The project involved a large-scale sculpture by Seattle-based artist John Grade. Now in its largest iteration, more than doubling from its previous length of 50 feet to 105 feet—the tree sculpture now dynamically spans the entire length of the Brotman Forum, the main entrance lobby that welcomes guests to the museum as seen in Figure 3. A full plaster cast of a living old-growth western hemlock tree found in the Cascade Mountains east of Seattle was used as a mold to assemble a new tree from now nearly one million reclaimed cedar pieces. The museum development team reached out to Seattle-based Weyerhaeuser, the largest private owner of timberland in the United States. The three arms of Weyerhaeuser’s operation—timberland, wood and pulp products— each requiring the harvesting of trees. Despite industry cyclical tree replanting and forest management, the cutting of trees is generically seen somewhat as negative. The museum created an opportunity where a large section of the sculpture was placed in Weyerhaeuser’s headquarters building and with the support of an on-site, volunteer-staffed studio, the company’s employees became part of the creative process in “sculpting” a large section that would eventually become part of the final …show more content…
Johnson signed the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) into existence on September 29, 1965. When visiting the organizations website, the very top of the home page reads: “The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent federal agency that funds, promotes, and strengthens the creative capacity of our communities by providing all Americans with diverse opportunities for arts participation” (arts.gov). In an article for The Washington Post, Philip Kennicott wrote, “If you want to understand Johnson’s cultural agenda, you have to see it not as an appendage but integrally related to the War on Poverty and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ( Kennicott ). Johnson imagined these programs as ways to serve “not only the needs of the body and the demands of commerce but the desire for beauty and the hunger for community” (Johnson). In the first two decades of the NEA, and a time when corporate and private funding were “particular” in their support of cultural initiatives, more specifically African-American and rural communities, The NEA gave support allowing countless minority and smaller organizations thrive. Johnson pushed for the NEA as a way for the arts to help Americans see social and cultural problems, and by instinct, want to then do something about solving them. He would let the arts deliver the message for social unity and