COLORADO SPRINGS — "My pieces are all interactive they're all like challenging you to come up to it and interact in any way that you desire," said sculpture artist, Benjamin Langholz. He is in from Berlin installing a large public art piece in the small park space at Boulder Crescent Street in Colorado Springs. It the first of many more public art pieces going up in Colorado Springs over the month.
Public art is going through a major transition during the month of May in Colorado Springs. A dozen new sculptures and murals coming and about the same number going away.
“It is to experience,” said Langholz. The benefit of public art expanded during the pandemic. It became a resource also a relief option. "During COVID we've had a lot of teachers use that as a resource where they will send the kids to our exhibit website, they'll send kids to get a public art map and assign them to go on a hunt by themselves and write a story about what they find," said Downtown, Urban Engagement Manger, Claire Swinford.
An outdoor Art on the Streets scavenger hunt attracted a sold out crowd of people looking for something to break up mundane days caused be COVID. “275 individuals and families came out, explored the public art in a safe fashion,” said Swinford.
Now the outdoor art experience in downtown will have many new elements in just a couple of weeks. "Just feels like one of those signs that we're starting to get back to something that feels good, that feels normal, that feels safe and that feels like we're part of a community again," said Swinford. It can be one of the motivations for enticing more people back to downtown as the pandemic eases.
