Here in Colorado, Congress has requested that the BLM expedite it’s environmental impact study of the proposed “Over the River” project which would take place over roughly 6 miles of Colorado’s Arkansas River. Bulgarian-born Christo and his partner-wife Jeanne-Claude, made famous for their art projects in Paris and New York, drove throughout the Rocky Mountains looking for just the right place for their new art project, which will blend, fabric, sun, water and wind for their desired artistic effect.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude propose to hang translucent fabric panels over eight segments of the Arkansas River between Canon City and Salida. The artwork would hang for just 14 days, sometime between mid-July and mid-August in 2011.

while I appreciate art, my initial take on this was negative, but the more I thought about it the more open minded I have become. Provided there is no long term environmental impact, the project would bring a lot of attention and (I hope) appreciation of Colorado’s mountains and rivers. It would certainly be an economic boon to local communities as well.

If you want to read more about this, here is the artists’ web site.

I’m curious what others think about this as well.  What are your thoughts?