San Luis Obispo Public Art Master Plan

San Luis Obispo, California

Why

San Luis Obispo’s vision for public art stems from a long legacy of public art champions and from over twenty-five years of investment in the arts at a citywide level. In 1990, the city of San Luis Obispo established and funded a public art program. This funding included a percent (1%)of the estimated construction cost of eligible projects in the Capital Improvement Plan to be set aside for public art.

With an exceptional first twenty five years in action, the San Luis Obispo Public Art Program has secured San Luis’ reputation as a community who uses its public art to promote community excellence, creativity, and cohesiveness. In an effort to build upon their strong legacy of public art and to look forward to the next twenty five years, the city decided to seek the input of the community to find out what is next for the public art program in San Luis Obispo.

How

To kick off the planning process, stakeholders were asked a series of questions about how public art relates to their sense of place, to the overall identity of San Luis, economic growth, business development, education, downtown development and community engagement.
San Luis Obispo residents were then invited to participate in a week-long series of events.

Participants were asked to consider where new pieces of public art should go and what types of art they would like to see in their community. They also discussed attributes that make San Luis Obispo stand out among other Central Coast communities, California communities, and the rest of the United States.

In addition to the three public meetings, engagement opportunities also took place at an Elementary after-school program, during a Middle School lunch break, and during regularly scheduled San Luis Obispo High School art classes. An Online survey was conducted to capture the ideas of those who were unable to attend any of the workshops.

What

Recommendations from the Public Art Master Plan include an increase in Art in Public Places funding, developing a full time Public Art Manager position in the Parks and Recreation Department, and the development of a maintenance and conservation plan, among others.

The Public Art Master Plan was adopted by City Council in early December, 2016.

Client

City of San Luis Obispo, California

Team

Designing Local (Lead)

Services

Public Art Planning

Public Engagement

People

Amanda Golden (Lead)

Josh Lapp