CHANDELIERS IN RALEIGH have come crashing down after a vote by the City Council last week rejecting the public art proposal. San Francisco artist Cork Marcheschi would have built 25-foot flute-shaped chandeliers topped with colored glass shards, perched on separately constructed stone pedestals, to line Fayetteville Street, the center of downtown redevelopment scheduled to open later this spring. The $2 million project would have been paid for entirely by private donations.
While the sculptures had the support of the Raleigh Arts Commission, vocal protest from residents helped sink the project. Council members, who said they didn’t want to block the view of buildings, suggested that some of the sculptures might be placed elsewhere in the downtown area. But after all the controversy, it’s unclear whether Marcheschi will want to work in this town again.
STORYCORPS has more recruits than it can handle. The national oral history project brought its mobile recording booth to Durham earlier this month and will be there through April 24, moving on to Chapel Hill April 28-30. The project’s online and telephone reservation system opened for those dates Friday morning–and the schedule was full within an hour and a half. The organizers say any cancellations will be reflected in the online schedule at www.storycorps.net.
MONSTER ROAD IS ON DVD at last. The feature-length documentary about self-taught animator Bruce Bickford won awards at film festivals across the country and is currently being aired on the Sundance Channel. But getting a DVD out has been tricky. After more than a year of trying to get a good distribution deal, local filmmakers Brett Ingram and Jim Haverkamp decided to do it themselves. Copies of the 80-minute film, including 30 minutes of extra footage and animated shorts by Bickford, are available for $20 at www.brighteyepictures.com.
