User:Jlskiba/Wikipedia Thoughts

When asked to edit an article about an artwork in my hometown for this assignment, I quickly realized how much of Atlanta's outdoor sculpture is undocumented in Wikipedia. The sculpture I chose, Atlanta From the Ashes (The Phoenix), is right in the heart of downtown Atlanta in Woodruff Park. I've passed this sculpture more times than I can count when I walked to classes at GSU or to the MARTA station; for such a publicly visible piece, it get barely a mention in Wikipedia. The only article I found that even mentioned the sculpture was a stub about Woodruff Park. A very sad stub about Woodruff Park. I am quite surprised that the Wikipedia editing squad didn't request that it be hauled away. Atlanta From the Ashes not only represents Atlanta's reconstruction after the Civil War, but also the city's recent growth as an economic and cultural hub in the South. The stub didn't mention the statue's move from its original location in front of the first Rich's Department store on Spring Street or that it was originally commissioned to commemorate Rich's 100th anniversary (before it was acquired by Macy's). During the 1996 Olympics, the sculpture took on a different meaning and was moved to a more prominent location to reflect Atlanta's position on the world stage.

This exercise made me realize how important the WSPA project is on the whole. Would a visitor or a native Atlantan be more inclined to visit these sculptures if they knew about them through Wikipedia? Would local museums like the High Museum of Art or the Atlanta History Center be as involved in documenting these artworks if graduate classes like ours continued with this project? Could these articles be helpful for local/regional tourist associations? Who knows? But as I see what our project is doing for the Statehouse, and what last years' project did for IUPUI's sculptures, I think that it has put the artworks that many ignore on a day-to-day basis back in the public eye once again.