Chris Collins
Friends of Sid Boyum have raised enough money to save the idiosyncratic folk artist’s house and sculpture garden from being auctioned off.
The home and sculpture garden of idiosyncratic folk artist Sid Boyum have been saved.
“Now we have to decide what to do with it,” says Brian Standing, president of Friends of Sid Boyum.
“We want to turn it into a museum ideally. We don’t know that that’s feasible,” says Standing. “It’s something we’re going to have to find out.”
Boyum, whose whimsical concrete sculptures dot the east side, died in 1991. He was a practitioner of what has been variously called intuitive, naïve and outsider art. His long-vacant home and studio, 237 Waubesa St., is filled with drawings and other works, including two bas-relief sculptures built into interior walls. The backyard features around 20 sculptures, including a gigantic red Cambodian Buddha, a Japanese teahouse with red, white and blue concrete lanterns in a variety of sizes, and other works with adult themes.
The property was in danger of being auctioned by the county for back taxes totaling more than $25,800. Bids were to be accepted through Oct. 27, with a minimum bid of $50,000.
In discussion with Mark Fraire, Dane County’s cultural affairs director, Dane County Treasurer Adam Gallagher had already delayed the auction. “It was agreed that Dane County could put on hold the auction from the fall of 2015 to the fall of 2016,” says Fraire.
Friends of Sid Boyum officially organized in January. “Boyum home environment tells the story of his creative energy in a way that his individual sculptures removed from context cannot,” says Karin Wolf, the city’s art administrator. “Sid's former neighbors and wider community recognized that his house, even after years of decay and neglect, is a treasure trove of East Madison's cultural legacy.”
While volunteers took care of nuisance issues, such as shoveling the house’s sidewalk and mowing the grass, the group raised more than $28,000. Major donors include Madison Kipp Corporation and the Schenk-Atwood-Starkweather-Yahara Neighborhood Association.
In late September, the Friends paid the taxes and now hold the title to the property. But the real work is just beginning.
“Obviously, it costs money,” says Standing. “Before we propose anything we want to talk to neighbors first. What we want to do is start a dialogue to make sure that whatever we do is compatible. The last thing we want to do is be poor neighbors.”
Meanwhile, the organization needs to keep fundraising to pay for emergency stabilization on the house and to begin preserving some of the backyard sculptures.
“The Friends’ incredible effort to save Sid's house was impressive in both its ambitiousness and grassroots tenacity,” says Wolf. “It really seemed like a longshot at times, but they prevailed and delivered. Creativity won. Miracles happen.”
A fundraising party for the Friends of Sid Boyum will be held 4:30 p.m. Nov. 13 at the Harmony Bar and Grill, 2201 Atwood Ave. The band Youngdyke will perform.
