Medfield Resident Involved in Public Art Project Commemorating Edgar Allan Poe

Jean Mineo, a Medfield resident for eight years, has been involved with public art projects for about 15 years and is currently the director of the Boston Sculptors Gallery – a position she has held since 2006.

In addition to her work with the Boston Sculptors Gallery, Mineo does independent consulting for exhibitions and public art projects and was one of several consultants recommended by the Boston Art Commission to the Edgar Allan Poe Foundation to assist in the art selection phase of its project.

Mineo was chosen over the other consultants to lead the artist selection process.

“Ultimately, [my role is] to help the foundation select an artist who will install a permanent public art commemoration of Edgar Allan Poe,” Mineo said. “So I’ve worked with community groups who are familiar with the site, familiar with the location and have a desire to improve a site … whether it’s a park, a playground or a plaza. … So my role is to help them navigate, typically in Boston, the Boston Art Commission guidelines process.”

As consultant of the project, Mineo wrote a call for artists to apply and has helped the foundation jury the applications and understand the process required to install the art. The response has been overwhelming.

“One thing with this project that has been really interesting and a really pleasant surprise for me is to connect with the passion around Poe,” Mineo said. “For example, when we issued the call, we had 265 artists applying and that included 13 foreign countries and 42 other states. That’s unheard of for public arts and for a project with a really modest budget. That really spoke to me about how passionate and how deeply impacted people are by Poe’s work.”

Mineo said the foundation has narrowed its search to three finalists and hopes to choose an artist in March. The project, even when an artist is chosen, will be years from completion.

“These projects can take seven years to be completed,” Mineo said. “The timeline of public art moves very slowly. … Review selection of the Poe Foundation project was started one year ago.”

A unique aspect of this project from others Mineo has been involved with is that it calls for public participation to select the piece of work that will be , at the corner of Charles and Boylston Streets in Boston.

“We are in this public input phase through the month of February,” Mineo said. “People can see summaries, see images and leave their comments. This is an unusual approach in including it in such a public involvement. I’m hoping that it will become more of a model for these projects down the line. … Public art is better when it engages. That conversation is what it can do at its best.”

From a personal standpoint, Mineo said she has enjoyed revisiting Poe’s work during this project.

“I read a biography on him when I was selected and then I got books and stories of poetry on tape and was listening to them in the car just to further immerse myself in his language, which is so incredibly rich with visual imagery that it got me really excited about the possibilities,” said Mineo.

There has been a positive response to all three proposals, according to Mineo, who said choosing an artist will “be a difficult decision.”

It’s a difficult decision Mineo and the Poe Foundation welcome because of the engagement and interest the project has received from the public. That public participation was evident on Jan. 19 when the Poe Foundation held a birthday party for the poet and Mineo presented the three proposals being considered.

“It was a lot of fun,” Mineo said of Poe’s birthday party. “I presented very brief overviews of the three proposals. We also had the models present and the visual materials that the artists had created. … People want to stay and they want to talk and they want to engage with this piece representing Poe. It has been a really special and really wonderful surprise.”

Mineo is encouraging the public to continue its participation in the selection phase of the project through the month of February.

“I would encourage people to take a look at the summaries that are online and be part of this conversation,” Mineo said. “Part of determining the cultural vitality of the city and really, what we want to hear about, what does public art mean to people? What’s important about this plaza to people? The review committee will be taking all of this into consideration when they make their final choice.”

The finalists were Stefanie Rocknak, a sculptor and philosophy professor from upstate New York, Ann Hirsch and Robert Olson an artist/architect team from Cambridge and Boston, respectively, and another artist/architect team, Jennifer Bonner and Christian Stayner from Los Angeles.  

Full proposals of their work and further details on the project can be found on the Poe Foundation's site for the project, and they say they're open to commentary from the public through the month of February. People can have their say on the Foundation's site for the project, their Facebook page.

For more information, read Patch’s article, “.”

Patch's Kasey Hariman contributed to this article.