I went to the Somerville Open Studios last weekend and was pleased to see the actual Gates of Somerville on display and meet the creator, Geoff Hargadon or simply Hargo. I wrote about the Gates of Somerville on Februrary 22, 2005 shortly after they first appeared. Hargo has a studio in Somerville that was open as part of the Open Studio event. Last February 05 he displayed photos of his cat looking at the gates he created from lost cost matierals in honor of Christo’s Gates of New York. He became an overnight web celebrity and had to close down his site because of the massive traffic flocking to see his gates. The mayor of Somerville declared a Hargo day for the positive attention brought to the city. The mayor’s proclamation was also on display at Hargo’s studio.
Hargo has put the gates back up on his Not-Rocket-Science site. There is also a nice comparision with Christo’s Gates of New York. Christo’s gates which cost $21,000,000 and Hargo’s gates which cost $3.50. Christo’s work was on CNN 204 times while the Somerville Gates were on twice. The cost ratio was over $100,000 per CNN visit for the New York Gates and $1.75 per CNN visit for the Somerville gates. The Boston area wins over New York again on another important measure.
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