Call to Artists: Coronado Bay Bridge Lighting

The Port of San Diego has issued a call for artists to submit proposals for the Coronado Bridge lighting project. All proposals are due June 6 at 5pm.

Urban Trees 5 Pieces Chosen

As mentioned last week, the PAC voted on this year's Urban Trees. Those pieces are:

Aquatic Man by Ky Baker
Break-Dancers by Michael L. Barrows
Sign Diego by Sara Beam (and four unnamed artists)
Trimming the Tree by Christie Beniston
Geometree by Josh Bowman
School of Blue Bottle-Noses by David Boyer
Seahorse by David "DJ" Brelje
Seahorse by Chris Brown
Prelude by Jennifer Cannon
A Tree for All Seasons by Pat Cranor
Fire Blossom Tree by Greg Eng
Tailwalking Suncatcher by Stephen Fairfield
(Untitled) by Ted Sitting Crow Garner
2+2 Makes 3 by Mitchell Gaul
Pinion by Jon Koehler
Imagine by Kent Kraber
Californiascope by Vicki Leon (and two unnamed artists)
A Day in the Life by Meilisa Lim
Air Filter by Viviana Lombrozo
Pele, Goddess of Fire by Frank Mando
Tree Pixie by Deana Mando
Birds in a Tree by Mark Meier
Wind and Water - Blessing Tree by Melissa Ralston
Stairway to Heaven by Tom Roberts
My Bike by Steven (Amos) Robinson
Sea and Sky by Ken Smith
Two Tiers: Tiers of Desire, Tiers of Understanding by Lia Strell
HisTree of Surfboards by Mike Thornton
Ramble On by Joey Vaiasuso
Lean on Me by Robert Verhees

Port votes on which of UT4 to buy

Yesterday the Public Art Committee decided how to spend the $40,000 budget they had set aside to purchase some of the Trees from the previous year, as they have done with each UT iteration.

After some debate, the pieces chosen were as follows:
Orange Tree by Guy and Ellen Mayenobe
Hellicoid III by Robert Pietruszewski
San Diego Synergy by Kent Kraber

Jim Trask's Oops...There Goes Another Rubber Tree Plant! was also named as an alternate.

Some of the criteria being considered are how well the pieces are made and of what materials, how difficult it would be to site the work elsewhere in the city (trees purchased from past UT rounds no longer have spaces allotted to them on the waterfront), how accessible the concept of each piece is to the public, and, of course, how much the artists listed each piece for.

Lance Jordan's Aquamarine Dream was also high on the committee members' lists. Director Sass praised the craftsmanship of the work, but the committee decided it would be too difficult to find a suitable site for the work.

Committee votes on Urban Trees 5

At a meeting yesterday, the Public Art Committee chose which submissions to present to the Port board for Urban Trees 5. Out of approximately 130 entries, 30 were chosen, plus four alternates. The list of which artists' pieces were chosen is as of yet unavailable.

Among those entries not chosen were five pieces submitted by an eighth grade class from Warren Walker Middle School in Mission Valley. The project was led by science teacher Hunter Paschkow and Dean Susan Pettigrew.

Art Picnic Tables - Calling All Artists

In addition to the upcoming Urban Trees 5 project, the port is initiating a joint effort with the Port's Land Use Planning Department to renovate the existing concrete picnic tables in Embarcadero Marina Park North. All proposals are due by March 10.

Urban Trees 5 - Calling All Artists

In an effort to attract locals and tourists alike to the waterfront, the port initiated the Urban Trees program in 2003. They commissioned 30 artists to construct tree themed sculptures - based on a 12 foot by 6 inch (diameter) pole - to be placed along a half mile stretch of San Diego Bay, from Broadway Pier to Hawthorn St. The project was initiated as part of the North Embarcadero Visionary Plan, in which the port, along with the City of San Diego and Centre City Development Corporation, are gradually giving the area a face lift.

Trees is now entering its fifth iteration, and the port is calling for artist submissions for jury consideration. For each of the Trees projects the port chooses only 30 artists to participate, although the last version, Urban Trees 4, had nearly 120 applicants. All finished pieces are available for sale at the close of the exhibition, which will run for about a year.

All artist proposals are due to the port by March 5. Winners will be chosen at the committee meeting on March 12, and all selected artwork must be ready for delivery and installation by June 30. Artists may submit up to two proposals each.

Today's Committee Meeting Cancelled

The Port committees meet on the second Wednesday of each month at 1:30pm. Today's meeting, however, was canceled due to scheduling conflicts. The Port is attempting to reschedule the meetings to accommodate board members with other such committee and board obligations.

The next meeting is scheduled for March 18th, but subsequent meeting dates have not been finalized as of yet.

The Coronado Bridge proposal mentioned in the previous post with have to be presented at next month's meeting.

New Lights for Coronado Bridge?

According to the agenda for tomorrow's Port District meeting, Public Arts Director Sass will be proposing the signature art piece for the Port, in cooperation with CalTrans, which will revamp the way the iconic bridge is illuminated. There is mention in the agenda item of wanting to incorporate technology such as LEDs in the piece.

The bridge is not technically under the Public Arts Committee's jurisdiction, but the proposal argues that because the bridge bisects the bay, which the PAC does control, and is "visible from each member city," that this would be an appropriate project for the PAC to take on. CalTrans is reportedly already on board with the project, and the PAC has agreed upon a budget of $15-20,000.

The proposal at tomorrow's meeting, then, will be asking the Port Authority to effectively finalize this partnership and begin the process of seeking out designs for the project.

An Introduction to the Unified Port of San Diego

San Diego's Unified Port district was established in 1963 as a self-supporting public benefit corporation by an act of the state legislature, according to its website. The port oversees the public properties along the bay, as well as Imperial Beach, and more than 600 waterfront businesses.

The port's public art program has been involved in dressing up San Diego's waterfront for more than 10 years. The art is intended to not only beautify the waterfront, but also to attract tourists to the area. Of the annual budget of $2.6 million (of the Port's roughly $130 million) to support the small staff and acquisitions and maintenance of these public projects, approximately $600,000 was set aside this fiscal year to buy and borrow new art, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

The various installations and public projects have occasionally sparked controversy over the past decade, and some proposed projects were pulled because of public outcry. One installation, a montage of fiberglass boats, was abandoned in 1999 after the public said it too closely resembled a shipwreck. A more recent addition, Unconditional Surrender, which is a 25 foot color representation of the famous V-Day in Times Square photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt, has brought the wrath of UT Art Critic Robert L. Pincus, among others.