THE GOOD LIFE
E N G AG E M E NT
Community Crystallized After the RNC melted away, an artist duo known for ice sculptures grew something solid
WHEN CHARLOTTE hosted the Democratic National Convention in 2012, the city’s most provocative public artwork glistened under the skyline in Marshall Park, where a 3,000-pound ice sculpture spelled out the words MIDDLE CLASS. Created by Brooklyn, New Yorkbased art activists Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese, the piece melted drop by drop in the early September heat, a naturally kinetic metaphor difficult for passers-by to ignore. Since 2008, the couple, known collectively as LigoranoReese, has installed works in their Melted Away series in cities across America, inspiring discussion at the intersection of art, values, and the theater of national political conventions. In advance of the Republican National Convention in Charlotte, they made plans for an exhibit even larger than what they’d displayed in 2012. They planned to showcase another ice sculp-
28
CHARLOTTEMAGAZINE.COM // OCTOBER 2020
ture, titled We the People, and join it to a multidisciplinary series of planned art exhibitions, workshops, performances, and discussions. Then the convention fell through, which in combination with COVID-19 derailed LigoranoReese’s plans to show their sculpture and spend time in Charlotte. Ligorano and Reese, who made friends in Charlotte during the DNC, decided they could still curate their planned multidisciplinary series from their home in New York. Even without the platform of the RNC, Charlotte struck Ligorano and Reese as a city open to investigations of social justice and equity issues. “Our history of installing temporary monuments and engaging with artists and residents is rewarding, but we’ve matured,” Ligorano says. “With the RNC in Charlotte, we wanted to bring together local artists to engage other voices in activism and connect disparate communities.”
The project, (Above) Nora which the couple Ligorano and Marshall Reese calls “the School of created this Good Citizenship,” 3,000-pound kicked off in late ice sculpture for the Democratic summer and will National last until Election Convention Day on November in 2012. 3. “Issues of social mobility, gerrymandering, health care, and economic opportunity challenge not just Charlotte but the country,” Reese says. “Art is a powerful platform to give voice to civic action and social change. That’s what the School of Good Citizenship is about.” The School quickly attracted community partners that included the Community Building Initiative, Johnson C. Smith University, International House, Latin American Coalition, League of Women Voters, Levine Museum of the
COURTESY
BY MICHAEL J. SOLENDER
