Massive sculpture may return home to Petaluma

A famed sculpture by an internationally-renowned artist with deep local roots may find a home in Petaluma after a Marin County city rejected the large-scale steel artwork valued at more than $1 million amid a bout of controversy last year.

“Huru,” a monumental piece by abstract expressionist sculptor Mark di Suvero that weighs in at six tons and stands at 55 feet tall with a 33-foot triangular base, has been offered to the city on a longtime loan from its current owner, Petaluma resident Carol McKegney, whose late husband, Lowell was di Suvero’s “right hand man.”

Di Suvero, a National Medal of Arts recipient, has long operated a studio in Petaluma, with his metalworks displayed globally.

After a similar proposal was turned down in Tiburon, a small town with a population of about 9,000, when no appropriate location could be found for the piece last winter, McKegney made the offer to the Petaluma Public Art Committee at a February meeting, suggesting that the sculpture be placed on the McNear Peninsula. The proposal garnered support from the committee, who voted 5-0 to support the process and find an appropriate site for the work.

However, Steamer Landing Park, the 10-acre parcel of city-owned land on the peninsula that juts out into the Petaluma River, is permanently protected by a conservation easement held by the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District that may not allow the installation, creating a potential speed bump in the homecoming path for the artwork.

The tip of the peninsula at the split of the river is privately owned and not protected by conservation easement, according to Petaluma Planning Manager Heather Hines, who said approaching the landowner about a potential placement may also be possible.

Sheri Emerson, the open space district’s stewardship program manager, said the language of the conservation easement agreement doesn’t expressly address public art, but instead identifies the protected area as a space intended for low intensity recreation, habitat restoration and conservation.

“Our first read was that, well, the easement is kind of limited and restricts uses and activities to low intensity recreation and allowed improvements connected with that – boat docks, parking lots or restrooms – but this didn’t seem to be quite consistent,” she said. “A staff person who looked through it didn’t find any reference to art, which is more difficult.”

She said the county is “supportive of public art,” and if the city requested a further investigation, a “measured and thoughtful review” would be undertaken by the county over a 45-day period, with a deeper study of the easement document language, and a look at uses on the 199 other spaces protected by conservation easements, though the installation isn’t ruled out yet.

Hines said the county initially indicated that there didn’t seem to be a way the art would fit in the parameters of the conservation easement, but said she would reopen the conversation, adding that other locations in the city might be difficult to accommodate due to the height of the piece.

McKegney, a former Petaluma teacher, said other cities including San Francisco, have expressed interest in the sculpture, but she feels strongly that Petaluma is the right place – specifically the highly-visible McNear Peninsula, which she said would draw in art enthusiasts while paying homage to di Suvero and her husband.

McKegney said her husband’s family, who were prominent in Marin County, took in di Suvero’s family after they emigrated from Shanghai, and Lowell, her husband of 37 years, worked closely with di Suivero. The artist gave “Huru” to the McKegney family as a gift, she said.

“It has visibility and its puts us right on the map as a place with some cosmopolitan sophistication, not just as the chicken capital, or the ugly dog center,” she said. “It says something about our art heritage.”

She said di Suvero is “totally in favor” of the Petaluma installation, adding that issues about size and placement voiced in Tiburon wouldn’t likely enter into the conversations in Petaluma.

“Tiburon had more dense population in a small space,” she said. “Petaluma is spread out, and the location I selected wouldn’t block anyone’s view.”

Outgoing Public Art Committee member Karen Petersen said the panel plans to pursue ways to iron things out at the McNear Peninsula location, but won’t rule out looking at other locations around the city, though alternative spots have yet to be identified. She said she supports including the piece in the cityscape.

“You’re taking about Mark di Suvero, an artist of international reputation, with works in Paris and all over the world,” she said. “Despite the fact that he’s maintained a studio in Petaluma for decades, we have none of his work here and this is a wonderful opportunity to do that.”

Hines said specifics, including costs or permits surrounding installation and engineering or the timeline for when the issue might make its way to the city council for final approval, have yet to be determined. She said the discussion will likely make its way onto the committee’s July 28 meeting agenda.

“There are many steps ahead of us,” Hines said, adding that the city has yet to receive public comment on the sculpture.

Committee member Kevin McDonnell said Petaluma is “lucky” to be considered for the offer.

“It’s a world class piece by a world class artist that would be brought to our public art collection. It’s just too fabulous to pass up,” he said.

(Contact Hannah Beausang at hannah.beausang@arguscourier.com. On Twitter @hannahbeausang.)