Why “For or Against” Is the Wrong Question
A ‘cock and bull’ story
At the League of Oregon Cities conference, I led an interactive workshop for city council members. One council member asked for help with a fight going on in their town about a bull, and I knew you’d want to hear about it.
Their town has two major roundabouts. At the center of one roundabout, there’s a large bronze sculpture of a group of elk. Which I’m sure is beautiful. For the second one, they’re planning a big bronze bull sculpture. And the town is dividing into teams: for the bull, against the bull.
I think there’s something here you can use for any “for or against” fight. Not just art.
As long as it’s for vs. against, it’s just a fight.
Nobody wins the “for vs against” fight. And the town loses that feeling of community. Whichever way it goes, some people are unhappy, and everyone is battered.
Instead, take some time and expand the conversation with more activities.
Put the bull plans off a bit. Make time to try a series of temporary art pieces in that second roundabout. Keep changing it.
Give people more things to look at and talk about. Give more people a chance to exhibit their own art. Give space to more parts of your community in addition to “monumental animal bronzes.”
I saw this done in London. That’s the big blue rooster in the photo. It was just one of a series of constantly rotating exhibits on a plinth in Trafalgar Square. (Fun side story: originally, they wanted to do a big statue of a king on horseback, but ran out of funds. Then it sat empty while they debated what they should do for 150 years. Remind you of your town? They started the rotating thing in 1998 with three temporary sculptures, then it sort of grew from there.)
Temporary art gets people talking. Now you have lots of things for people to be for or against. And the conversation has room to be more about what they’re seeing, what they like, what they don’t, what surprises them.
One question I asked the city council member was, “Is the roundabout the only place you can put art?”
Of course it isn’t. There are empty lots and sides of buildings and sidewalks and courtyards and business lawns and … of course there are a lot of places in your town.
Once you stop talking about just the bull and start talking about art in more places around town, people can stop being so wedded to the idea of just one piece in one spot. More people feel like they’re part of something, rather than “belonging” to the fight.
Deb told me about a temporary sculpture program in Webster City, Iowa (population 8000) called Arts R Alive. Since 2010, they’ve been displaying sculptures in a park, letting them stay for a year at a time. They feature works by local artists and artists from across the country. (There was a rooster in the 2025 lineup!) And some of those temporary sculptures get purchased and placed around town.
For the Oregon town, a year or so of temporary art could mean a real community arts conversation instead of a battle. You know more about what people actually want. And you make a much better decision about what goes in that second roundabout together.
You can do this with any “for or against” fight. Keep expanding. More activities. More places. More people from more of the community in conversation. The goal is to make the original binary — for or against — feel too small for what your community is becoming.
What’s the “for or against” question that’s dividing your people right now? Let’s brainstorm together how to expand the conversation and make it positive.
Photo by Becky McCray