Dog And Cat Sculptures Restored, Reinstalled At King Open Playground


8/3/2023 • 15 months ago

Oussama Ouadani (left) and Craig Uram of Cambridge Arts reinstall Jay Coogan's sculptures of cats and dogs at Cambridge’s King Open / Cambridge Street Upper School, Valente Branch Library, and Community Complex.

Oussama Ouadani (left) and Craig Uram of Cambridge Arts reinstall Jay Coogan's sculptures at Cambridge’s King Open / Cambridge Street Upper School, Valente Branch Library, and Community Complex.

Dog And Cat Sculptures Restored, Reinstalled At King Open Playground

Four playful sculptures of dogs and cats by artist Jay Coogan were restored and then reinstalled last week at Cambridge’s King Open and Cambridge Street Upper School, Valente Branch Library, and Community Complex. Find the painted aluminum sculptures at the playground outside the complex’s Frisoli Youth Center.

The sculptures are part of a suite of five artworks created in 2005 that were restored and reinstalled at the King Open Complex when the redesigned and expanded facility opened in 2019. Play—especially skateboarding upon the sculptures—damaged the artworks and created sharp edges. So four of the five sculptures were removed to be restored. Broken welds were fixed, gouges repaired, and the sculptures were repainted. New sites were selected for the sculptures around the playground to better protect them, new concrete footings were poured, and the refurbished sculptures were anchored back in place on July 24 and 25, 2023.

Find a number of additional public artworks at the Cambridge’s King Open Complex: Judy McKie’s 2005 “Alley Cats” in the plaza outside the Valente Branch Library, Randal Thurston’s 2019 “The Reflecting Pool” mural at Gold Star Pool, Nova Jiang’s 2019 “Same Boat Now” kinetic sculpture inside the school cafeteria, and Mags Harries and Lajos Heder’s 2002 “Drawn Water” valve plate in the Cambridge Street sidewalk in front of the building. Discover more than 280 works of contemporary public art in every neighborhood in the City of Cambridge via our online Public Art Map: cambridgema.gov/publicartmap.

King Open / Cambridge Street Upper School and Community Complex has won a number of architecture and design awards, including being the first Net Zero Emissions school in Massachusetts. In July, it won another national award as one of 10 winners of the Urban Land Institute’s 2023 Americas Awards for Excellence.

One of Jay Coogan's restored sculptures of cats and dogs at Cambridge’s King Open / Cambridge Street Upper School, Valente Branch Library, and Community Complex.

Oussama Ouadani (left) and Craig Uram of Cambridge Arts reinstall Jay Coogan's sculptures of cats and dogs at Cambridge’s King Open / Cambridge Street Upper School, Valente Branch Library, and Community Complex.

One of Jay Coogan's restored sculptures of cats and dogs at Cambridge’s King Open / Cambridge Street Upper School, Valente Branch Library, and Community Complex.