To say that the Florida ecosystem is a fragile one is an understatement. For 150 years, Floridians have worked their way around — and often straight through — our natural topography. South Florida’s segment of the Intracoastal Waterway has been dredged as well as swaths of the Everglades drained. Entire neighborhoods have been created out of what were essentially mangrove swamps. Of course, there are numerous programs designed to help keep our delicate biome healthy.
Fort Lauderdale-based artist Margi Nothard Glavovic believes that fueling a thirst for knowledge, especially in our youth, is key to the future health of the Florida peninsula.
One way to spark that interest, Nothard thought, might just be through a monumental sculpture that interacts with nature. And where would that artwork find a young audience to soak it all in? How about a public park? Remarkably, Nothard was recently handed that chance on a grand scale at Sunset Point Park, located at the western-most edge of Tamarac.
“I was invited to submit credentials by Glenn Weiss, who was the Public Art Consultant for the City of Tamarac,” says Nothard. “The thought of being able to create here was exciting as Tamarac has been an art-friendly city for years and has quite a robust public art program.”
She says she was granted the project after presenting her ideas to the Public Art Committee and the City Commission.
Recently reconfigured, Sunset Point Park is a frequent gathering place for local families drawn to the park by its exercise stations, shelters, grills, playground, as well as a wetlands nature study kiosk, a small amphitheater, restrooms and free parking. The park’s location, separated from the Everglades by multiple lanes of speeding traffic on the Sawgrass Expressway, intrigued the artist. For Nothard, who is also founder and design director of the architecture firm, Glavovic Studio, the location provided the perfect opportunity, sparking ideas for what she wanted the installation to become.
Nothard’s artistry is known for its vibrancy, according to Irvin Lippman, currently the executive director of the Boca Raton Museum of Art and former director of what is now the NSU Art Museum of Fort Lauderdale. For Lippman, Nothard has created spaces that are filled with life and energy, including a dynamic sculptural staircase and plaza that allow the NSU Art Museum to spill onto East Las Olas Boulevard, luring in passersby, he comments.
In Hollywood, Nothard is responsible for the award-winning design of a 10-acre, innovative cultural arts destination known as ArtsPark at Young Circle. Dotted with site-specific artworks, the Visual Arts Pavilion and the ArtsPark Amphitheater, the reimagined space transforms from an organic landscape into a constructed landscape.
In Fort Lauderdale’s Flagler Village, the artist created a translucent and backlit facade as part of a jaw-dropping, adaptive reuse project known as the Girls’ Club. That bravura brushstroke, as it were, transformed a bland, existing structure into a glowing magnet for women artists. Nothard says it was designed — from its radiant façade inward— to engage the public.
“That building demands to be experienced,” says its designer. “It was meant to reveal and expose the invisibility of women artists.”
But it’s not just a few of Nothard’s works that makes people pause and take note. Exceptionalism is pretty much the name of the game with everything she takes on, from stand-alone artworks to structures that represent the intersection of architecture, landscape and sculpture.
“A common thread for all my projects is a commitment to public purpose and engagement,” says Nothard. “Too much of our built environment alienates rather than connects with people. I believe that architecture and art should provide a dialogue with the community as well as an individual.”
The artist has indeed fueled that dialogue with the completion of the large-scale installation at Sunset Point Park she’s named Sunset Hammock. Composed of a bright red, 200-foot-long walkway leading to a slingshot-like periscope, this striking installation begs park visitors to explore and interact. Its location represents the point at which the built environment ends and the rambling expanse of the Everglades begins. This man-made break is what the artist wants visitors to be aware of, but she also hopes that they can see beyond.
“With Sunset Hammock,” says Nothard, “I want to reveal the subordination of nature to infrastructure, development, and creep into the Everglades, with a provocative counterpoint, that encourages the public to seek it out. Instead of, say, seeing it on I-75, visit a local park and discover it. I’d like visitors to Sunset Hammock to come away surprised and joyful,” says Nothard, “I’d love for them to ask questions… ‘What are we looking at? What is a hammock?’ In the end I want them to have fun and to take away an unanticipated elation.”
For the nascent project, the artist received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts as well as additional support through a Land and Water Conservation Fund Cultural Facilities Grant. With the land made available and funding in place, the artist’s early concepts and sketches morphed into a vibrant, 200-foot long interactive sculpture that acts to reconnect the visitor with the Everglades.
The spine of this monumental sculpture is a long ramp built into what is an actual hammock planted with native species that will flourish over time. This walkway rises gently to the west (assuring ADA approval) and is flanked by a series of tall, rectilinear columns which start on the left, and arch overhead. These same elements continue a transformation, and finally culminate in a viewing platform. Here, the same bright red aluminum forms a massive angled periscope of sorts, where a reflection of the Everglades is at eye level, redirected onto highly polished metal.
The experience a visitor has varies depending on the time of day they choose to make the procession from the start of the installation’s berm-like hammock, making their way up to the viewing platform, something intentionally created by Nothard, with one of the best viewing times being as the sun sets. A long row of lights illuminates the full expanse of the sculpture, and the periscope view of this, the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States, is moving.
“My goal was to create another way to enjoy the park with the pure joy of exploration and discovery” the artist says “It seemed like something bold was necessary… after all, one of the wonders of the world is right there, yet invisible.”
IF YOU GO
WHAT: Sunset Hammock
WHERE: Sunset Point Park, 11000 W. McNab Road, Tamarac
WHEN: 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. daily
COST: Free; on site parking
INFORMATION: tamarac.org
