Travelogue: Day Two

After a full day of seminars, bus tours, and walking tours, we are beginning to get a  better understanding of the extensive nature of the public art program in Seattle.

The Seattle Arts Commission's Public Art Program, established by municipal ordinance in 1973, specifies that one percent of City capital improvements be set aside for the commission, purchase and installation of artworks. To date Seattle has a collection of over 2,200 contemporary artworks that have been commissioned through four major commissioning methods.

One of these components is permanent major indoor and outdoor artworks. There are approximately 320 large-scale permanent installations in outdoor locations such as parks and community centers. 

 

In Rain Forest Gates by Jean Whitesavage and Nick Lyle, hundreds of hand-forged ironwork are woven together to express the beauty and harmony of the web of life. These two-story gates create an impressive entrance to the King County Department of Transportation and Natural Resources. (This was a project of King County Art Commission)
Cascadia: A Sculptural Interpretation of the Basaltic Lava Flows by artist John Hoge working with landscape architects Murase Associates is an flowing landscape of large fountains in the International District. The central fountain is surrounded by polished basaltic benches and native plants.

A second major component is the Artworks for the Portable Works Collection.  Relatively small-scale art work in various media are exhibited in public areas on a rotating basis. 

A tour of this program was highlighted by a special presentation by Seattle Mayor Paul Schell whose own office is filled with art. Mayor Schell helped draft the original ordinance for Seattle's Percent for the Arts. 
He spoke passionately about the role that art plays in creating healthy, vibrant neighborhoods and districts within the Seattle community. All four walls in the Mayor's conference room were covered with art, as were the hallways and staff members' office walls.   
City employees from each of the various departments work with the Arts Commission to select art for their department and they are rotated on a two-year schedule.
A third commissioning method is special projects such as artist residencies, temporary artworks and media-based projects. We saw an example of this in an exhibition in the City Lights' offices (Seattle's City Utilities). The Seattle Arts Commission has given photographer Peter de Lory the challenge to portray the physical and sometimes dangerous challenges that city utilities workers face on daily basis. 

A fourth commissioning method is design team projects to bring artist, architects, and design professionals together to work on the overall design of a site or major planning project. 

We saw many examples of this process on our walking-riding tour of the Metro (underground bus). In the development of seven multi-level Metro stations, artists were brought into the process in the planning, design and construction of these public projects from the beginning. 

This resulted in projects in which artistic themes were incorporated from the opening gates through all levels of the stations.
Artist designed tile work combined with indirect light to make the long passageways more interesting and inviting. Artists also created unique art environments at each of the loading platforms of the bus railways.

Throughout the day we were inspired by Seattle's efforts to include artists as members of the design team working with architects and engineers in the early stages of the development of public projects. In the examples we saw today, not only did this make it feel that the art was designed for the space, but cost-savings and creative solutions were often achieved by this collaboration.
Travelogue: Day Three