How private companies create public works of art in Sonoma County

On E Street in Santa Rosa, near the middle of the 400 block, there stands in the shade of an oak tree a metal and acrylic sculpture 18 feet tall, aglow at night with LED lights and serving as a wind chime. It’s titled “Elementals.”

Created by the Berkeley husband-and-wife artist team Jonathan and Saori Ide Russell, it stands in front of the offices of Sonoma Clean Power, founded in 2014 to provide residents and businesses in Sonoma and Mendocino counties with clean energy from renewable resources.

The sculpture features three diamond shapes representing the sun, Earth and water.

“The fourth element is the air, and that’s what makes it move,” Jonathan Russell explained. “We loved that project because all the power comes to it from their solar panels. All of our work has some kinetic component and some have lighting, like ‘Elementals.’”

The Russells have worked extensively throughout the Bay Area, creating art in South San Francisco, San Jose, Fremont and elsewhere.

The Santa Rosa sculpture was installed in July 2021 as part of the city of Santa Rosa’s Public Art in Private Development program, which requires developers of commercial projects valued in excess of $500,000 to spend 1% of the project’s construction budget to include publicly accessible art.

According to the ordinance, developers can simply contribute that money to the city’s public art fund for its projects, including installations, programming and other costs. Some 40 public projects have been implemented since 2008.

Or the property owner can commission an artist directly to create original work for the site. Another 40 projects have been done that way over the past 15 years.

During the 2007-2008 fiscal year, some developers paid $19,400 into the city’s fund rather than create their own projects, and others chose to spend $20,000 to commission art on site. For the 2022-2023 fiscal year, those figures had risen to $113,590 and $195,675, respectively.

For the 15-year run of the 1% program, developers have contributed a total of $1.7 million to the city public art fund, while other developers have spent $2.1 million to commission their own art projects on site.

“If the developer opts to place artwork on-site, it is not a ‘city’ project. It is the owners’ responsibility,” said Tara Thompson, arts and culture manager for the city of Santa Rosa’s planning and economic development department.

For art projects developers commission themselves, a proposal for the art must be submitted to the city for approval before a building permit is issued. And the art project is inspected by the city upon completion.

The 1% requirement also applies to the city’s own capital improvements, and that money goes into its public art projects.

You may have already seen a high-profile example of a city art project. “Unum,” the stainless steel sculpture created by Arizona-based artist Blessing Hancock, was installed last January by the Santa Rosa Public Art Program in Old Courthouse Square.

The selection of the artist was made by Santa Rosa Art in Public Places Committee. The project received funding directly from the city’s Courthouse Square reunification project.

“Unum” is one of 10 public art installations across California among the top 100 finalists nationwide for a prestigious People’s Choice CODA award, which opened to public voting in mid-July.

The city’s newest public project, “Rosa californica” by Julian Billotte and Anna Wiziarde of Santa Rosa, a botanical line drawing of a wild rose gilded on the columns at the center of Santa Rosa’s City Hall courtyard, will celebrated at a reception on Aug. 23.

When companies choose to commission their own public art projects under the 1% program, expert consultants often get involved.

The “Elementals” project at Sonoma Clean Power was handled by private consultant Vicky Kumpfer, who previously served as the city of Santa Rosa’s public art coordinator for nearly two decades.

“My view on the requirement for public art as an obligation is if you’re going to do it, dive in all the way,” said Geof Syphers, Sonoma Clean Power’s CEO.

As the “Elementals” installation at Sonoma Clean Power demonstrates, the program allows businesses to commission works that are uniquely appropriate for the site and the mission of the company.

For its new offices in downtown Santa Rosa, which opened last winter, Sonoma Media Investments, owner of The Press Democrat, also opted to pick its own artist and commission new work to fulfill the 1% requirement of the Public Art in Private Development program.

For the lobby of its new downtown offices, the company commissioned Sonoma artist Keith Wicks to create a large wall piece built out of letter type that was originally used to print The Press Democrat. The artwork was unveiled in February.

“When I got the project, I ended up with 50 drawers of letters,” Wicks said. “I thought, ‘There’s history here.’”

The finished piece, titled “Letters from the Past,” includes up to 100 names, such as all the towns in Sonoma County and famous locals from the past like author Jack London, actress Natalie Wood and Charles Schulz’s “Peanuts” comic strip star, Charlie Brown.

“I had to lay it out. It took me four months. It was left up to me to do whatever I wanted with it. I wanted to it to relate to The Press Democrat and the area,” said Wicks, who previously worked for George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic.

In 2020, Wicks founded the Sonoma Plein Air Foundation, a nonprofit organization that raises funds to preserve art education in Sonoma public schools and art organizations.

Other cities have programs similar to Santa Rosa’s Public Art in Private Development program, such as Petaluma, Sebastopol and Napa, said Kristin Madsen, director of the arts-supporting nonprofit Creative Sonoma, a division of the Sonoma County Economic Development Board.

“Many local artists get more 1% commissions outside Santa Rosa,” she said. “It depends on how construction there is.”

One of the busiest consultants helping businesses comply with Santa Rosa’s Public Art in Private Development program is Nancy Witherell.

One of the most recent projects she has participated in is the installation of mosaic panels by artist Angelina Duckett in late July at the Bicentennial campus of Kaiser Permanente in Santa Rosa.

Duckett, who has a studio in Bennett Valley, began creating mosaics as a teenager and started her own mosaic business in 2016. Her piece for Kaiser Permanente is a wraparound stained-glass mosaic that lines the base of a third-floor skylight.

“Nancy Witherell reached out to me, and we worked together to get the project approved,” Duckett said. “She knows my work from the Spring Lake Children’s Memorial Grove” (in Spring Lake Regional Park).

At the grove, individuals have commissioned custom, colorful mosaic tile bench sections in honor of loved ones.

The grove was developed in 2017 in a collaboration between the Artstart program, which engages teenage artists in commissioned artwork for the community, and the Sonoma County Regional Parks Foundation. Duckett said she continues to work with the park on the project.

Witherell also has participated in public art projects at the following sites: Santa Rosa Veterans Administration Outpatient Clinic; Kaiser Chronic Pain, Endocrinology and Neurology department; Providence Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital; Santa Rosa Community Health Clinic; and the Kaiser Medical Office Building.

“I specialize primarily in art projects in medical facilities and hospitals, throughout the Bay Area. The work I do is with buildings,” she explained.

The 1% required for public artwork is calculated based on the valuation of the construction, and Witherell works with her clients to commission the type of art they chose.

“As an art consultant, my goal is to hit that amount and not go over,” she said. “It’s a pretty great program. I have found the city to be agreeable to work with.”

You can reach Staff Writer Dan Taylor at [email protected] or 707-521-5243. On Twitter @danarts.

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