City Council
Report
City Council Meeting: February 13, 2024
Agenda Item: 11.A
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To: Mayor and City Council
From: Jenny Rogers, Recreation and Arts Director, Recreation and Arts Department Subject: Approval of the Reframe: City Hall Mural Project Phase I Report Recommendations
Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the City Council:
1. Review and accept the report’s community recommendations presented by Meztli Projects (Attachment A)
2. Direct City Staff to begin the implementation phase of the Reframe: City Hall Mural project, starting with planning for the 9 recommendations included in the report.
Summary
Following direction from Council to engage the community around the Stanton McDonald Wright mural in the historic City Hall lobby, a detailed community engagement process has taken place that included focus groups, workshops, public surveys, and individual meetings with stakeholders, particularly the Native people who trace their ancestry to the Santa Monica area over the past fourteen months. Phase I of the Reframe: City Hall Mural process engaged a broad range of community members from March 2023 to November 2023. Many participants engaged with the process more than once, suggesting a depth of engagement over time. Consultant Meztli Projects created a comprehensive report of the nationwide movement around civic memory concerns, the local specifics of the City Hall Mural, and the community process used to address the mural.
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Reframe refers to the City of Santa Monica Acknowledge + Reframe Together (Reframe) Initiative, which centers community voices with the aim of creating a more just and equitable Santa Monica. Through a deliberative and collaborative process, each Reframe project starts with community members who have been historically excluded from discourse about representation in civic spaces, especially communities of color. Reframe utilizes a combination of art, storytelling and other community engagement strategies, and informs and shapes the City's public art collection and the creation of new public art.
The resulting nine recommendations that emerged from this process are:
1. Commission New Artwork(s) in City Hall Lobby
New artwork should present history from different perspectives and celebrate and reframe what is traditionally presented. The new work should create a welcoming environment for Indigenous people, working-class people and people of color.
2. Commission New Interpretive Panels
Create interpretive panels that offer context but make clear statements against the misrepresentations in the mural. The panels should give basic information about the mural and must also clearly condemn the depiction of Native people, the Mission System and white supremacy in general. The new interpretive panels should be written by an advisory group that includes at least one Indigenous person and Black, Latine/x, Asian American people and others who are excluded from the southwest mural panel.
3. Ensure that Santa Monica’s Public Art & Commemorative Landscape Centers Equity and Belonging
The Reframe: City Hall Mural process should be the beginning of a series of steps taken by the City of Santa Monica to revisit the policies and processes that govern public artwork and civic memory. These steps should begin with developing a set of equity and inclusion principles to govern decisions about existing works and how they might be addressed or deaccessioned, as well as future works and how they are commissioned. The City should review the rest of the artworks, monuments, and forms of civic memory (such as street names) in the City of Santa Monica using the criteria established.
4. Create additional educational materials about the mural 3 of 18
Many believe that the mural can serve an educational purpose in telling fuller histories about Santa Monica, including histories of First Peoples, the Rancho period, Black, Brown, and Asian communities, and working-class folks in Santa Monica. To do this well, the City should partner with a qualified educational institution with substantive partnerships and include other institutions to make this meaningful.
Beyond actions in the cultural sphere or recommendations for the City Hall Lobby, the community felt that the City should act to materially address issues related to the exclusions seen in the mural. The remaining recommendations echo the desires expressed by Gabrieleno/Tongva tribe’s formal letter (see Appendix D). “Centering the perspectives of First Peoples” and “doing something concrete, not just words” were highly rated values consistent with these recommendations. The suggestions here are not prescriptive for future processes, but pathways to open up opportunities for continued work in this area as well as deal with community members’ immediate concerns.
5. Expand DEI+ Trainings for City Staff
The City should build on actions taken since its Racial Equity Statement of 2020 and continue to go deeper to develop staff capacities around cultural exchange, decoloniality and social justice. To be successful, future efforts should focus on implementation strategies and tools for staff that center the overlapping experiences, shared spaces and mutual accountability of underrepresented peoples.
6. Adopt a Citywide Land/Territory Acknowledgment Initiative Santa Monica has an opportunity to adopt a City-wide land acknowledgment initiative that includes the actionable practices that often have been stripped from the original intentions of land acknowledgments. In developing this initiative, the City should involve but not overtax local First Peoples.
7. Improve Representation on Santa Monica Committees
Many of the issues across the country relating to the misrepresentation of peoples stems from systems that exclude marginalized communities. For Santa Monica to remedy these issues it should add First Peoples representatives to decision-making bodies such as the Airport, Landmarks, Arts and Planning Commissions among others as well as the Clean Beaches & Ocean Parcel Tax Citizens Oversight Committees, Metropolitan Water District and Urban Forest Task Force among similar bodies. 4 of 18
8. Facilitate Land Back in Santa Monica
In Santa Monica, there have been discussions about providing a right to return for displaced groups, such as incarcerated Japanese Americans, African Americans removed by urban renewal, and working-class people of all backgrounds pushed out by gentrification. Land Back considerations have not yet been part of the discussion in Santa Monica, but they can be brought into conversation alongside, not at the expense of, these other considerations.
9. Facilitate Kuruvungna Springs Relationships
While it is not in the City of Santa Monica, Kuruvungna Springs is an important site for repair and sovereignty for Santa Monica First Peoples. The Tribe named the return of the land at Kuruvungna Springs from the Los Angeles Unified School District to the Tribe in their letter to Santa Monica. In addition, Kuruvungna Springs is connected to the City Hall mural in that one of the primary legends concerning the naming of the City appears to be the encounter between Spanish settlers and the Kuruvungna Springs—an event that many believe is centrally depicted in the mural.
Consultant Meztli Projects noted in their report that “the mural and the controversy around it have created a rare and critical focal point of civic energy. The key is not to squander the moment and let it further perpetuate ill-will and distrust, but rather to use it to move towards equity, justice, and a better Santa Monica.” It is notable that this process did not result in recommending the removal of the mural at this time. Instead, the recommendations speak to the reparative actions community members signaled were of utmost importance and which are possible while keeping the mural in place.
On December 12, 2023, the Arts Commission voted to approve all of the recommendations with a focus on beginning implementation on Recommendations 1-4.
Background
On May 11, 2021, the City Council directed staff, as “part of the City’s efforts to eliminate and mitigate the vestiges of white supremacy and racial injustice in the City of Santa Monica,” to address community concerns related to the display of the 1930s Stanton McDonald Wright mural at the entrance to Santa Monica City Hall, and 5 of 18
specifically to “initiate a community engagement and education process around the representations depicted in the mural,” and engage an artist to “recontextualize the mural with artwork that…celebrates the diverse history of Santa Monica’s people”. The motion also directed staff to install a scrim in the short-term that would cover the mural (Attachment C). On September 28, 2021, Council appointed Councilmembers Christine Parra and Oscar de la Torre onto an Ad-Hoc Committee to study and make recommendations for the mural in the lobby of City Hall (Attachment D). On February 22, 2022, Council reaffirmed this action, and reversed the mandate to cover the mural, restating that the process should engage and educate our community and result “in the addition of artwork within the lobby to create a more inclusive and complete story of our City's history and vision for our future to advance the City’s commitment to equity, justice and respect for all” (Attachment E).
Civic Conversations around Representation in Public Art Civic conversations have taken place in communities around the country about public monuments and art that no longer reflect a contemporary understanding of history and community. These conversations have been taking place in government, higher education, and communities for more than a decade, increasing in frequency and urgency since the summer of 2020. From coast to coast, communities have grappled with this nation’s history of conquest, slavery, racialized violence and inequity, and homophobia to reimagine these legacies in their public spaces and buildings.
These efforts have resulted in a variety of approaches to addressing problematic public art. Some communities have moved or removed statues of individuals whose legacies bear reexamination. Others have recontextualized the original artworks through educational signage. And yet others have added new art that better reflects their understanding of community and history today. When communities have chosen to recontextualize rather than remove public art and monuments, the efforts are often driven by a desire to avoid erasing the stains of the past and to use the process and new artworks to educate, with the goal of acknowledging historic inequities and committing to a more just future.
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Past Council Actions
Meeting Date Description
05/11/21 (Attachment C) Item directing staff to embark on a community process 09/28/21 (Attachment D) Item appointing an Ad-Hoc Committee 02/22/22 (Attachment E) Item reiterating the direction to execute a community process Discussion
Reframe: City Hall Mural project Phase I recommendations When Council appointed the Mural Ad Hoc Committee in 2021, the intent was to help navigate the divergent community perspectives that were voiced around the mural.
Council directed staff to guide a process to recontextualize the City Hall mural, including a community process that gathered informed community input, and then return to the full Council with a set of recommendations for consideration. This resulted in the Reframe: City Hall Mural project and the attached community engagement Phase I report (Attachment A). Should the City Council adopt the recommendations in the Phase I report, this would allow for implementation and inform an RFP to engage an artist or artist team to produce and install artistic recontextualization(s). The implementation of the recommendations will be considered as a Phase II of Reframe City Hall Mural project.
The City engaged Meztli Projects, an Indigenous-based arts & culture collaborative centering Indigeneity by using arts-based strategies to highlight Native and Indigenous Artists and systems-impacted peoples, to facilitate Phase I of the Mural project. Meztli Projects has been successful in empowering community members, and centering community interests, bringing in civic entities and finding ways to align goals. Meztli Projects was selected for their novel approach and expertise in public art, qualitative research, experience working with Indigenous communities, expansive community engagement strategies, and most importantly, for their deep involvement in emerging conversations around authentic and new approaches to public memory and commemoration at a local, regional and national levels.
Meztli Projects’ approach to this project included:
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• A “Working Circle” composed of individuals with strong ties to very different parts of Santa Monica that served as an advisory body to the project team. Over six months, the Working Circle attended public programs as well as met as a cohort.
At the end of this process, the Working Circle discussed actions that could be taken in response to the mural. Their discussions informed the recommendations in this report.
• A series of public programs on relevant themes including a bus tour of sites of memory; virtual and in-person panel discussions about art, civic memory and alternate histories of Santa Monica; a virtual tour of relevant educational resources, a reflective listening workshop, and a screening of the documentary Town Destroyer. Additionally, they created programming through the perspective of First Peoples as a starting point to engage issues of equity and inclusion. • The creation and installation of lobby displays in Historic City Hall that explained the project and presented updates to City Hall visitors. • A feedback activity to survey members of the public about their perceptions of the mural and spark ideas for new public artworks.
• Interviews and small group engagements with a broad spectrum of individuals who have a stake in the mural conversation or have voiced opinions about it, subject matter experts, and local content experts. Meztli also visited existing community meetings and had one-on-one conversations with targeted constituencies, including City Hall staff.
Over the course of a year, the team produced public programs, conducted interviews and listening sessions with key stakeholders, surveyed hundreds of people across Santa Monica, and convened a working circle of individuals with ties to distinct communities with diverse perspectives on Santa Monica’s art and history. 8 of 18
The recommendations development process was supported by and marked by its breadth - outreach to and connection with a cross-section of people from markedly diverse perspectives; the quality and the depth of discussion and deliberation; and the degree of agreement found amongst these very diverse viewpoints. For instance, the Working Circle was selected to bring together individuals with diverse perspectives, histories, and ties to Santa Monica communities. The people who engaged through the feedback activity, interviews, small group engagements, and public programs widened the discussion even more. Everyone who engaged with us through all these methods brought deep feeling, knowledge, and thoughtfulness to the issue. The recommendations are infused with the learnings from all of the voices of those who engaged in the Reframe: City Hall Mural process.
The Working Circle
The Working Circle was made up of 13 individuals selected to represent a broad range of perspectives, life histories and community connections, and the model. This model pulled in people with connections to key Santa Monica communities to democratize knowledge and illuminate a diversity of community views. This was designed to be an intimate community group and over the course of Phase I of the project, Working Circle members engaged in open dialogue on civic history, representation and public art in Santa Monica. Additionally, this group connected to one another, gained new perspectives, and offered each one an opportunity to connect using new tools and perspectives, so they could be open to new ideas and unlearn others.
The legitimacy of the Working Circle’s process and resulting voice in the recommendations, stems from the breadth of the group–everyday citizens from astonishingly diverse starting points–and the quality and the depth of their monthly discussions. The Working Circle used a highly facilitated process similar to “Delphi Surveying'' in which the group was given three rounds of anonymous surveys to develop and refine their statements and recommendations. The group was able to find extremely significant points of agreement through this process.
Larger Public Engagement
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Phase I of the Reframe: City Hall Mural process engaged people approximately 1300 times from March 2023 to November 2023. The number of unique participants is likely smaller, considering that many people engaged with the process in multiple ways. • 123 respondents to March 2022 survey distributed to Santa Monica residents and employees
• 100 youth participants in Summer 2022 Belonging in Santa Monica workshops with Glenna Avila
• 13 Working Circle members selected from 32 applications • Approximately 270 participants at 9 public events featuring 12 guest speakers or facilitators
• 15 interview participants
• Approximately 240 participants at 14 presentations or listening sessions with community groups
• At least 200 Feedback Activity sheets distributed at 5 additional community events
• 337 respondents to the Reframe: City Hall Mural Feedback Activity 10 of 18
2023 Timeline of engagement by group/activity.
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Sample Perspectives and Community Responses
The following vignettes provide a sample of the complexities of community responses to the mural from some of the most local supporters and detractors. These responses were gathered through interviews and the feedback activities.
Organizers of the Pico Youth and Family Center (PYFC) have been at the forefront of getting the City to address the mural. Rooted in the Latine/x Pico neighborhood in Santa Monica, some members of the PYFC community identify as Chicana/o and some as part of the larger Indigenous community. Their concerns about the mural are rooted in the depictions of Brown bodies and how they are perceived as subservient or less human than the white figures in the mural. For the PYFC leadership and community, these depictions are connected to larger issues that they want addressed in their community, particularly youth issues, affordable housing, homelessness, and gentrification. Members of the Working Circle have deep ties to the community there and helped facilitate meetings with community members to gather feedback along the way.
Many PYFC community members would like the mural to be removed, while others are interested in programming and other artwork commissions to offset the settler colonial narrative perceived as reflected in the mural.
Other respondents identified themselves as Marquez family descendants. Marquez family descendants shared how proud they are that their ancestor is named in the mural, along with their knowledge of the history of the Rancho period.
For the Marquez family descendants, the mural represents a sense of pride and acknowledgment of the history of the land grant families whose time in the US predates contemporary immigration from the Americas. For them, the mural anchors their history in the region. The Marquez family descendants were opposed to removing, covering, or altering the mural, but were also strongly in favor of telling the fuller history of Santa Monica that includes the stories of people of color, such as a nuanced picture of the Rancho period, the removal of Japanese Americans during WWII, waves of Mexican 12 of 18
immigration after the Mexican Revolution, and African Americans who came to Santa Monica to work in the aerospace industry as part of the Great Migration.
The individuals who filled out the feedback activity and identified themselves as Santa Monica First Peoples (Gabrieleno, Tongva, Chumash, Tataviam, Acjachamen) almost all found the mural images offensive. The Gabrielino-Shoshone Nation of Southern California’s letter (Attachment G) specifically speaks to the harms of the mural and asks “to please reconsider your intentions to display this mural and have the common decency to think of those who this image offends and help move us forward not backwards.” Some people were against changing the artwork and removing a piece of Santa Monica history but enthusiastic about new opportunities for Tongva artists.
Additionally, Santa Monica First Peoples directly linked the mural to issues of land access and Land Back as well as other important issues Native communities in Santa Monica face. For example, the San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians, in their letter to the City of Santa Monica stated, “rather than focus on the mural itself we view this as an opportunity to discuss additional education that can assist in promoting the awareness of our Tribe, history, and culture.” They urged the City to engage in a series of actions oriented to land acknowledgments, Land Back, affordability, historical representation, etc. (Attachment H).
Sharing the Recommendations
Between October 2023 and January 2024, Meztli and City staff met with the Ad Hoc Committee, the City Council, Arts Commissioners and local stakeholders for briefings on the results of the Phase I process and to discuss the recommendations. At the open house event at City Hall in November 2023, City leadership, Conservancy and Landmarks-affiliated members of the public and local First Peoples met in free-flowing conversations to share their views on the recommendations and potential future action.
Phase II – Arts Commission
The first four recommendations in the report can be led and managed by Arts Commission with Cultural Affairs staff. The remaining recommendations are more broadly addressing issues of equity and representation and will need to be overseen by 13 of 18
the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (Equity) and a larger coalition of city staff stakeholders.
1. Commission New Artwork(s) in City Hall Lobby
2. Commission New Interpretive Panels
3. Ensure that Santa Monica’s Public Art & Commemorative Landscape Centers Equity and Belonging
4. Create additional educational materials about the mural Phase II – Equity
The City’s Equity team is currently undertaking the development of a city-wide equity plan that reflects the priorities of the diverse identities in Santa Monica, with an approach that is informed by insight from every City department. To create the plan, staff launched the process with a panel discussion featuring diverse representation to explore the concept of strategic allyship. This has been followed by a seven-month community engagement phase dedicated to collective issue identification, focused on gathering information about residents’ equity priorities and challenges. These engagement opportunities include large City community listening sessions, held both in person and virtually, as well as smaller, community led meetings. The City offered stipends to community groups to host these sessions, ensuring diverse voices were heard and their insights can be incorporated into the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) team’s analysis.
Following the community engagement process, the DEI team will present priorities and proposed solutions and ask the City Council to identify priority areas of focus. Cultural Affairs and Equity staff have been working together to ensure that DEI recommendations from the Reframe Phase I engagement process are considered when the Equity priorities are presented to Council. Specifically, these are:
5. Expand DEI+ Trainings for City Staff
6. Adopt a Citywide Land/Territory Acknowledgment Initiative
7. Improve Representation on Santa Monica Committees
8. Facilitate Land Back in Santa Monica
9. Facilitate Kuruvungna Springs Relationships
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Presently, the City’s Equity team provides city staff trainings in:
• implicit bias and racial equity in local government
• interrupting microaggressions
• civility in the workplace with a focus on inclusion and equity These trainings provide a solid foundation for the “Expand DEI+ Trainings for City Staff” recommendation #5.
Implementation Priorities and Timeline– Arts Commission Dependent on Council input and approval of the recommendations, per the community input the greatest priorities for implementation are those addressing the lobby and mural directly, specifically recommendations #1 and #2 for the creation of new artwork and interpretive panels.
A potential proposed timeline and plan would be:
• March 2024: Begin RFP development for contracts to execute priority recommended actions; this might include the start of the RFP development process for new artwork commission(s), interpretive/contextualization information-gathering on the WPA mural, and other priorities. • June 2024: RFP released for artists or artist teams to produce further community engagement around new artwork for the lobby, including artistic response(s) and artwork design. RFP for contractors to manage process to synthesize input from community stakeholders, historians and culture-bearers and create interpretive panels for the WPA mural.
• June – August 2024: Selection and procurement process for new artwork; convene panel to review proposals and select artist(s), which is then brought to the Arts Commission for consideration. Comply with Landmarks and CEQA requirements with regard to placement and alteration in the lobby as necessary.
Develop RFP for citywide civic memory and art cultural assessment. 15 of 18
• August 2024 – August 2025: Implementation of project(s) approved by the Arts Commission and implementation of interpretive panel production. Selection, procurement, and implementation process for cultural assessment.
Placement Considerations
In advance of anticipated recommendations, City staff have been meeting to determine potential placements and understand what is possible within the historic and structural constraints. Preliminary conversations have identified open spaces and walls that could feature new artwork. New artwork would be fabricated and installed with sensitivity to the historic structure and ease of cleaning, adjustment, and conservation in mind. 16 of 18
City staff regularly accomplishes projects in and around the lobby and is always sensitive to the original tile, flooring, mural and other aspects of the lobby. In 1979, the Landmarks Commission designated Santa Monica City Hall a City Landmark (Attachment F). In 2011, the Landmarks Commission supplemented the City Hall designation to specify additional exterior character-defining features of the landscaping and grounds of the City Hall site. As the interior of City Hall is not included in the designation, formal review in the form of a Certificate of Appropriateness (C of A) is not issued by staff or the Landmarks Commission to complete alterations to the interior.
Staff has nonetheless ensured in previous projects that alterations to the interior of City Hall, including the restoration of the mural in 2003, and alterations affecting the historic tile, were completed in accordance with standard practice for treatment of historic features. Because the mural is described in the original designation, should alterations to the mural be proposed as a result of the community engagement process, any such alterations will be subject to appropriate review under CEQA and issuance of a C of A.
There have been other changes within the lobby in recent years, including the addition of an elevator, replacement of tiles, additions of wall monitors and public comment kiosks. It is also notable that the present-day chandelier does not correspond to the original design. Once a project is defined, staff will analyze it to ensure compliance with CEQA, including whether appropriate exemptions apply.
Actions of the Arts Commission
The Commission voted unanimously, at the December 12, 2023, special meeting, to support the adoption of the recommendations drafted by Meztli Projects as part of Reframe: City Hall Mural Phase I Report. The Commission indicated that “Metzli Projects conducted a successful community engagement process to assess the range of people’s perceptions of and attitudes about the City Hall Mural.” 17 of 18
Next Steps
Should Council agree on this complete set of recommendations, which have been endorsed by a broad diversity of community stakeholders, staff has identified the first four priorities could be spearheaded by the Arts Commission and Cultural Affairs division over a five-year program timeline.
City Staff have secured $250,000 for preliminary implementation. This budget is sufficient to begin the process to create new artwork for the lobby and new interpretive signage in Historic City Hall. Future funding for other aspects of this project, which includes a city-wide assessment and city-wide responses to the civic memory landscape, would be requested in the future budgets and from grants. The total estimated cost for implementation of recommendations 1-4 is $1,300,000 over the next 5 years.
RECOMMENDATIONS 1-4 PROJECTS COST
Rec #1: Commission Lobby Artwork $440,000
Rec #2: Interpretive Panels $110,000
Rec #3: Educational Materials $100,000
Rec #4: Assessment + New Works $650,000
TOTAL BUDGET $1,300,000
Funding by Source
Project Source Amount Status
Commission new lobby artwork FY23-24 CIP $190,000 Included in budget New Interpretive Panels FY23-24 CIP $60,000 Included in budget Commission new lobby artworks CIP $250,000 FY 24-25 Request Interpretive Panels CIP $50,000 FY 24-25 Request
Educational Materials CIP $35,000 FY 24-25 Request
Educational Materials Grants $65,000 Not Started
Assessment of City monuments and
public artwork CIP $650,000 FY 26-27 Request
Expand DEI+ Trainings for City Staff
To DEI team for
consideration
Adopt a Citywide Land/Territory
Acknowledgment Initiative
To DEI team for
consideration
Improve Representation on Santa Monica
Committees No budget impact
Facilitate Land Back in Santa Monica
To DEI team for
consideration
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Facilitate Kuruvungna Springs
Relationships
No budget impact
Environmental Review
No environmental review is necessary as no action is being undertaken at this time.
Fiscal Impacts and Budget Actions
There is no immediate financial impact or budget action as a result of approving the recommendations in this report.
Prepared By: Sofia Klatzker, Cultural Affairs Manager
Approved Forwarded to Council
Attachments:
A. Full Meztli Report with Recommendations - Final Report B. Executive Summary of Meztli Report and Recommendations C. 5/11/21Council Item directing staff to embark on a community process (Web Link)
D. 9/28/21 Council Item appointing two Councilmembers to an Ad-Hoc Committee (Web Link)
E. 2/22/22 Council Item reiterating the direction to execute a community process (Web Link)
F. City Hall Historic Designation documents
G. 2.25.23 Letter from Gabrielino Shoshone Tribe
H. 5.12.23 Letter from Gabrielino-Tongva San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians I. Written Comments
J. PowerPoint Presentation