Emeryville, California Adopts Public Art Master Plan

Emeryville, California Adopts Public Art Master Plan

Emeryville’s vision to be a city that values art comes from a long legacy of public art champions and a commitment of investment in the arts at a citywide level for over twenty-five years.

Today the City’s Art in Public Places Program has nearly 70 publicly-owned art works and 230 art installations available to the public in private locations. Both collections are growing as the City continues to commission additional work, and as private development extends the reach of the Art in Public Places program. With an exceptional first twenty-five years, Emeryville’s AiPP program has secured its reputation within the East Bay as a community that uses public art to promote community excellence, innovation and sense of place. In an effort to look forward to the next twenty-five years, the city sought the input of the community to determine what is next for the Art in Public Places Program in Emeryville.

OUR LEGACY, OUR VISION

In 1990, it was common for the City and corporate residents to include significant pieces of art in public spaces, which was becoming increasingly more popular. In an effort to formalize the growing practice, the City of Emeryville established a “Percent for Art” ordinance. The Ordinance guaranteed a parallel investment in the arts from both municipal and private commercial development projects to include public artwork within projects. Developers have the option of either providing publicly-accessible private art on-site or contributing to the Art in Public Places fund, which is used to purchase or commission public art owned by the City. As a result of increased development during the life of the program, the ordinance ensured investment in the expansion of the City’s public art collection, and continues to do so today.

Through the City Council, the Public Art Fund is administered based upon the advice of the Emeryville Public Art Committee, an advisory committee of nine voting members. The primary role of the Public Art Committee is to advise the City Council and the community on the selection of public art, including selecting locations. The committee considers the appropriateness of the artwork in scale, material, form and content, the inherent quality of the work, and diversity in the type of artwork in style, size, media and materials.

The City, together with the Public Art Committee, grew the collection to include over 300 pieces of which 70 are publicly-owned. Pieces include those displayed in City Hall, which the City purchased from the annual Emeryville Art Exhibition and thirteen commissioned pieces displayed in park spaces and public buildings throughout Emeryville. An award-winning utility box art program, Sign of the Times and a Bus Shelter Temporary Art Program featuring rotating Emeryville artists (appendix p. 71) have also resulted from the efforts of the City and the Public Art Committee. Publicly-accessible private art in Emeryville has grown to over 80 exterior pieces in courtyards, on building facades, and in landscaped areas, and nearly 150 interior pieces including paintings, sculptures and textiles. Fifteen percent of the AiPP Collection was commissioned from Emeryville artists.

WHY A MASTER PLAN?

After its hugely successful first twenty-five years, a major goal of the Public Art Master Plan is to define the focus of the program for the residents, business owners, and other stakeholders who help define what is important to the community and Emeryville’s identity. By using the community engagement results, the City can facilitate a future of the AiPP program that is meaningful, locally-based and one that resonates with residents and visitors alike.

The final public art master plan, adopted unanimously by Council on November 15, 2016, presents nine conceptual projects and six conceptual programs as well as 6 goals and 32 action steps. Check out the final Public Art Master Plan here.