Planning for more public art: Proposals sought for Water Street exhibit

If the vision of the Petaluma Public Arts Committee comes to pass, soon a walk along the Petaluma River down Water Street will become the hip thing to do, thanks to a new public art project.

“We want people to get off the main street and relate to the river,” said Alison Marks, chair of the committee. “People come to town and they don’t even know the river is here. We want to create more of a sense of the place along the river corridor so people can walk along the riverfront and learn things.”

In December the Petaluma Public Arts Committee started the process of establishing an original, outdoor art piece for the riverfront, and is currently seeking qualified artists to come up with ideas for how to adorn the space. Marks, a force behind the city’s Public Arts Ordinance 10 years ago, is optimistic that the 18-month process will result in a unique and appropriate work of public art, but she’s not making any guesses as to what it will look like.

“There’s so many different ways that public art can be approached,” she said, listing riverside installations that included lighting effects, tidal patterns, floating installations, installations that use wind or shade. “We don’t have a preconceived idea of what the installation should look like. We are opening it up, and looking forward to seeing what sort of proposals come in.”

The Petaluma Public Art Committee works with city staff to organize and implement the effort, including finding locations and artists.

The request for qualifications is the first of several steps in the process. The six-page call for artists was issued last month and distributed among public artists and organizations around the country, asking for qualifications and examples of previous work to find an artist whose skills match the project’s grand scale.

The deadline to apply is Feb. 2, at which point three to five qualified artists will be asked to submit a request for proposal, outlining what their vision (and budget) is for this premiere stretch of downtown real estate. Each will be awarded a $1,000 stipend to develop their idea; the winner will be selected to create their concept using a project budget of up to $150,000.

“We decided that the riverfront is a very important site,” said Marks. “It’s where the town started – the first trading post was right down there by the river.”

Funding for this highly visible public arts project in Petaluma comes from the 2004 ordinance requiring commercial building projects to contribute 1 percent of their total project cost to the city’s public art fund – or build their own, city-approved art at the same cost. Of the two major developments in Petaluma over the past decade, the Regency shopping center (anchored by Target) chose to donate their 1 percent to the Petaluma Public Art Fund, which currently holds about $300,000.

The other large development, Deer Creek Village, chose to fund their own public art projects, and the first stage of their efforts appeared in August in front of the Togo sandwich shop: the tail end of a diving whale made of recycled metal by Sacramento artist Terrance Martin. It’s the first in $500,000 of art installations that developer Merlone Geier is reportedly planning to install throughout the extensive shopping center, to include sculptural benches and bridge railings, illuminated pedestals for local artworks and other installations.

The first acquisition of the committee was the whimsical sculpture “Cherry Soda” by the late Penngrove artist Robert Ellison that is prominently displayed outside of the Boulevard Cinemas. It was originally loaned to the city through the Voigt Sculpture Foundation, then purchased by the Petaluma arts fund in 2012 for its permanent installation.

What eventually appears on Water Street is yet to be determined, but it’s an unknown that appeals to members of the Public Arts Committee.

“I don’t even want to venture a guess as to what might come in,” said Marks. “I’m excited to be surprised.”

To learn more about the Public Art Committee’s request for qualified artists, visit tinyurl.com/jwzbdkl.

(Contact Christian Kallen at argus@arguscourier.com)