Water Street public art process revised

Petaluma’s Public Art Committee is nearly ready to try again to commission a $150,000 piece of art for Water Street, with high hopes that it will be able to find a creator that can fulfill the vision for the nascent riverfront location the second time around.

After the first attempt to select an artist to create an original piece for a strip along Petaluma’s central waterway yielded lackluster results, the committee in April decided to rethink its process and ultimately restart the search. After reflection and research, the panel plans to take a different approach to the process of seeking an artist and working with the community. Art committee members hope the approach will encourage more clarity and collaboration.

During the original process, the committee chose four finalists based on their qualifications and asked them to submit a proposal for a site-specific artwork. The proposals, which included a large floating leg statue and two marine knots mounted on pedestals, drew mixed reactions from the community, and after the committee nixed the final two contenders - “WhirliBird,” a series of four sculptures by Oakland-based arts nonprofit Flux Foundation, and “Vertical River,” a wind-animated piece by Sebastopol artist Ned Kahn - city staff began to work with public art managers and coordinators from Santa Rosa, Walnut Creek and Napa to help identify and develop best practices based on experiences from the nearby cities.

At its meeting last month, the committee signaled its approval for a procedure that will simplify the submission process for artists’ qualifications, establish a selection committee comprised of stakeholders and committee members to be immediately involved in identifying finalists before honing in on a single artist to develop a piece while working with closely with the committee, city and the public, Associate Planner Jacqueline Overzet said.

“Last time, the public art pieces weren’t quite what the committee thought they would be, but this allows them more collaboration and the committee will be involved in various steps of development and proposal, rather than getting proposals and being stuck and only being able to revise minor things,” she said. “This will really help them be a bigger part in making sure they get what they want and have the community be involved as well.”

At its Sept. 22 meeting, the committee will discuss making final tweaks to the request for qualifications from artists as well as potentially bringing a professional public art consultant on board, and with the committee’s approval, a global call to creators could be issued as soon as October, she said. The period to submit qualifications would be open for a month, she said, with hopes that art might be installed by spring 2018 – more than three years after the process initially kicked off.

The $150,000 budget for the project comes from money collected from developers of large projects who are required to either pay a fee into the fund or to commission their own public art. The public art fund, established with the passing of a 2005 ordinance, currently has a balance of $447,723, according to the most recent statement.

The Water Street installation will be the city’s first piece of commissioned art, according to Planning Manager Heather Hines. In 2008, the panel sought artists to create an installation to accompany the rehabilitation of the downtown fire station, though the project never came to fruition and the public art was never finalized, Hines said.

Chairwoman Caroline Hall said it’s vital that the committee works with an artist to create an original piece rather than acquire an already-created artwork as it did with the $25,000 “Cherry Soda” that’s outside the Boulevard Theater in downtown Petaluma.

“In this process we’re more likely to get a more tailored piece for the space rather than something that sort of plops down. I think that’s why we were disappointed with the other two (finalists) – they felt like they could be anywhere and didn’t really feel special,” Hall said.

The committee has long lauded Water Street as the heart of the city and a key spot for its first piece of commissioned art, but various members have said the space has proven difficult to accommodate.

“We want someone who would be able to pull off a project of this size – someone with a great vision someone who understands the Petaluma community and the sort of importance of this place in the city and the historical importance of it as well,” Hall said. “It’s a special place and we need someone who can really understand it.”

Hall said she felt the initial commission process went smoothly, adding that she “feels positive” about the future of the Water Street project.

Beverly Schor, one of the committee’s newest members, echoed the hopeful sentiment.

“I have a great deal of confidence that the committee is going to proceed in a way that is not only similar and in line with other communities of a similar size and stature but also have guidelines for artists so they have a better idea of what’s going on,” she said. “I thought all the artists selected last time were certainly capable of producing something that would enhance that space, I just don’t think the process gave them enough information early on so that they could be a success.”?(Contact Hannah Beausang at hannah.beausang@arguscourier.com. On Twitter @hannahbeausang.)