So You Want to Be a Millionaire?

As the U.S. government has recently given away billions of dollars in stimulus packages, I'm asking the question - What would you do if you had a million dollars to spend on an arts project? The twist is the project has to reduce unemployment. Give us your most imaginative and/or practical answers.

Tags: artist, artists, culture

Favorite

0 members favorited this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Post

Permalink Reply by John Rouse on March 7, 2010 at 2:41pm

why do you think drawing is as important as math?

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by John Sherrill Houser on March 9, 2010 at 3:17pm

I WILL BUILD “THE POCHTECA!”

Every great work of art is a kind of “aesthetic stimulus package” -- but "unemployment" is the result of naturally recurring cycles of over-production and under-consumption (resulting from the disparity in value between what is produced and what the producers can buy back). It has been central to our system from its inception so I don't have any illusions about art being an economic panacea -- but art can stimulate economic development! My father, a sculptor associated with Gutzon Borglum, saw Mt. Rushmore grow from a maquette, with heads the size of a man's fist (and $6,000), to become a powerful generator of income for the state of South Dakota. (Incidentally, Mt. Rushmore began during the Great Depression).

In 2007 I created the world's largest equestrian bronze, “The Equestrian”, (36' high) for El Paso, Texas (see my website). But my present ambition is to create a colossal sculpture (250' high) of Indigenous Continental America, “THE POCHTECA,” to be placed somewhere along the Mexico/US border

I am now developing the maquette for this monument,. The Pochteca is the pre-Columbian Indian trader, who carried his goods on his back between Central America and what is now northern Arizona – (these traders existed throughout the North and South America creating an essential web of commerce and intellectual development).

I see this monument rising above the desert against the dawn. Its silhouette casts a shadow a mile long -- and a dramatic tribute to our continental past. The monument’s base is a MUSEUM devoted to the indigenous pre-Columbian art and culture of the Americas – together with an INTERACTIVE EXPLORATORIUM, where contemporary global problems will be graphically exhibited and probed for solution -- a vision of the PAST, PRESENT and FUTURE.

Such a project, and the tourism associated with it, will create a powerful vortex of surrounding economic development. The idea and the technology to create this monument are already in place and growing. It can go quickly with the proper funding.

One million dollars would give THE POCHTECA -- A VERY SIGNIFICANT BOOST!

The POCHTECA maquette and updates will be posted on www/johnsherrillhouser.com and on John Houser/Create Culture.