Racc wrote this to all its board members and supporters today:

"We think the press so far has been fair and supportive, but suffice it to say there is extraordinary opposition to the depiction of the dragon, with loud calls for it to be removed. The artist also wishes for the sculpture to be removed because it has caused so much controversy."

I'm choking my dragon right now.

Matt: With as little defensiveness as I can, I'm going to post here what I posted on the Portland Public Art blog:

I fail to see how the process of collecting thorough input from the Chinese community can be considered “dragging” the process along. Is this not the responsible thing to do?

While we at RACC have read in the press for over a month now that there is opposition to the sculpture, not a single person had written a letter to RACC expressing their opinion of the sculpture, or asking it to be removed, prior to the meeting on 1/8. (We recognize that this may be because nobody knows who RACC is.) Therefore, rather than just going out and removing the sculpture based on hearsay, or leaving it there out of ignorance, we decided to reach out directly to the Chinese community and have a conversation about how we got to this place (together), and start making important decisions about what we should do next (together). Fortuitously, Chinese citizens actually showed up for this meeting on Monday – a stark contrast to the dearth of attendance we experienced for our well-publicized December 2005 town hall when the drawings for this artwork were first presented to the community.

So Monday night’s meeting was anything BUT pointless. As "C" says himself later in the same post, more than “200 Chinese people, working class folk mixed with artists, business owners and intellectuals, all equally and adequately participated in a direct political action, and an action which respected art, powerful symbols and traditional meanings.” We thought that was fantastic!!!

As a direct result of the meeting, RACC has fast-tracked the conversations about removing the dragon, and you can expect a determination of that recommendation when the RACC Board meets on January 24. RACC public art staff, the original selection panel, and the artist himself are all supportive of this action after hearing all of the great and impassioned testimony on Monday night. Other issues will take more time sorting out -- with what will the dragon be replaced; whether the wok needs to be removed as well; and reconsideration of another Chinese-themed lantern scheduled to be fabricated and installed later this spring.

For a project that in retrospect didn’t have all of the appropriate input the first time around, I think it’s irresponsible blogging to suggest that RACC is dragging its feet when in fact the organization is going to such great lengths to ensure that everyone’s voice is heard over a period of a few short weeks before proceeding. Fortunately for the community, the unanimity of the public opinion in this situation will only make RACC’s job easier.

Jeff,

I don't think anybody's suggesting that the RACC is "DRAGON" its feet on this. Sorry, I couldn't resist that.

Now, the angle that "nobody knows what RACC" is, that's interesting. WHY NOT? I think you're doing a great job of reaching out to the community here, and I agree that Monday night's meeting was awesome. But why didn't this kind of engagement happen sooner? RACC could have avoided a lot of negative publicity...

Oh, hang on...publicity...this wasn't a stunt was it? No, that's ridiculous. But RACC's name is in the news. Now, how to exploit this for the benefit of Portland in the future?

Ha! Yes. Clever, aren't we?!? Just wait and see what we have in store for April Fool's Day!

RACC offers up community engagement opportunities all the time, but most people don't come to a town hall or other public forum unless they've got an axe to grind. There were public forums to select the artist in August 2004 and again to review his drawings in March 2005, but neither were particularly well-attended despite significant promotion throughout the Chinese community.

Can't speculate on why people didn't care BEFORE, but I can certainly understand why people do care now.

Is it because "public involvement" in Portland is often used excessively to discourage people from actually getting involved?

I don't know. Is it?

There you go. You're doing it. Right there! Clouding the debate with requests for comment! Grrr...

THIS IS NOT ART//ARTISFREEDOM//ALWAYS FREE//
THE DRAGON IS BEING ASPHYXIATED; yuck