From Cincinnati City Beat, 2 August 2002 Issue
Bacon in the Sun
Big Pig Gig pigs spend the summer in South Carolina
By Jessica Turner
The Big Pig Gig was fodder for many things in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky last summer and fall: tourism (perhaps), a sense of community (maybe) and pride in public art (we can only hope). But one certainty remains from to the local creation of 400-plus fiberglass pigs: the puns that wouldn't quit.
So you've indubitably herd them all by now. Where's the pork? So and so's going hog wild for the pigs. Swine are hogging the streets, hammin' it up. Yeah, I'll stop rattling these off ... when pigs fly. Like myself, you were probably even sick of the forced animal analogies before their supposed heyday. So much so, that you may have needed a break from the hog hype. Apparently, so did the pigs.
Therefore (and I use this one with a dramatic sigh), these little pigs went on vacation -- to Beaufort, S.C., that is. Thirty-two of the Cincinnati Big Pig Gig pigs were introduced to the Beaufort Arts Council on June 11.
In case you were living in a cave last year, the Big Pig Gig was a public art event from May to Halloween of 2000, commemorating the historic pigs who roamed Cincinnati's streets in the mid-19th century. Local artists created 425 fiberglass pigs. In November, 233 of them were auctioned live at Music Hall and on eBay.
The masterminds behind the Gig were the folks at ArtWorks, an arts-based employment and job-training program for Cincinnati teen-agers. So it's only appropriate that proceeds from the auctions went to ArtWorks and other non-profit organizations that sponsored the event. CityBeat profiled 20 Big Pig Gig artists during the five-month-event, and we're mighty proud that six of the pigs created by those artists are part of the herd in Beaufort.
So why the vacation? Why Beaufort? Joseph Golden, Beaufort Arts Council board president, bought one of the porkers at an auction on eBay. After he donated it to the Arts Council, the Council sent the Pigletzander Calder mobile to Chicago for its City Critters exhibition this summer. If you recall, Chicago had the Cows on Parade summer exhibition in 1999, and last summer, some of the cows took a summer break in Beaufort.
Eric Holowacz, Beaufort Arts Council director, says the Cows on Vacation last summer was Beaufort's first try at displaying public art. Because it was such a success and because of the Gig's success in Cincinnati, Holowacz says the Council wanted to arrange a summer deal like that with Porkopolis.
Holowacz spoke with ArtWorks and asked if it would be possible for Beaufort to host another public arts event this summer ... with bacon. Tamara Harkavy, Big Pig Gig executive director, and Amanda Hogan, who wound up coordinating the event with Beaufort, gladly agreed.
The Beaufort Arts Council contacted the owners of the pigs and asked if they would be willing to loan their swine for the summer. Thirty-two responded affirmatively, and that's how the pigs were chosen. Harkavy says she felt that this borrowing and lending was ideal -- especially for the pigs' artists.
"If we (ArtWorks) are to be true to the artists, to try and promote them and get their works out there, then what a great thing this (Big Pig Gig Summer Vacation) is," Harkavy says.
Spending some time along the Atlantic Coast are Amelia Pig-Art, Big Nutcracker Boy, Blues Brother, CAM Ham, Chamboar of Commerce, Cured Ham Sandwich, Eleanor Pigsby, e-piggy.com, Frequoink Flyer, Glimmer Glimmer and Swine, Ham & Swiss on Rye to Go, Hamlich Maneuver, Hammin' on Main, Hogtoberfest, In the Piginning, Mason Dixon Swine, Miss Sowciety, Paddle Squealer, Pig Appeal, Pig Dreams, Pigasus, Pigbird, Pigment of Our Imagination, Pigtisse, Plantapigamongus, Self Porktrait, Sow-ciety, Sowmwhere Over the Rainbow, Sowtue of Liberty, Swinescraper, This Little Piggy Went to Market and Wake Up and Smell the Bacon.
Hogan has hopes for the partnership between Cincinnati and Beaufort as well.
"This collaboration between cities is beneficial, because we promote each other and the artists," Hogan says.
The pigs are resting all over Beaufort and in surrounding towns -- Port Royal, Ridgeland, Hunting Island, St. Helena Island, Hilton Head and Bluffton -- until Labor Day, according to ArtWorks, when Beaufort will have some sort of pig parade to say farewell.
"We haven't been to Beaufort yet," Hogan says, "but we'll be going over Labor Day. We need to invite Beaufort to Cincin-nati. We've already sent them chili."
Big Pig Gig pigs spend the summer in South Carolina
By Jessica Turner
The Big Pig Gig was fodder for many things in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky last summer and fall: tourism (perhaps), a sense of community (maybe) and pride in public art (we can only hope). But one certainty remains from to the local creation of 400-plus fiberglass pigs: the puns that wouldn't quit.
So you've indubitably herd them all by now. Where's the pork? So and so's going hog wild for the pigs. Swine are hogging the streets, hammin' it up. Yeah, I'll stop rattling these off ... when pigs fly. Like myself, you were probably even sick of the forced animal analogies before their supposed heyday. So much so, that you may have needed a break from the hog hype. Apparently, so did the pigs.
Therefore (and I use this one with a dramatic sigh), these little pigs went on vacation -- to Beaufort, S.C., that is. Thirty-two of the Cincinnati Big Pig Gig pigs were introduced to the Beaufort Arts Council on June 11.
In case you were living in a cave last year, the Big Pig Gig was a public art event from May to Halloween of 2000, commemorating the historic pigs who roamed Cincinnati's streets in the mid-19th century. Local artists created 425 fiberglass pigs. In November, 233 of them were auctioned live at Music Hall and on eBay.
The masterminds behind the Gig were the folks at ArtWorks, an arts-based employment and job-training program for Cincinnati teen-agers. So it's only appropriate that proceeds from the auctions went to ArtWorks and other non-profit organizations that sponsored the event. CityBeat profiled 20 Big Pig Gig artists during the five-month-event, and we're mighty proud that six of the pigs created by those artists are part of the herd in Beaufort.
So why the vacation? Why Beaufort? Joseph Golden, Beaufort Arts Council board president, bought one of the porkers at an auction on eBay. After he donated it to the Arts Council, the Council sent the Pigletzander Calder mobile to Chicago for its City Critters exhibition this summer. If you recall, Chicago had the Cows on Parade summer exhibition in 1999, and last summer, some of the cows took a summer break in Beaufort.
Eric Holowacz, Beaufort Arts Council director, says the Cows on Vacation last summer was Beaufort's first try at displaying public art. Because it was such a success and because of the Gig's success in Cincinnati, Holowacz says the Council wanted to arrange a summer deal like that with Porkopolis.
Holowacz spoke with ArtWorks and asked if it would be possible for Beaufort to host another public arts event this summer ... with bacon. Tamara Harkavy, Big Pig Gig executive director, and Amanda Hogan, who wound up coordinating the event with Beaufort, gladly agreed.
The Beaufort Arts Council contacted the owners of the pigs and asked if they would be willing to loan their swine for the summer. Thirty-two responded affirmatively, and that's how the pigs were chosen. Harkavy says she felt that this borrowing and lending was ideal -- especially for the pigs' artists.
"If we (ArtWorks) are to be true to the artists, to try and promote them and get their works out there, then what a great thing this (Big Pig Gig Summer Vacation) is," Harkavy says.
Spending some time along the Atlantic Coast are Amelia Pig-Art, Big Nutcracker Boy, Blues Brother, CAM Ham, Chamboar of Commerce, Cured Ham Sandwich, Eleanor Pigsby, e-piggy.com, Frequoink Flyer, Glimmer Glimmer and Swine, Ham & Swiss on Rye to Go, Hamlich Maneuver, Hammin' on Main, Hogtoberfest, In the Piginning, Mason Dixon Swine, Miss Sowciety, Paddle Squealer, Pig Appeal, Pig Dreams, Pigasus, Pigbird, Pigment of Our Imagination, Pigtisse, Plantapigamongus, Self Porktrait, Sow-ciety, Sowmwhere Over the Rainbow, Sowtue of Liberty, Swinescraper, This Little Piggy Went to Market and Wake Up and Smell the Bacon.
Hogan has hopes for the partnership between Cincinnati and Beaufort as well.
"This collaboration between cities is beneficial, because we promote each other and the artists," Hogan says.
The pigs are resting all over Beaufort and in surrounding towns -- Port Royal, Ridgeland, Hunting Island, St. Helena Island, Hilton Head and Bluffton -- until Labor Day, according to ArtWorks, when Beaufort will have some sort of pig parade to say farewell.
"We haven't been to Beaufort yet," Hogan says, "but we'll be going over Labor Day. We need to invite Beaufort to Cincin-nati. We've already sent them chili."