Loveland – The cultural rumble over what to do with a sculpture depicting nude figures and currently sitting in an intersection near a school and a church has come to a peaceable resolution.
Last week, at the City Council’s urging, the Loveland Visual Arts Commission voted to move the sculpture, known as “Triangle,” from its spot on a roundabout at East First Street and Sculptor Drive to a nearby park containing numerous other sculptures.
Then, on Tuesday night, the City Council was poised to re-enter what had been a contentious and emotional debate about whether it should have the authority to override what art the Visual Arts Commission buys and where it puts the art. Instead, the council backed off.
In the end – after a tumult that saw heated meetings, sign-waving protesters and the resignation in protest of the Visual Arts Commission’s chairman – council members said the decision to move “Triangle” was enough.
“I’m happy with the compromise,” Councilman Walt Skowron said at the meeting. “… The issue is over. Let’s get on with bigger and better things.”
“Triangle,” a 7-foot-tall sculpture depicting a nude man and a nude woman holding aloft another nude woman, was placed in the roundabout over the summer, but it drew controversy even before then. Some residents said it is obscene and harmful to children. Others thought it distracting to motorists.
A proposed ordinance to create an appeals process for Visual Arts Commission decisions failed in September, but late last month, some council members said they wanted to revisit it.
About a dozen Loveland arts supporters attended Tuesday’s meeting. Former Visual Arts Commission chairman Jim Baldwin said he was pleased the council was dropping the issue.
“I consider that a victory,” he said. “But I still think, despite what they call it, that moving ‘Triangle’ was censorship.”
After the meeting, most council members looked relieved to finally be done with the controversy. Councilwoman Jan Brown, who supported moving “Triangle,” said she wouldn’t have thought one piece of art could cause such a furor.
“But we’ve worked it out,” she said. “Both sides have compromised. And hopefully it will work.”
Staff writer John Ingold can be reached at 720-929-0898 or jingold@denverpost.com.
