"The Dancers" - Denver, CO
Posted by: 
Big B Bob
N 39° 44.582 W 104° 59.956
13S E 500062 N 4399237
Quick Description: A controversial pair of footloose and fancy-free fellows doing a jig on the taxpayer dime.
Location: Colorado, United States
Date Posted: 5/8/2008 9:54:06 PM
Waymark Code: WM3R4E
Views: 101
Long Description:
"Dancers" was permanently installed in front of the Denver
Performing Arts Complex on June 12, 2003. It is a 25-ton steel and
fiberglass sculpture. Mounted around the circular base of the
sculpture (at ground level) are 5 speakers, which continuously play
the song "Let's Dance". "Let's Dance" was composed, performed and
recorded by Jonathan Borofsky and Samuel Conlogue at Infusion
Studios in Portland, Maine. The sculpture was commissioned by the
people of the City and County of Denver, in conjunction with the
Mayor's Commission on Art, Culture, and Film, and the Denver Art,
Culture and Film Foundation.
Though not without controversy;
Dumb and Dumber
Jonathan Borofsky's "The Dancers" waltz into Denver.
By Michael Paglia
Published: June 26, 2003
On the morning of Thursday, June 12, Mayor Wellington Webb and
First Lady Wilma Webb, among a host of political and art world
luminaries, dedicated the most expensive sculpture ever erected in
Denver, "The Dancers," by international art star Jonathan Borofsky.
The public was invited to the event, and I was even invited
specifically, but I couldn't bring myself to go. I didn't want to
have to applaud the thing, which politeness would have dictated,
because I'm going to have to look at the monstrosity for years to
come -- and that seems like more than enough for the city to ask of
me or of any other citizen.
The Borofsky was the final selection, but the committee didn't
choose it. No, First Lady Wilma Webb did. She had become a big
player in the Denver public-art world in the '90s -- based solely
on whom she had married -- and often used her political clout to
impose her ideas on the rest of us. But she was not alone in her
fondness for the Borofsky. Mega-wealthy art patron Noel Congdon
liked it, too, and she and her husband, Tom, put up hundreds of
thousands of dollars toward the purchase. Other individuals also
pledged money, but it was not enough to pay for the Borofsky, which
eventually cost $1.58 million.
This mammoth expenditure has galled many, and I can't blame them.
That kind of money could have revitalized the Denver art world if
it had been spread around a little in the area. But honestly, it's
not a bad price when you consider Borofsky's stature as a major
contemporary artist with twenty years' worth of high-status
sculpture commissions under his belt.
Name: Dancers
Figure Type: Human
Artist Name: Jonathan Borofsky
Date created or placed: 2003
Materials used: Steel and Fiberglass
Location: Denver Performing Arts Center
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