Tilted Arc

In 1972, the United States General Services Administration or the GSA, had established the Arts-In-Architecture program. With this program, it required all federal buildings to have 0.5 percent of their budget set aside to have a publicly sponsored art. In 1979, Richard Serra was asked by the GSA to create and install a public sculpture and he (Serra) would be paid $175,000, to aid in the creation of the structure. After a year of planning, “interviews, drafts, and reviews by both art-world appointed civilians and government officials”, the minimalist artist finally installed the sculpture Tilted Arc in the Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Once the Tilted Arc was resurrected, it stood twelve feet high, was one hundred and twenty

It first began with two government employees calling for the structure’s removal and began a petition which collected 1,300 signatures. In 1984, William Diamond became the new administrator for the General Services Administration and over the years, was able to gain more than 4,000 petition signatures. William Diamond also held a public forum that included 180 federal plaza workers, artists, art critics, and others concerned with the Tilted Arc. Eventually, a New York congressman and judge also asked for the removal of the steel

Richard Serra himself stated that the work was site specific and if it was to be moved from the Federal Plaza, the Tilted Arc would essentially be destroyed, as well as destroying the meaning and artistic value of the structure. New York Times critic Michael Berenson stated although the “Tilted Arc is confrontational” it is “also gentle, silent, and private”. People also claimed that by removing the piece of art it would infringe on Richard Serra’s first amendment right of free speech and would be