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In the not-too-distant future, Allen Root will erect a new piece of public art in Mitchell Park paid for with your money. Many of you will admire this new creation for its colorful playfulness and clever design. Some of you will be left scratching your heads, wondering “Why did they pick that?�
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Let the damage begin!
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Kate Britton’s Garnet, that sensuously bulbous three-breasted bronze currently stationed in the parking lot of Nipomo and Higuera (you may remember that this “daringâ€? piece was ridden out of Old Town Arroyo Grande on a rail), is our most recent public art casualty. She’s been knocked from her moorings, no doubt by a collection of inebriated art critics raised on Beavis and Butthead and Jackass reruns. Your tax dollars will be used to fix her.Â
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Going, going, gone…
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Our public art ordinance dictates that one percent of the total cost of new construction and capital improvement projects should be earmarked for public art. Whether for a public or private development project, the percentage remains the same … or does it?
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Is that all there is?
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A three-ring binder containing proposals for the Mitchell Park project was delivered to my New Times office. Excited as a kid on Christmas, I opened it up and began looking through the options. There were only six.
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Making the cut, in addition to Root’s winning piece (see the pictured artist’s rendering), was a symmetrical sculpture made of steel with symbols emblematic of the Mitchell Park area. It was rather easy for we jurists to figure out it was designed by Jim Jacobson, who already has more than half a dozen public artworks on display in the city, including the similarly designed kinetic sculptures along the creek walk as well as Flames of Knowledge, another mobile-like piece outside the Parks & Rec Department on Nipomo Street.
The final artist we chose to have return and make a formal presentation was Gary Garrett, who offered a bronzed sculpture of a small child’s hands formed to make a bird in flight. He had done a similar sculpture of a grown man’s hands, which he used as an example. But Garrett proposed to mount his sculpture on what appeared to be a plain concrete pylon thick enough to support a highway overpass. Bill Pyper said that the entire proposal looked as if it belonged in a cemetery, but we collectively decided to have Garrett come talk to us about it, mainly, I think, because his sculpture was the proposal closest to actual fine art … at least the bronze part of his proposal. Most of the proposals were corporate, commercial, or conceptual—creativity aimed at the lowest common denominator.
Garrett, a novice to the public art arena, was more than willing to accommodate the desires of the committee. He was completely open to our suggestions for redesigning the base, for instance. The real sculpture expert in our group, Barry Frantz, the retired Chairmen of Cuesta College’s well-respected Art Department, knew all the right questions to ask. Garrett planned to create the sculpture small and then have the foundry where it would be cast size it up to monumental scale, but Frantz knew the procedure didn’t always yield successful results. Small errors may charm a viewer when a sculpture is tiny, but blown up huge, the errors result in a sculpture that looks clumsy at best.
In retrospect, Frantz also worries that an artist with so unformed a concept, who is also so open to suggestions from the jury, will eventually deliver a watered down, homogenized version of his vision, resulting in art by committee, a surefire way to generate unadulterated pap. It was fairly clear, this was a two horse race: Allen Root versus Jim Jacobson.
Both artists were clearly up to the task. Each had completed multiple public art projects on time and on budget. Root had the biggest project under his belt, a $330,000 project for Palm Desert, making this $22,000 job look awfully piddly. I personally thought both artists’ proposals were worthy, but I questioned if the city really needed another Jacobson piece, especially one that looked so similar to his other designs. After a thorough discussion and vetting of the designs, the jury reached a consensus: We picked Root’s towering, colorful, whimsical, vandalism-proof, artistically safe, uncontroversial Perpetual Hope.
The Rodney Dangerfield of public art
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It’s a real tribute to Root that he continues to throw his hat into the public art ring. He knows, perhaps better than most artists, what it means to get no respect. He was the artist behind Community’s Bridge. Hmm, I see you saying to yourself, what’s that? What indeed! Root’s Community’s Bridge was the art-deco series of blue benches that used to be on Higuera Street in front of Copeland’s new Court Street Project.
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The benches were removed so they wouldn’t be damaged during construction of the new shopping mall, but after it was completed, the developers decided they didn’t want the benches back, even though Root designed the benches to remind citizens that right under Higuera Street, at the very spot they were installed, we had covered over San Luis Creek. The cream and green art deco mountain elements of the project are meant to remind us that on the other side of these tall building we’ve surrounded ourselves with, sit a chain of majestic mountains that run from the city to the sea.
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Root went through a jury, the architectural review, and the City Council to win the $33,730 project. It’s not entirely clear why the Copelands don’t want them back: maybe the design will interfere with traffic flow, though that sidewalk was purposely widened to accommodate the benches; or maybe too many transients sit on them disturbing commerce; or maybe the Copelands think they’re just plain ugly. It doesn’t matter, really, but ever since it became clear the benches wouldn’t be returned, the city has been trying to find a place to put them.
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At one point, it was suggested they go in front of the County Government Center. The benches’ deco elements seem like a natural complement to the Fremont Theater, and they’d still be close enough to San Luis Creek for that design element to make sense. While not his first choice—he wanted them back on Higuera—Root approved the location. It was a City sculpture going on County land, so City Administrator Ken Hampian approached his County counterpart David Edge, and the process to approve the installation commenced. Then Superior Court Judge Michael Duffy wrote a letter to Edge explaining how the whimsical benches didn’t reflect the serious nature of the work that went on in the County Government Center. No, really. Stop laughing; it’s true.
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Let’s hope that the public art proposals for the new County Government Center across the street meet the approval of everyone who works within that building. There’s $105,000 in art on the line, and it better be darn serious! Something bureaucratic! Maybe the entire structure could be wrapped, Cristo-style, in red tape!
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The City continued with its frantic search for a location for Root’s benches. After several possible locations were discussed and discarded, Root—who at least had been consulted throughout the process—and the city agreed to move the benches to Emerson Park (near the corner of Nipomo and Pacific Streets), even though their design has no real connection to that area. Root approved of the move for a couple of reasons: He figured they’d get used there; and the Copelands promised to build a bocce ball court at Emerson. “It was good for the community,� said Root magnanimously. The Copelands also promised the city they’d spend $15,000 on public art for the Court Street Project.
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But again, one can’t be faulted for wondering, if this is how we treat one of our best known public artists, if this is how we demonstrate how we value his talents and efforts, how can we expect to get better proposals, more proposals, and the kind of public art that we can really be proud of?
Something’s better than nothing
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Okay, I see steam coming out of a lot of ears. You think I’m
Glen Starkey will spend the rest of the week under a wrapping created by Cristo. Tell him he looks better covered up at [email protected].
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