To: Honorable Mayor and Members of City Council
From: Rick Tooker, Community Development Director
Prepared By: Shari Cooper, Development Project Coordinator
TITLE:
Title
City Corporation Yard Fence Public Art Project
LABEL
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Recommendationle
1. Approve the concept design for the City of Napa Corporation Yard Public Art fence project; and
2. Determine that the project is exempt from CEQA; and
3. Approve the Agreement for Services with Mikey Kelly in an amount not to exceed $40,000 for the design, fabrication, and installation of the project, and authorize the City Manager to execute the agreement.
Body
DISCUSSION:
The Public Art Steering Committee (PASC) makes recommendations to the City Manager and City Council on the expenditures of the Public Art Fund and potential art projects that are consistent with the Public Art Master Plan approved by Council in June 2014. In the fall of 2016, the PASC identified a public art project and recommended an expenditure of $40,000 to fund a project located at the City’s Corporation Yard fence at 770 Jackson Street. This location is adjacent to the Vine Trail and within the recently presented Rail Arts District (RAD) that was established by the Napa Valley Vine Trail and Napa Valley Wine Train last year. On December 20, 2016, the Council authorized both the Corp Yard fence project and the funding request.
Staff issued a Request for Qualifications and received seven responses from artists. On February 28, 2017, the PASC unanimously selected Napa artist Mikey Kelly for the project.
The Corporation Yard fence is approximately seven feet tall and extends 710 feet in length between Jackson and Lincoln streets. As proposed, the artist will paint over the privacy slats and install steel silhouettes of Vine Trail users upon the fence (see Attachment 1: “Begin and Continue” Proposal for Artwork by Mikey Kelly). To accomplish the project, the artist will work with area youth to design and install the art.
The art will be created in a multiple-phase process. The first process will use language and ciphers to create an algorithm that will guide the colors to be painted on the existing chain link privacy slats, covering the entire length of the fence. As an example, the artist will solicit from the community information that will generate certain words (e.g., respect, community, healthy, etc.) that will be weighted similar to a “word cloud” and final colors will be selected on the basis of the weighting of these words. The second process will involve photographing community members that use the path on a daily basis. The artist will use these images to create life-sized steel silhouettes of Vine Trail users, which will be attached to the existing fence.
FINANCIAL IMPACTS:
The proposed action is within an approved budget in the Public Art Fund and will have no impact on the General Fund.
USES: 21701-53201 - $40,000
CEQA:
The Community Development Director recommends that the City council determine that the Recommended Action described in this Agenda Report is exempt from CEQA, pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15301 (minor alteration of existing public facility).
DOCUMENTS ATTACHED:
1. Attachment 1: “Begin and Continue” Proposal for Artwork by Mikey Kelly
2. Attachment 2: Agreement for Services
NOTIFICATION:
City staff notified the PASC and the Napa Valley Vine Trail Coalition in advance of the meeting date.