by Bruce Eggler via Times-Picayune

Two proposed public art projects in the French Quarter — one commemorating the Hurricane Katrina disaster and the other playfully celebrating some of the quirkier aspects of New Orleans culture — have failed to win the Vieux Carre Commission’s favor.

The commission voted Tuesday to reject Dawn DeDeaux’s proposed “Steps Home” art installation in the Chartres Street pedestrian mall next to Jackson Square as well as a proposal by satirical conceptual artists Tony Campbell and Matt Vis to embed 10 metal medallions in the Bourbon Street sidewalk.

Each proposal drew only two votes in favor, well short of the five needed.

Both projects are endorsed and financially supported by the Arts Council of New Orleans, the city’s official arts agency, and have been approved by the city’s Design Advisory Committee.

DeDeaux’s sculpture would be a freestanding set of three steps recalling the concrete stoops, or entrance stairs, left behind when homes in some of the city’s most devastated neighborhoods were washed away by floodwaters after the levees broke. The acrylic steps, 29 inches high and 48 inches wide, would be illuminated at night.

DeDeaux said she hopes to install more than two dozen similar sets of steps at sites citywide, such as in City Park and the Lower 9th Ward, and eventually to assemble them all in one place. But she said the Jackson Square location, in front of St. Louis Cathedral and near the Chartres Street entrance to the square, would be the first and most important installation because of the site’s historical importance.

She said she was seeking permission to install “Steps Home” at the site for only a few months, though she hoped the piece would be accepted well enough that people would want it to remain longer.

Campbell, who is from London, and Vis, a New Orleanian, wanted to install 10 13-inch-wide, 3/4-inch-thick metal medallions reading “You got them shoes on Bourbon Street” in the sidewalk of the heavily commercial section of Bourbon between Canal and St. Ann streets.

Besides the reference to the well-known local hustle in which panhandlers tell tourists, “I betcha I can tell you where you got them shoes, ” the discs would have another local resonance: They would resemble the Sewerage & Water Board water meter covers that have become popular collectibles.

DeDeaux said her steps sculpture would be “very, very durable” and would weigh about 800 pounds, making it difficult for anyone to move it. She said she expected people to sit on it but that she would be “very vigilant” in maintaining it against graffiti and damage.

Some commission members suggested that nearby sites, such as Washington Artillery Park or Woldenberg Park, would be more appropriate than the edge of Jackson Square, but  DeDeaux said the proposed site would be the “most serious” and “most poignant” spot.

Chairman Ralph Lupin said he was worried about “a proliferation of 21st-century modernist works that would screw up the square, ” but commission member Stewart Farnet said the sculpture would be a fitting “reminder that something significant happened in this community.”

Farnet proposed giving the piece a six-month approval, but the motion was defeated 3-2. Carol Wise voted with Farnet. Tom Bissell, Pat Denechaud and Betty Norris voted no. As chairman, Lupin did not vote. Fred Lawson, Dodie Smith and Raymond Young were absent.

Vis said the proposed Bourbon Street medallions would be “a symbol of how cool and funky New Orleans is, ” but most commissioners said they couldn’t see the point.

Farnet again moved to allow their installation. He was joined this time by Bissell, with Denechaud, Norris and Wise opposed.

The Arts Council, listed as the official applicant for both projects, can appeal the rejections to the City Council.

Saying commission members should not act as “arbiters of taste, ” DeDeaux said Wednesday she wants the rejection of her project to be appealed.