On Tuesday, the Des Moines Art Center and artist Mary Miss announced a settlement in their legal dispute over the fate of Greenwood Pond: Double Site, a land art installation Miss created for the center. It’s considered a major and pioneering work of American land art, and has been part of Des Moines’ Greenwood Park for decades.
The large-scale installation features curving wooden and concrete walkways and other features creating a double-sided elliptical form on Greenwood Pond that echoes the curve of the shoreline. A wooden trough in the water at one end allows visitors to connect with the pond by standing below the waterline. “Greenwood Pond: Double Site” also features wooden structures adjacent to the pond that can give visitors an elevated view of the landscape, as well as a wooden pavilion that is open-air during nice weather, but can be closed to serve as a warming center during winter. It also incorporates prairie plants native to Iowa in its landscaping.
In a January 2024 story, the New York Times described Greenwood Pond: Double Site as “one of the very few environmental installations in the collection of any American museum,” adding it “is considered to be the first urban wetland [art] project in the country.”
Miss, a New York-based artist, was commissioned by the Des Moines Art Cener in 1989 to create the installation. She worked in collaboration with the center, the Des Moines Parks and Recreation Department, the Science Center of Iowa, the Des Moines Founders Garden Club, the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation and Polk County Conservation Board on the project, which was completed in 1996.
Iowa’s climate is hard on wooden structures. The Art Center did extensive repairs to the installation in 2014 and 2015, working in collaboration with Miss. But the structures fell into disrepair in the years following its restoration, and after members of the public raised concerns about the structural soundness of parts of the installation, the center announced in October 2023 it was “conducting a complete structural review of the site.”
Public access to the wooden structures of the site was suspended while the review was conducted, and fencing erected to keep people out. Access has remained suspended and the fencing is still there. In January 2024, the Art Center announced it had decided to dismantle and remove Greenwood Pond: Double Site.
According to Miss, she received an email from the director of the Art Center at the beginning of December 2023 informing her the estimated cost of necessary repairs far exceeded the center’s budget. The estimate the Art Center received was $2.6 million.
In its January 2024 news release, the center said it “regrets very much that this outdoor environment has deteriorated to the point where multiple elements are unsafe to remain open to the public and are no longer salvageable. We appreciate that this is very difficult for Mary Miss, and we are committed to doing all that we can to honor both her legacy and the legacy of the remarkable ‘Greenwood Pond: Double Site.’”
Miss objected to the proposed demolition, as did admirers of the piece both in Iowa and around the world. The Art Center stood by its decision, pointing to its contract with the City of Des Moines. Along with granting it the opportunity to place an art installation in Greenwood Park, the contract required the Art Center “to remedy and/or remove any unsafe conditions related to” that installation.
But Miss’s contract with the Art Center for the project states that the “Art Center agrees that it will not intentionally damage, alter, relocate, modify or change the work without the prior written consent of the artist.” Miss did not consent, and in April, just days before the demolition was scheduled to begin, she sued the Art Center in an effort to stop it.
Miss’s lawsuit argued removing the installation without her consent would violate both her contract with the Art Center and the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA). The act is a federal law passed in 1990 that protects certain rights of the creator of a work of art, regardless of who currently owns the artwork. VARA prevents significant alteration of a public work of art without the artist’s consent, as well as the “destruction of a work of recognized stature, and any intentional or grossly negligent destruction of that work.”
Judge Stephen Lochner of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa issued a temporary restraining order stopping the Art Center from doing anything to change the Greenwood art installation until there could be a hearing to determine whether a preliminary injunction should be issued. After a hearing in May, the judge issued a preliminary injunction.
In his 19-page decision, Lochner found that Miss was unlikely to succeed on her claim that the Art Center’s plan violated VARA, but was likely to win on the argument that any demolition without her consent was prohibited under the terms of her contract. Lochner also found the contract between Miss and the Art Center did not require the center to make repairs, and therefore he could not order the center to do so.
“[T]he end result is, therefore, an unsatisfying status quo,” the judge wrote.
That status quo has now come to an end. The Art Center will pay Miss $900,000, and in return Miss will drop her objection to the dismantling and removal of Greenwood Pond: Double Site, as well as any possible future claims over the project’s demolition.
“The parties agree that the Art Center will have the authority to undertake the removal of the site in its entirety or in sections, and further agree that the Art Center has the sole authority to determine the order and means of removal,” according to the text of the settlement agreement. “The parties understand and agree that the removal is subject to approval by the City of Des Moines, intended to begin as soon as practicable but may be impacted by seasonal weather, and that time is of the essence.”
In a written statement issued through The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF), which supported Miss in her efforts to halt the demolition, the artist said, “I am so appreciative of the broad support that has brought us to this final settlement: to the artists, designers, patrons and others who have followed the issues surrounding the future of Greenwood Pond: Double Site, I give my heartfelt thanks.”
“…The support of the citizens of Des Moines has been one of the most important aspects of this past year. I was made aware of decades of experiences at Double Site that were truly moving.”
In its news release on the settlement, TCLF said it is “creating a Public Art Advocacy Fund to bring national attention to land-based works that are threatened and at-risk.” The first donor to the fund will be Mary Miss.
“Site-specific works of art in the landscape, when starved of the necessary curatorial oversight and stewardship, like great works of landscape architecture, are among the most vulnerable and least forgiving representations of our shared cultural identity,” TCLF President and CEO Charles Birnbaum said. “With many of these works now reaching sufficient age, and the artist’s careers drawing to a close, a strategy for their long-term stewardship and protection has accelerated the need for a comprehensive national education and advocacy strategy, hence the creation of the Public Art Advocacy Fund.”
Birnbaum said the “the impending loss” of Greenwood Pond: Double Site is a sign that change is needed.
“The Public Art Advocacy Fund will enable TCLF to draw meaningful and lasting attention to the significance of art in the landscape, support the generation of local and national historic designations, as well as highlight, nurture and amplify local and national constituencies for at-risk works, and to develop and execute targeted advocacy campaigns.”
According to the settlement agreement, the “Art Center will apply for all permits necessary to remove the entirety of Greenwood Pond: Double Site as soon as practicable following the lifting of the injunction currently in place, and in no event later than 30 days following the lifting of said injunction.”
