TO:
FROM:
CITY OF
NEWPORT BEACH
City Council Staff Report
February 14, 2023
Agenda Item No. 15
HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL
Melissa Hartson, Library Services Director - 949-717-3801, [email protected]
PREPARED BY: Melissa Hartson, Library Services Director, [email protected]
PHONE: 949-717-3810
TITLE: Sculpture Exhibition in Civic Center Park — Phase VIII ABSTRACT:
At its January 12, 2023, regular meeting, the City Arts Commission approved 10 sculptures and four alternates for exhibition within the Civic Center Park, as selected through a survey of Newport Beach residents. The City Arts Commission requests the City Council's consideration and approval of the public selections and alternates. It should be noted that one of the top 10 selections has since become unavailable, moving one of the alternates into the top 10 with three alternates remaining. If approved, the 10 Phase VIII sculptures will be on display for a two-year period, with installation commencing in June 2023.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
a) Determine this action is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to Sections 15060(c)(2) and 15060(c)(3) of the CEQA Guidelines because this action will not result in a physical change to the environment, directly or indirectly; and
b) Approve the 10 sculptures and their placement and three alternate sculptures within Civic Center Park as selected by the public and recommended by the City Arts Commission for the temporary sculpture exhibit.
DISCUSSION:
The Sculpture Exhibition in Civic Center Park is an integral feature of the Newport Beach Civic Center. Civic Center Park, which turned nearly half a million square feet of undeveloped land into a new public park, was designed by the renowned landscape architectural firm, Peter Walker and Partners (PWP). PWP developed a master plan for art in the park, and identified various spots in the park where art, particularly sculpture, may be exhibited. The City Arts Commission determined that a rotating exhibition was an optimal approach to bring sculpture to the City of Newport Beach (City) in a cost-efficient manner. In August 2013, the Newport Beach City Council authorized the City Arts Commission to implement an inaugural rotational sculpture exhibit in Civic Center Park. 15-1
Sculpture Exhibition in Civic Center Park — Phase VIII
February 14, 2023
The acquisition program that the City Arts Commission developed for the exhibition created a model in which pieces are loaned for a two-year period (or phase). Sculptors of works chosen for the exhibition are provided with a small honorarium to loan their work to the City. The City is responsible for installing the art, while sculptors are responsible for the maintenance and repair of their work. Admission is free and the exhibition continues to be enjoyed by residents and guests of all ages and sensibilities. In essence, the exhibition has become a "museum without walls" that offers the temporary display of public art in a unique, naturalistic setting. Moreover, the City is able to exhibit a well-balanced representation of public art, with artistic merit, durability, practicality, and site responsiveness as criteria in the selection of work. The rotational nature of the exhibit ensures that residents and guests are exposed to a variety of work. Borrowing the pieces remains a cost-effective alternative to owning and maintaining permanent public art.
Since 2014, the City Arts Commission has presented seven phases of the Sculpture Exhibition, with the installation of Phase VII occurring in June 2022. On September 27, 2022, the City Council approved a Professional Services Agreement with Arts Orange County for $119,000 for Phase VIII of the Sculpture Exhibition in Civic Center Park. This amount includes project coordination and management fees, in addition to installation and de -installation fees.
Arts Orange County was established in 1995 as the nonprofit, countywide arts council of Orange County, California. Arts Orange County has been recognized by the California Arts Council as a model agency based on the quality of its work and has served as the officially designated arts agency and state -local partner of the County of Orange since its inception. The Arts Orange County project team successfully managed all previous phases of the exhibition and has strong working relationships with the City Arts Commission and City staff.
Private Funding
As in previous phases, the City Arts Commission utilized private funds to augment the total cost of Phase VIII. The Newport Beach Arts Foundation, the City designated support group for the City Arts Commission, donated $10,000 toward the project. These donated funds will be used to pay artist honorariums.
Community Input
Since the Sculpture Exhibition in Civic Center Park's inception, the City Arts Commission has increased public engagement by offering residents opportunities to become part of the selection process. For Phase VIII, the City Arts Commission included the following elements in the process:
a) As in previous phases, the City Arts Commission did not utilize an ad hoc subcommittee for Phase VIII. The entire City Arts Commission reviewed the submitted pieces for the Phase VIII Sculpture Exhibition online survey, in public, during City Arts Commission regular meetings.
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Sculpture Exhibition in Civic Center Park — Phase VIII
February 14, 2023
b) For Phase VIII, the City Arts Commission turned the selection process over to the public. Through an online survey, Newport Beach residents voted for their favorite sculptures and selected the pieces for inclusion in Phase VIII. There were 10 sculptures and four alternates selected by the public.
Prior to launching the public survey, the City Arts Commission, along with a curatorial panel, consisting of arts professionals Lisa M. Berman and Matteo Tannatt, evaluated all submissions for Phase VIII at the December 8, 2022, regular City Arts Commission meeting. Only pieces that met the following criteria were included in the public survey:
1. Artistic Merit — the artist has strong professional qualifications, and the artwork is of high quality and demonstrates originality and artistic excellence.
2. Durability — the artwork is made of high - quality materials, requires minimal maintenance and can withstand the outdoor elements of coastal Orange County.
3. Practicality —the artwork is appropriate for audiences of all ages and does not exhibit unsafe conditions that may bear on public liability.
4. Site Appropriateness —the scale of the artwork is suitable for the environment and the artwork is suitable for viewing from all angles.
Using these criteria, the City Arts Commission approved 33 submitted pieces for the public survey.
The online public survey launched on December 10, 2022 and closed on January 10, 2023. The survey was publicized through press releases and articles in the Daily Pilot and Stu News and posted to social media and on Arts Orange County's website, SparkOC.com. In addition, the poll was disseminated to the 19,000+ subscribers to the Library and Cultural Arts email distribution list and the City's email subscribers for current news and topics of interest.
Survey participants were required to provide a valid email address, report the ZIP code of their residence, and complete a reCAPTCHA security step to affirm that they were not a bot. There were 264 successfully logged entries, registering a total of 726 votes.
Arts Orange County deleted any entries that did not provide a Newport Beach ZIP code.
The poll also captured the IP address, time of voting, and type of device used to vote.
Arts Orange County used these tools to identify potential cases of double votes. For example, if two votes from the same IP address happened within minutes, voted for the same works, and had similar enough email addresses, Arts Orange County deleted one of them. If the email addresses were different enough, Arts Orange County deferred on the side of permitting them, since it could have been the product of multiple people voting on the same computer from the same household. After these steps were completed, the City Arts Commission had a validated total of 253 voters, casting 702 votes. The results are ranked in the following table.
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Sculpture Exhibition in Civic Center Park — Phase VIII
February 14, 2023
Artist
Ten Final Selections:
Work
Votes
Ranking
Ranking
Hazel, Peter
Tulip the Rockfish
63 1t
2t
Yordanov, Plamen
Pearl Infinity
63 1 t
5t
Burnes, James
Efram
54 3
10t
Knecht, Zan
Memory of Sailing, The
31 5
15t
Cartwright, Matt
Kissing Bench
29 6
17t
Braitman, Jackie
The Goddess Sol
28 7
7 Idelchick, Ilya
Newport Glider
27 1 8
10t
Daley, Catherine
Confluence #102
26 9
4 Landis, Stephen
Got Juice
23 12
1 Achterber , Luke
Inchoate
24 10t
8 Three Alternate Selections:
Carraher, Maxwell
One Another
24 10t
15t
Holz, David
Seagull Has Landed, The
22 13t
2t
Willfors, Pontus
Metal Tree
22 13t
17t
Tall, Cheryl
White Queen, The
19 15t
17t
Streeter, Lynne
One World
19 15t
60t
Whitacre, Ron
Why
18 17
27t
Walker, Bilhenry
Miseria Justorum
16 18t
9 Slick, Rachel
Compass Turtle; The Five
Directions.
16 18t
41 t
Ward, Jeni
Umbel Series: A Feast of
Flowers
15 20
10t
Vader, Patricia
Balthazar the Bulldog
14 21 t
5t
Gornushkin, Sergey
Cosmic Tan
14 21t
10t
Tan ch, David
Lockdown
14 21 t
23 Seese, Kirk
Magnify
13 24
10t
Fischer, Carrie
Invertadude
11 25t
17t
Jordan, Robert
Namaste
11 25t
24t
Lan le, Heather
PALMZILLA
8 27t
27t
Piech, Melanie
Date Dial
8 27t
36t
Light, Andrew
Divergent (with 1)
6 29
24t
Litman, Adrian Susnea
Fish in the Sky
5 30t
17t
Marquez, Andy
Alexander The Great
5 30t
41t
Moore, Norman
Seasons
4 32t
17t
Criswell, Billy
ROGUE
4 32t
27t
Hoffman, Matthew
Be Kind
46 4
24t
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Sculpture Exhibition in Civic Center Park — Phase VIII
February 14, 2023
At their January 12, 2023, regular meeting, the City Arts Commission received the public survey results. Stephen Landis' Got Juice ranked 12th with the public. However, the City Arts Commission agreed to include the piece in the Phase VIII selections because it was originally slated and approved for the Phase VII Exhibition. It ranked second in the public survey and first with the City Arts Commission for Phase VII. During transport for its Phase VII installation, the piece was damaged beyond minor repairs requiring it to be withdrawn from Phase VII.
Matthew Hoffman's Be Kind, ranking fourth in the public survey, was approved as a top 10 selection at the City Arts Commission's January 12, 2023 meeting. However, upon notifying Mr. Hoffman that his piece would move to City Council's approval, Arts Orange County was informed that the piece was no longer available. Thus, the first of the four alternates selected at the City Arts Commission's meeting, Inchoate by Luke Achterberg, moved into the top 10 selections, resulting in only three alternates remaining. As in previous phases of the exhibition, these three alternates will be used if any of the 10 winning pieces are withdrawn from the exhibition.
Pending City Council approval, installation at the proposed sites will commence on June 1, 2023 and will continue through June 16, 2023.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The adopted budget includes sufficient funding for Phase VIII installation. It will be funded from the Restricted Programming Sculpture Garden VNB resources appropriated in the Sculpture Garden VNB Project Account No. 1800012-811059-1-2301. The donated funds of $10,000 are available for artist honorariums in the Sculpture Garden Project Account No. 01060603-811059-1-2301 in the budget for the Cultural Arts Division of the Library Services Department.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW:
Staff recommends the City Council find this action is not subject to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to Sections 15060(c)(2) (the activity will not result in a direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment) and 15060(c)(3) (the activity is not a project as defined in Section 15378) of the CEQA Guidelines, California Code of Regulations, Title 14, Chapter 3, because it has no potential for resulting in physical change to the environment, directly or indirectly.
NOTICING:
The agenda item has been noticed according to the Brown Act (72 hours in advance of the meeting at which the City Council considers the item).
ATTACHMENT:
Attachment A — Selected Works
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Phase VI I I Selections
Et Alternates
I---- 1-1:-,:,,-, ---- 1-1111,
Approved by Newport Beach City Arts Commission
1/12/2023
Tulip the Rockfish
Peter Hazel
(Reno, NV)
Size: 5 ft high, 10 ft long, 3ft wide
Weight: 500'
Medium: Handmade Mosaic tile and
Concrete
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15-7
Yordanov, Plamen. Pearl Infinity. Slide 1 of 2.
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Yordanov, Plamen. Pearl Infinity. Slide 2 of 2.
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Burnes, James. Efrom. Slide 1 of 2.
Burnes, James. Efrom. Slide 2 of 2.
The Memory of Sailing
Zan Knecht
(Grand Rapids, MI)
Size: 10 ft x 4 ft x 3 ft
Weight: n/a
Medium: Corten Steel
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15-10
Kissing Bench
Matt Cartwright �••
(Portland, OR)
Size: 60" wide x 18" deep x 36" tall ,
Weight: 130'
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Medium: Formed and polished stainless
steel (304 alloy,) 2"x 1/8" flat bar strips,....
stainless(304) 1/2" sch40 pipe, UV resistant
clear red gloss
15-11
Braitman, Jackie. The Goddess Sol. Slide 1 of 2.
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Braitman, Jackie. The Goddess Sol. Slide 2 of 2.
Newport Glider
Ilya Idelchick
(Solana Beach, CA)
Size: Metal Pole 10'h
Metal base 24" x 24"
Monkey & Kite 6'w x 3'd x 5'h
Weight: 120'
Medium: Metal, Aluminum, Metal mesh,
Fiber Glass Resin, Marine Paint
15-13
M
Confluence #102
Catherine Daley
(Windsor, CA)
Size: 10'H x 23.5"W x TD
Weight: 450'
Medium: Aluminum, stainless all thread,
stainless washers, stainless concrete screws
15-14
Landis, Stephen. Got Juice. Slide 1 of 2.
Landis, Stephen. Got Juice. Slide 2 of 2.
ALTERNATE
#1
TO BE INCLUDED
REPLACING
"BE KIND"
15-16
Inchoate
Luke Achterberg
(Onalaska, WI)
Size: 11' tall, 3' wide, 2' deep
Weight: Approximately 350 pounds
Medium: Automotive Acrylic Paint on Steel
15-17
ALTERNATES
#2, 3, 4
15-18
Carraher, Maxwell. One Another. Slide 1 of 2.
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Carraher, Maxwell. One Another. Slide 2 of 2.
Holz, David. Seagull Has Landed, The. Slide 1 of 2.
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"The Seagull Has Landed" 6-2012 Fabricated
and Welded 6061 Aluminum -installation -Salt Lake City, Utah Holz, David. Seagull Has Landed, The. Slide 2 of 2.
Metal Tree
Pontus Willfors
(Inglewood, CA)
Size: 195"L, 216"H, 190"W
Weight: 500'
Medium: Aluminum
15-21
SELECTION WITHDRAWN
BY ARTIST
15-22
Be Kind
Matthew Hoffman
(Chicago, IL)
Size: 6' Tall, 8' Wide, 3' Deep
Weight: 1,000'
Medium: Recycled HDPE, HDPE, Marine Grade
Plywood
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15-23
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RECOMMENDED PLACEMENTS FOR PHASE VIII
RELOCATED PHASE VII WORK - "TO THE MOON"
15-24