By this time next week, three goats will have been put out to pasture at the northeast corner of Fort Greene Park for a public art installation by Brooklyn-based sculptor Ruth McKerrell. The three sculptures, “Ancient,” “Goatie Boy” and “Goat as Wolf” are all alluminum casts of carved Styrofoam, McKerrell’s medium of choice.
The installation opens officially on June 1st, and continues through June 2012, at the corner of Myrtle Avenue and Washington Park, and marks the inaugural Clare Weiss Emerging Artist Award, created to commemorate the Public Art Curator for New York City’s Department of Parks & Recreation from 2006-2009, who died last year.
The award, to be given out annually, provides its winner with $7,000 towards the creation, installation and removal of a public artwork at the Brooklyn site. Only emerging artists are eligible for the prize, but exactly what qualifies an artist as emergent (aside from no longer being enrolled in school), is quite vague from the award website.