Karen Bubb, Interim Executive Director Boise City Arts Commission. City Council Meeting Agenda Request. Dear Mayor Bieter and Boise City Council:

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1 August 15, 2007 MEMO To: From: Regarding: Mayor David Bieter Boise City Council Karen Bubb, Interim Executive Director Boise City Arts Commission City Council Meeting Agenda Request Dear Mayor Bieter and Boise City Council: I would like to submit the following public art project designs for your review and approval. These projects were reviewed and approved by the Boise City Arts Commission and the appropriate department contacts. Request for Approval: Percent-for-Art Program Library: Branch Library art designs by Bill Lewis and Stephanie Bacon. Parks & Recreation Department: Francis Fox Artwork for Morris Hill Information Technology Department: Eight digital artworks to purchase. Artwork will be framed and installed in the hallway leading to the IT offices with information about the digital processes used in their creation.

2 Branch Library Artist Proposal Hillcrest Branch: William Lewis Anyone with access to the Internet has a vast library at his/her fingertips. The entire collected works of the ancient world can now be held in the palm of one s hand. However, I do not believe this makes libraries obsolete. Nor do I think that because of the advent of new media painting has become obsolete. The physicality and presence of actual books and paintings imbues them with a special significance for me. In our digital age perhaps their importance becomes even greater. I revere the culture of the written word and propose to make a series of small paintings (numbering approximately 40) that takes the physical apparatus associated with writing and printing (presses, typewriters, etc.) as its subject. Through regarded as outdated by most people, these machines and objects have interesting and resonant plastic qualities. They are reminders of the extraordinary and vital endeavor of human literacy. These paintings will be displayed in carefully considered groupings of 6 or 7 throughout the public space of the library. Though the Internet means we are but a keystroke away from virtually any images these images on the computer fell to me rather cold, distant and disembodied. By making paintings of images found on the Internet I hope to re-materialize them pluck them from the ocean as it were and make something substantial of them. I think this reflects how people use libraries. The supports of the paintings will also represent a kind of reclamation. I have been salvaging planks and boards from alleys, demolition sites and scrap piles pieces of wood that bear the marks of former uses. One piece even came from the future site of the library. This series will enact a tension and reconciliation between the old and new, and represent perhaps that nothing is truly obsolete. Everything is open to imaginative renovation. Budget: Fabrication 4,300 Design Fee 1,100 Materials 500 Management 400 Contingency 500 TOTAL 6,800

3 Bill Lewis Library Art Work Samples Example of wall grouping

4 Collister Branch Library: Proposal by Stephanie Bacon Background/Content Many paradigmatic American libraries, especially those of the Carnegie era, are built and decorated in a neo-classical style. Like many 19 th century museums, opera houses and symphony halls, grand libraries are designed to convey a sense of historical benefaction to the present, and often include inscriptions of the names of iconic historical figures (Bach Beethoven Hayden Mozart Goethe Schiller Leibniz ) and interpretations of historical ornament from various codified styles and locations (Egyptian Hellenistic Baroque.) The forms of these buildings convey gravitas; they make implied claims for the permanence and rectitude of the institutions they contain and the governments reflected in them; and they act as a sort of encyclopedia of that which is culturally most valued. The Collister Branch Library, like many modern and contemporary buildings in the American west, eschews pretensions of gravitas and historicity in favor of usability, approachability, durability and contextual appropriateness. This would seem to make the best use of available resources and to be in keeping with a populist mission. But the art to be integrated at the site could allude to, and evoke a reconsideration of, ornament as a means to convey historical gravitas (and indeed, historical knowledge.) It is my wish that the decoration of the library should be an encyclopedia of something; and that that something should invite the viewer to consider the transmission of knowledge and history. An encyclopedia comprises a seemingly comprehensive set of knowledge in digest form, indexed according to language (e.g. The Columbia Encyclopedia is divided into 12 sections which parse the 26 letters of the so-called Roman Alphabet) or according to other systems of categorization salient to the subject matter (e.g. Owen Jones The Grammar of Ornament, 1856, is divided into 20 sections based upon the historical and ethnographic categories which he considers significant in re: ornament.) More discrete knowledge sets are often structured into numerical categories which serve as mnemonic and/or limiting devices (the seven wonders of the ancient or modern world, the seven deadly sins, the seven dwarves, the ten commandments, the first and second World Wars,

5 the fifty states, People Magazine s 100 Most Beautiful People, etc.) I like to think of these numbered mnemonics as numerologies, because they seem to assign a mystical significance to patterns of numbers, separable from the phenomena which those numbers are meant to describe. Of course, bodies of knowledge can also be arranged into sets which defy counting: The Great Books, the classic disciplines, etc. Collectively, these indices, numerologies, lists, sets and mnemonics constitute schemata, or programmatic structures, for the transmission of knowledge. They are all useful, they are all flawed, they are all incomplete and dated and misleading, and they are all useless, in a beautiful way. They may have the power to structure thought, so they are worthy of consideration. I propose to create decoration for the library in a multi-panel format, in which two or more epistemological schemata are overlaid, so that they may draw attention to themselves, invite comparison between them, and perhaps create a syncopated rhythm of discourse. Applications For both practical and historical reasons, it seems desirable to locate wall-based work above the level of the bookshelves and furniture. There are approximately 400 linear feet of wall space above shelves and furniture on the east, north and west walls. I propose to use color changes and architectural moldings to create a zone of interest, approximately seven feet above the floor level, in which long horizontal collage tableaux will be situated. At the same height and in the same proportions, I propose to treat the ten freestanding columns within the space, creating abstracted capitals on each column. The lower sections of each column will be painted in a coordinating palette. The collages are primarily made of found paper elements, so although they allude to historical styles, they do not simulate antiquity, as their materials and sensibility will be clearly contemporary. Furthermore, the integration of text elements will engage the viewer on the level of reading as well as on the level of looking. Verbal and visual elements will complement but not replicate each other, allowing multiple points of entry into the discussion. If it is compatible with the library s technology, I would also like to propose to digitally capture details from the collage tableaux, to be used as screen savers. This would allow library patrons a more intimate, eye-level experience of the artwork; and when not in use,

6 the computer monitors could join the discussion between the artwork and the architecture. The collage tableaux will be created on durable foam-board supports; they will be secured to the columns and walls by means of architectural moldings. These components would therefore all be fully moveable, as would the digital components. To the extent possible, archival materials will be selected and non-archival materials will be buffered, so that the resulting work will be stable. Budget Found materials research and acquisition $300 Archival adhesives $120 Moldings for columns $760 Moldings for walls $240 Hardware to mount $120 Supports: $900 Design Fees $1,000 Fabrication (Labor) $1,620 Installation (Labor) $700 Digital Imaging $400 TOTAL $6040

7 Stephanie Bacon Wall Collages Sample Work

8 Stephanie Bacon Column Collages

9 Morris Hill Neighborhood Park Sprout Bench A public art project by Francis Fox LOCATION Morris Hill Park is a new park situated in a quiet neighborhood near the edge of the Boise Bench overlooking Ann Morrison Park. It is bordered by Morris Hill/Pioneer Cemetery on the north, Alpine St. and the railroad tracks on the south, the Ahavath Beth Israel Education Center & Offices on the east, and Roosevelt St. on the west. The proposed sculpture will be located on the north side of the park on a semicircular concrete slab protruding into the arboretum from the walking path that circumnavigates the park. I chose this site because of its potential for a quiet and intimate experience with the sculpture, the arboretum, and the cemetery. CONCEPT I plan to make a bronze sculpture that will also function as a circular bench. Most of my research for this project, over the past two years, has been focused on tree seeds. Through this investigation and my growing familiarity with the site I was inspired to choose an idea that could elicit a general sense of growth and contemplation from the viewer. The vertical form of the bench relates to trees in both their mature and infant stages of life. The domed bottom of the sculpture suggests balance. These formal choices combined with the seating function, and the site location, all contribute to create a potential non-verbal awareness of trees and a general experience of life cycles. MATERIALS The sculpture will be completely cast in bronze with a two inch solid stainless steel pole embedded in concrete. TIMELINE July/August August August/Sept September Approvals -Sculpting wax original -Casting in bronze at foundry (six weeks) -Installation SUBCONTRACTORS Metal Arts Foundry Lehi, UT Boise Concrete Sawing Company, Boise, ID

10 Francis Fox 6409 Randolph Dr. Boise, ID (208) Project Budget 6/19/07 Sprout Bench at Morris Hill Park for: The City of Boise Boise Parks & Recreation Department 1104 Royal Blvd. Boise, ID Foundry Cost Casting ,500 Structure Materials and Supplies Wax, foam, etc ,500 Transportation Transport to and from foundry ,000 Installation Concrete cutting and casting Contract labor Contingencies 7% contingency ,508 Insurance Design Fee Artist Labor ,422 Total 21,530

11 Francis Fox Sprout Bench model

12 Digital Art Purchase Requests Image Selection Process: Request for submissions released asking for digital art by Idaho artists 170 artworks submitted Selection Panel reviewed artwork and chose 8 for purchase based on diversity of approach, appropriateness for City Hall, visual interest. Selection Panel: Garry Beaty, IT Department Megan McJunkin, HR Department Elaine Clegg, City Council Jane Lloyd, Arts Commission Patricia Eberharter: Artist, VAAC

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