The Milwaukee Public Library announced the finalists chosen to design concepts for an outdoor public art installation for the East Library, which is currently in the process of being remodeled.
The original call for artists went out back in November. The Milwaukee Public Library received 22 submissions, which have now been pared down to four finalists.
The four chosen finalists are Ray Chi, a 2013 Mary L. Nohl Fellowship recipient in the established artist category and associate lecturer at UWM whose work ranges from furniture to film to public art; Catherine Lottes, an recycled glass artist whose previous work includes the "Life's Garden" public art installation for the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee's Lapham Park Senior Housing; Colin Matthes, also a Mary L. Nohl Fellowship recipient in the established artist category back in 2012; and Susan Falkman, a sculpture artist who recently published "Body Memories," a book about her marble breast sculptures created in tribute to a friend undergoing a mastectomy.
The finalists will present their site-specific concepts at a public meeting on January 21. The winning artist will join Santiago Cucullu and kathryn e. martin – who were previously commissioned to create the library's indoor art installations – in making the new East Library a visually interesting and inviting space.
The newly renovated East Library building is expected to be completed in the fall of 2014 and, according to the website, open to the public in December. Until then, a temporary library is located at 2430 N. Murray Ave.