“Over 1,400 pieces of public art in Illinois, 815 of which are in Chicago, are in limbo after the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the Trump administration downsized branches of the General Services Administration (GSA) responsible for preserving and maintaining a collection of over 26,000 government-owned artworks.

“A federal preservation employee (who asked to remain anonymous out of concern for their job) told the Reader that the department’s roughly 30-person team, which handled federally owned artworks, has seen substantial cuts. The Great Lakes division has been reduced to a single arts preservation worker.

“‘The new administration’s [GSA] leadership already broached the idea of ‘what if we just sell it all,” our source said.

“Alexander Calder’s Flamingo sculpture, which Chicagoans will know as the centerpiece of Federal Plaza in front of the Kluczynski Federal Building since 1974, has become the unofficial face of the public art crisis, referenced in dozens of articles covering the GSA cuts. But for Preservation Chicago executive director Ward Miller, Flamingo has been endangered since 2017.

“‘We were seeing the disappearance of many downtown sculptures,’ Miller said. ‘We saw Universe removed from the [Willis Tower] lobby, also by Alexander Calder. He dedicated Universe and Flamingo the same day.’

“Universe seems to have sat in storage since 2017, a casualty of Sears’s messy bankruptcy and loss of the Willis Tower. (Universe, a whimsical installation, was commissioned for the lobby of the Sears Tower.) Calder saw Flamingo and Universe as sister pieces, the beginning and end of a parade through the city, as Miller puts it. The two pieces were commissioned separately, however: Flamingo through GSA, and Universe privately through Sears Roebuck & Co. Federal pieces have protections that privately owned pieces, beloved as some are, simply don’t.

“Miller has seen public art pieces dismantled and sold outright, but says the biggest danger to public art is death by neglect. All works require constant maintenance. If a federal property is sold, there are legal statutes to ensure the attached art is maintained and kept visible.

“The best protection for public art and historic buildings in Chicago is a landmark designation. ‘[Preservation Chicago] is suggesting that the Chicago Federal Center, one of Mies van der Rohe’s largest commissions, if not the largest commission, be considered for a Chicago landmark designation,’ Miller said.

“Buildings granted a landmark designation by the Chicago Landmarks Ordinance must have any alterations beyond general maintenance approved by the Commission on Chicago Landmarks.

“In 2024, GSA saved the Century and Consumers buildings at State and Quincy, built in 1915 and 1913, respectively, from demolition. Miller said the GSA facilitated around 20 public meetings before determining that the properties would be reused. The properties were awarded landmark status this past February.

“In 2012, the GSA oversaw an intensive $213,000 restoration and repainting of Flamingo. GSA art preservation workers and contractor McKay Lodge Conservation Laboratory, underwent an intensive research initiative to replicate the exact shade of Calder Red the artist had used for the piece.

“Public art won’t impact people’s retirement, it won’t lower grocery prices. It can’t give people free health care or clean the pollution from the atmosphere. But to preservation advocates like Miller, its quiet erasure, maliciously deliberate or just from bullish oversight, is a five-alarm bell.

“‘It seems like it’s breaking a public promise, that these great pieces of 20th-century art are being lost,’ Miller said.” (Nink, Chicago Reader, 4/30/25)

Chicago’s 20th Century Public Sculptures was a Preservation Chicago 2017 Chicago 7 Most Endangered. Preservation Chicago believes that Chicago’s 20th Century public sculptures, Alexander Calder’s Flamingo, should be protected and always on public display. Additionally, these works of art are contextual and were designed to be viewed in situ, so to the extent possible, should remain in their original environment. The loss of any of these art pieces is tragic, and we suggest that these public and private works of art, with public access, and on open plazas and semi-public spaces, be considered for thematic Chicago Landmark Designation along with their plazas and open spaces, to guarantee that they will always be here for the public good.

Additionally, with talk of potentially selling off buildings from Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Federal Center, Preservation Chicago strongly encourages the City of Chicago to designate Federal Center as a Chicago Landmark. This would have limited impact while the property is owned by the federal government, but would immediately protect the buildings in the event of a sale.

Read the full story at Chicago Reader

• Will DOGE set its sights on Chicago’s public art? Public art’s death by a thousand cuts, Jonah Nink, Chicago Reader, 4/30/25
• Is the Flamingo endangered? Trump fires workers who look after federal artwork; The General Services Administration owns a wide assortment of collector-quality sculptures, paintings and other art from top-tier artists, most of it accessible to the public and now at risk under President Trump, Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board, 3/20/25
• Chicago’s 20th Century Public Sculptures, A 2017 Chicago 7 Most Endangered