Wrap artists set sights on Central Park

For two weeks in February, walkways in New York City’s Central Park will be festooned with 23 miles of saffron-colored fabric gates by the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude in a public art project they have sought to do for 23 years.

The artists had been trying unsuccessfully for years to win city approval for the piece, titled “The Gates, Central Park, New York, 1979 to 2005,” until Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is a patron of the arts, agreed to it.

Beginning next month, 7,500 16-foot metal frames designed to hold the fabric will be erected throughout the park at 15-foot intervals. The fabric will be installed on Feb. 12, 2005, the artists said, and will remain until Feb. 27.

The artists, who have previously wrapped the German Reichstag and the Pont Neuf in Paris in fabric and surrounded part of Australia’s coast in sand-colored cloth, will pay the costs related to the project and donate $3 million to the city.