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KRQE-TV.com - by Larry Barker - PIE TOWN, N.M. - It’s a bizarre government project, a quiet back-room deal that’s costing taxpayers a ton of money. A project, so obscure it sailed through a legislative spending bill four years ago, unnoticed, sandwiched between rural water systems and school construction. Five hundred thousand dollars set aside for an art preservation project in Catron County. Welcome to the Lightning Field, or as it’s technically called, the Quemado Basin Conservation Easement which covers 5,400 acres north of Pie Town. The avant-garde art project created 34 years ago by New York sculptor Walter De Maria displays 400 stainless steel poles evenly spaced in a grid pattern a mile wide. This unique sculpture is located on the western New Mexico prairie, some 15 miles from civilization, but it’s not for everybody. State Tourism Secretary Monique Jacobson tells News 13 that the field is not something the department promotes. “We have so many treasures here in New Mexico and this is not one that we have actively chosen to promote,” Jacobson said. Still, promoted or not, for most tourists, the privately funded Lightning Field is off limits. The artistic creation is owned by the New York based DIA Art Foundation and access is by reservation only and limited to just 1100 visitors a year. And if you’re one of the lucky ones, be ready to shell out $250 for admission. Thinking of snapping a few photos as keepsakes? Forget it. The foundation prohibits all photography. Visitors enjoy a 24 hour overnight stay in a rustic cabin and from here art connoisseurs enjoy the vast forest of stainless steel poles set against a backdrop of clear blue sky. So just how does the New York art foundation guarantee an unspoiled view of its stainless steel rods? They found a partner with deep pockets, and in this case that partner is the taxpayers of New Mexico. Just how does this work? A Pie Town rancher owns the cattle range adjacent to the Lightning Field and in order to protect the view, state legislators handed the cattle baron $500,000 in exchange for his agreement not to develop the land. A stipulation of the deal? No public access. So thanks to the foundation’s partners, New Mexico taxpayers, a handful of private art patrons can be assured of an artistic experience that includes stainless steel poles against a backdrop of nothing more than blue sky.
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Larry Barker: Lightning art strikes taxpayers' money
From KRQE-TV.com - by Larry Barker - PIE TOWN, N.M. - It’s a bizarre government project, a quiet back-room deal that’s costing taxpayers a ton of money. A project, so obscure it sailed through a legislative spending bill four years ago, unnoticed, sandwiched between rural water systems and school construction. Five hundred thousand dollars set aside for an art preservation project in Catron County. Welcome to the Lightning Field, or as it’s technically called, the Quemado Basin Conservation Easement which covers 5,400 acres north of Pie Town. The avant-garde art project created 34 years ago by New York sculptor Walter De Maria displays 400 stainless steel poles evenly spaced in a grid pattern a mile wide. This unique sculpture is located on the western New Mexico prairie, some 15 miles from civilization, but it’s not for everybody. State Tourism Secretary Monique Jacobson tells News 13 that the field is not something the department promotes. “We have so many treasures here in New Mexico and this is not one that we have actively chosen to promote,” Jacobson said. Still, promoted or not, for most tourists, the privately funded Lightning Field is off limits. The artistic creation is owned by the New York based DIA Art Foundation and access is by reservation only and limited to just 1100 visitors a year. And if you’re one of the lucky ones, be ready to shell out $250 for admission. Thinking of snapping a few photos as keepsakes? Forget it. The foundation prohibits all photography. Visitors enjoy a 24 hour overnight stay in a rustic cabin and from here art connoisseurs enjoy the vast forest of stainless steel poles set against a backdrop of clear blue sky. So just how does the New York art foundation guarantee an unspoiled view of its stainless steel rods? They found a partner with deep pockets, and in this case that partner is the taxpayers of New Mexico. Just how does this work? A Pie Town rancher owns the cattle range adjacent to the Lightning Field and in order to protect the view, state legislators handed the cattle baron $500,000 in exchange for his agreement not to develop the land. A stipulation of the deal? No public access. So thanks to the foundation’s partners, New Mexico taxpayers, a handful of private art patrons can be assured of an artistic experience that includes stainless steel poles against a backdrop of nothing more than blue sky. Read more
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