Federal regulators gave the artist Christo approval to move ahead with an ambitious installation of anchored fabric across the Arkansas River in Colorado, The New York Times reports. The project is called “Over the River” and involves suspended panels of fabric along 5.9 miles of the river. It will be on display for two weeks, maybe by August 2014. The project was approved after a federal environmental impact statement.
Earlier this year, according to the Times:
“The Colorado Wildlife Commission, an advisory panel to the state’s Division of Parks and Wildlife, urged federal officials to reject Christo’s proposal, specifically citing its concerns about the sheep, and whether the chaos and traffic of construction could keep them from crucial
water sources. A local opposition group complained in August that federal regulators were being unduly swayed by Christo, and that phrases like ‘artistic vision’ in the impact study, rather than neutral terms like ‘proposed project,’ suggested a predisposition to let him have his way.”
The group in question is called ROAR, an acronym for Rags Over Arkansas River. On their web site, they say their “sole focus” is to allow the public to voice its opposition to the project, and they have included an image of a man holding a sign that reads “LEAVE YOUR RAGS IN NY CITY.”
