Artpark – Box Office & Gift Shop Lewiston, NY
ARTPARK is a park and a cultural institution located on the Niagara Gorge, USA. Established in 1974, Artpark is a collaboration between the New York State Parks and the cultural nonprofit institution Artpark & Company. Artpark is currently programmed and managed by an independent nonprofit Artpark & Company and is widely regarded as a summer outdoor music venue ranked one of the top100 Amphitheaters Worldwide by Pollstar. Artpark delivers 150+ events attended by 150,000+ visitors, on 150+ acres of land over 110 days of summer. Ninety of these events are community & family programs delivered to 50,000+ people at low or no cost. Artpark & Co. programming delivers $13 million in estimated annual economic impact on the community.
MISSION Artpark & Company produces and presents excellence in the performing and visual arts, and creates unique cultural experiences in a casual, natural setting. Artistic talent is nurtured and allowed to flourish in an atmosphere that is entertaining, educational and interactive for Artpark visitors.
ARTPARK INSTALLATIONS Installations at Artpark were intended to be temporary Works created at the park included: • Hydra’s Head – Nancy Holt (1974) • Bingo – Gordon Matta-Clark (1974) • Pool of Virgin Earth – Alan Sonfist (1975) • Niagara Gorge Relocated – Michelle Stuart (1975) • Artpark Installation – Dale Chihuly (1975) • Rice/Tree/Burial – Agnes Denes (1977) • The Beginnings of a Complex – Alice Aycock (1977) • Shorings – Alice Adams (1978) • Artpark Spoils Pile Reclamation – Helen Harrison (1978) • Omega – Owen Morrel (1980) • Merlin’s Canopy and Mirror-Fence for Joanne – Merle Temkin (1981) • Newton Discovering Gravity – Dennis Oppenheim (1984)
The Lewiston-Queenston Bridge (A replica of the Rainbow Bridge at Niagara Falls and designed by Richard (Su Min) Lee.) Artpark was the first publicly funded State or National park in the United States dedicated exclusively to the performing and visual arts. Located seven miles from Niagara Falls it comprises two hundred acres of park land with a 2,400 seat theater, with additional outdoor seating and elevated artist workshops, public promenade and an outdoor amphitheater. The Artpark Gift Shop and Gallery is part of an overall plan to address the needs of the theater box office, building entrance and processional experience from an extended walk from the parking lot. The integration of the abandoned ticket booths and the reuse of existing facilities was a central theme informing the design of the new structure. When the gift shop and gallery have served its purpose it maybe disassembled leaving the ticket booths and surrounding area essentially intact. All construction materials, labor and architectural services were donated to make this project possible. The floor plan of the gallery shop is geometrically derived from the existing site lines of pathways and retaining walls. The shape of the roof is suggested by the existing curved roofs of the ArtEl (demolish in April 2005) and the arch of the Queenston Lewiston Bridge viewed in the background spanning the Niagara Gorge. The double sloping roof diminishes the overall mass of the addition from the north elevation and allows the interior to open to southern exposure and embrace the theater plaza. The curve reflects the slope of the landscape, connecting the structure to the angle of the hillside. The arched construction of the roof preserves the rainbow theme, so long a part of the Niagara Falls imagery. Performance Venue The facility features an Amphitheater venue, a Mainstage venue, and a gathering, vending, and services areas. The Amphitheater consists of an outdoor stage with seating for up to 10,000 viewers in the front-of-stage viewing area, tiered lawn sections for general seating and reserved seating, and a fabric covered terrace for sponsored seating. The Mainstage consists of an enclosed performance stage with fly house, orchestra pit, and back of house service areas, reserved seating sections accomodating up to 2400 viewers, and terrace and balcony areas for gatherings and events. The enclosure is opened along the back wall to the lawn area used for general seating up to 2000 viewers. The Amphitheater holds musical performances on a weekly basis throughout the performance season. The Mainstage sponsors a number of musical and theatrical performances, presentations, school graduations, and other events during the performance season.
ArtEl (2004)
Earl W. Bridges Artpark State Park – Lewiston, NY Artpark is a 108-acre state park located in the located in the Village of Lewiston in Niagara County, NY. The park, which is officially named after former New York Senator Earl Brydges, is generally referred to as Artpark. The park overlooks the Niagara Gorge. The park is a venue for summer musical entertainment, in addition to offering picnic tables pavilions, fishing, hiking, nature trail, a performing arts theater, recreation programs and cross-country skiing. Also located on the property is the Lewiston Mound, an archaeological site on the National Register of Historic Places. History Artpark was founded in 1974, one year after Robert Smithson’s death, and had an artist’s residency program in his honor. The park, created on the site of a former industrial waste dump, became am important site for works of the land art movement. It was the site of Alan Sonfist’s Pool of Virgin Earth, a 25-footdiameter clay basin for catching aerial seeds, and projects by several women artists in the 1970s, including Michelle Stuart, Alice Adams, Agnes Denes, and Nancy Holt. It continued to be an important laboratory for outdoor sculpture, with over 200 artists and collectives creating art and installations at the site between 1974 and 1984.
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ARTISTIC LEGACY Artpark Originally owned and operated by New York State, Artpark opened in 1974 as an unprecedented experiment in artistic-public interaction and sitespecificity that balanced a populist mission with the commissioning of some of the most avant-garde, investigational art of its day. Over its first decade (1974-1984) it commissioned hundreds of artists and collectives to realize new work during the summer months. At the end of the season it was either destroyed by the end of the season or owned by the artist. It was a the site of Adam Sonfist’s Pool of Virgin Earth, a 25-foot- diameter clay basin for catching aerial seeds, and projects by several woman artists in the 1970s, including Charles Simonds, Ant Farm, Dale Chihuly, Dennis Oppenheim, Michelle Stuart, Alice Adams, Agnes Denes and Nancy Holt to name just a few. It continued to be an important laboratory for outdoor sculpture, with over 200 artists and collectives creating art and installations between 1974 and 1984. With State Funding cuts in the early 1990s and the restructuring of Artpark as a partnership between New York State Parks and the independent nonprofit Artpark & Company, the residency program ceased to exist, giving way to outdoor music concerts and summer stock musical theater 20002015.
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