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Report: Greenway mishandled funds for aerial sculpture

The Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy’s handling last year of Janet Echelman’s floating sculpture has been criticized in a report. Dina Rudick / The Boston Globe

Remember the twine creation that floated 365 feet above Boston’s Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway last year?

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A new 20-page report criticizes the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy’s handling of the aerial sculpture “As If It Were Already Here” by Janet Echelman, according to The Boston Globe.

The report, issued by a group that calls itself the Greenway Whistleblowers, claims the project was mismanaged by the conservancy, saying it was budgeted for $500,000 but ended up costing more than $1.7 million.

“It is imperative that the right actions are taken and the appropriate changes are implemented in order to hold [the] Greenway [to] the same standards as the rest of the public-funded organizations in Massachusetts,” according to the report.

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“Project costs went up, revenues went up, but we ran a balanced budget, and we delivered the most transformational public art project that Boston has seen,” Jesse Brackenbury, executive director of the conservancy, told the Globe. “Nobody’s asking the MFA what it costs to put on a show, and we’re not putting on a show behind a gate that people have to pay for. We’re putting on public art for the public — and we’re doing it with entirely private dollars.”

The Greenway has launched an internal investigation following the report.

Read the full story in the Globe.

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