City exhibits fancy footwork

Menino walking campaign enlists monumental figures

By Donovan Slack, Boston Globe

It started late Sunday. At Old City Hall, a set of roller skates appeared on Benjamin Franklin. In the Public Garden, George Washington got a pair of purple velvet boots, his horse a set of gold heels. By midafternoon yesterday, Samuel Adams at Faneuil Hall had been transformed into a rapper, with a do-rag and a Boston Red Sox cap, worn sideways.

''It must be a prank," sniffed one passerby yesterday as he eyed Adams's new, red-striped running shoes.

Turns out, it was Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino's idea. Skyrocketing gas prices got him thinking that people in Boston should ditch their cars to walk more, the mayor says. So he brainstormed with a Boston advertising agency, raised money from local business leaders, and asked a team of artists from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts to fit the founding fathers and just about any other city icon with new shoes. The four artists finished yesterday at 2 p.m., just in time for the mayor's arrival at Faneuil Hall to promote the project.

''Walkability is what this city's all about," Menino said, smiling as he showed off his own pair of Reeboks, size 9 1/2 wide.

But it's not all about gas prices, he admits. The ''Sneakers on Statues" campaign is part of a $50,000 tourism scheme, financed by organizations including state and city tourism bureaus and the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. It is akin to Chicago's Cows on Parade in 1999 and Toronto's Moose in the City in 2000, during which life-sized animal sculptures were credited with drawing 3 million visitors and some $600 million to those cities.

The campaign includes a website, boston.com/walkboston, with sightseeing videos that city officials are calling ''the sneakers' view" of the city. An interactive game converts the cost of a tank of gas into a list of activities that could be enjoyed for the same price.

The artists responsible for the statue footwear, which is expected to stay on through Sunday, said they spent many hours sizing up their subjects. They lingered at the public spaces around each bronzed monument and researched their histories.

Washington now boasts what 20-year-old artist Ashley Ware calls ''fetish boots" with black feathery trim -- because the founding father was ''so stiff."

''We wanted to lighten him up a bit," Ware explained.

Franklin got the skates and a set of elbow pads because of his reputation as an innovator. Artist W. Thomas Porter, 25, said Franklin wouldn't have worn ordinary sneakers.

''That bro' would have put wheels on them," Porter said. ''We had to give him something that would distinguish his intellect."

The duckling sculptures in the Public Garden now sport cartoon sneakers with LED lights on the back, the kind of footgear worn by children who visit them. And in the North End, Paul Revere's posture inspired the artists -- Ware, Porter, Ernest Truely, 39, and Maria Vanson, 23 -- to fit him out like a parched marathon runner, reaching back to grasp a cup of water while his horse gallops onward in running shoes.

As for Adams, Porter said his getup was inspired by break dancers who often perform at Faneuil Hall. Adams, Porter said, would surely be a fan of both rap music and the Red Sox. ''He's the hometown man," Porter said.

Protecting the bronzed likenesses was a crucial concern while completing the project, the artists said. The redressed parts of the statues were wrapped in plastic before being fitted with shoes and other accessories made of Styrofoam and other soft materials. They painted the foam to create the final products.

As the artists finished up the last coat on Adams's sneakers about 1 p.m. yesterday, a crowd of about 50 people gathered to watch. Businessmen clutching cellphones stopped mid-stride and looked up, others gasped and some historically minded types snarled that the artists were desecrating Boston's history.

''It looks a little ridiculous," mused a puzzled Kay Tuchlinsky of Kitchener, Ontario.

''Your mayor's as crazy as ours," Toronto resident Vic Bernier chimed in. ''Our mayor painted all the moose [sculptures in the 2000 exhibit], and everyone thought he was touched."

The mayor said he knew there would be some complaints, but he pleaded for understanding. ''We're not desecrating anything," he said, heading toward a statue of legendary Celtics coach, Arnold ''Red" Auerbach, who is now wearing a pair of green, high-top sneakers. ''We're just having some fun."