiral.html.csp 

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  1. ctsart posted this