Port of San Diego Public Art

Artist proposals for the lighting of the iconic Coronado Bay Bridge are due in less than a month, and then the Port of San Diego Public Art Committee’s work will really begin. June 6 marks the end of the submission period and the beginning of the selection process for the Port’s signature project, in which they are collaborating with CalTrans and the City of Coronado.

The pressure is on for the committee and the artists alike, as this project is intended to be the public artwork to represent the city.

“With all of the artwork that’s been done in San Diego, the response has consistently been, ‘Well, what does that have to do with San Diego?’ or ‘That doesn’t represent San Diego,’” said PAC Director Catherine Sass. “None of those pieces has ever been intended to do that, to be an icon for the city, but clearly that’s something the community desires… Over the years membership at the PAC has discussed their desire to use some of the money to have an iconic piece or a signature piece.”

In 2003 the Port started looking for a site around San Diego Bay. It quickly became an obvious choice, said Sass.

“The icon for San Diego is the bridge, and it’s also very meaningful because it’s regionally visible… It’s a great site,” Sass said.

Lighting the bridge is anticipated to cost approximately $2-3 million for the design, fabrication and installation. That amount must cover all project fees including artist and consultant fees, materials and fabrication costs, installation, site-preparation, traffic control costs, legal fees, insurance, permit fees, taxes, travel-related fees, and documentation of the project.

The Public Art program is funded by a set-aside of 0.5 percent of the Port’s projected gross revenues each year, and by dedication of 1 percent of project budgets on all new construction, according to Port bylaws.

“Our job is… to bring people down to the waterfront to support these businesses, and… to make it more engaging for people to come and use the tidelands for recreation. The art fits hand in hand with that,” said Sass. “Most of our money comes from the [port] tenants.”

The program’s annual income, however, is only about $750,000 and must also cover operational costs and fund other public art projects like the Urban Trees, which is budgeted at $140,000, and the North Embarcadero Picnic Tables, at $6,000.

The rest of the funds for the bridge lighting, then, are expected to come from grants, none of which the PAC had secured to date. In fact, the PAC set aside only $50,000 for the bridge project initiation, which included developing the project parameters, marketing, and receiving artist’s submissions, though this period is supposed to include around $75,000 (or up to $15,000 each) for the five semi-finalist artists/teams to further develop their lighting proposals. This is before any of the proposed pieces have been selected, manufactured, or installed. A timeline for installation of the piece, once it is chosen, has not been determined yet.

The PAC applied for a grant through CalTrans, with whom they’ve partnered on this project, but they did not receive it, according to Jocelyn De Piolenc, executive assistant to the PAC, but they’re still optimistic.

A finalist in the project selection should to be chosen by November, though if no additional funds can be secured the bridge lighting will have to be shelved for the time being.

“Let’s not think that way!” said De Piolenc. “We are expecting to get regional funding in support of this project but no, there’s no Plan B if that doesn’t happen.”

ARTSea Cafe 2008

“POP!” goes the art Saturday at 6pm as A Reason to Survive hosts its fourth annual ARTSea Café fundraiser, once again at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in La Jolla. Two artists and 12 performing chefs are slated as the evening’s entertainment, along with music by the 80Z All Stars, at this year’s pop art-themed gala.

ARTS is a non-profit organization that uses art to help children dealing with adversity, founded in 2001 by Matt D’Arrigo after art and music helped him deal his mother and sister’s simultaneous cancer diagnoses in the early 1990s.

“We are here to provide the supplies and equipment, the volunteers and support, the structure and curriculums for the children to create on their own and share the same experience I did,” said D’Arrigo.

D’Arrigo founded the organization with $5000 and a book on starting a non-profit seven years ago. Now he is one of San Diego Magazine’s 50 People to Watch in 2008, among several other accolades, and the organization is hosting events like ARTSea Café, which in previous years has netted a total of $240,000 for the program.

“I have seen ARTS grow from a one-room office with solely outreach programs to a 7,000 square foot facility with classes here every day,” said Jenna Mohler, events and marketing coordinator for ARTS. “I think that ARTS offers such a different and valuable program to these kids, allowing them to express themselves through art, no matter what they are feeling. It is such a great feeling to see what I do directly affects the kids, growing them personally and giving them a sense of self-esteem and self-worth.”

ARTS accommodates children facing anything from terminal illness to divorce to a deployed military parent, but there’s not really any other requirement such as financial need. Any child from any income bracket or background can qualify.
“The children have to be facing some kind of difficulty,” said Dana Nitti, ARTS development director. “We keep that pretty broad. It’s about the emotional needs of the child, not financials.”

Once children qualify for, or are referred to the program, according to Nitti, they get started in all kinds of free art classes, rotating through the various media available at the Pat D’Arrigo ARTS Center, ARTS’ own facility at the Naval Training Center Promenade in Point Loma, which opened a little over a year ago. The center was named for D’Arrigo’s mother, who died of cancer less than a year after being diagnosed. Children can get involved in the visual arts, performance arts, and literary arts. Some homeless teens have even been hired to work in the children’s art gallery and framing business run by the center.

In addition to artistic resources, ARTS now has a shuttle service to bus children to Point Loma from any of their more than 20 partner sites, which include the Ronald McDonald House, Rady Children’s Hospital, and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Linda Vista, among others. This shuttle service, dubbed Van Go, provides yet another level of assistance to the 25,000 children who have been served by the organization.

Rob Tobin, painter and ARTS’ Artist in Residence, was one of the program’s first volunteers seven years ago, having worked with D’Arrigo at Pacific Event Productions. When they opened the center, he said, they needed a full time artist and he just fit.

“[My job is to] teach kids, do community projects, murals, mosaics, drive the Van Go, take out the trash – anything that needs doing,” Tobin said.

How can an organization that provides so much on a $600,00 budget still afford to host a gala like ARTSea Café? Connections.

Scripps Institute of Oceanography has been the venue every year, at least partly because ARTS Board Member and ARTSea Café Event Chair Jill Hammons worked for more than 25 years as director of special events at Scripps.
The performing chefs and artists are mostly returning volunteers also.

“The only non-volunteer [entertainment] is the band,” said Nitti.

The art programs have directly benefitted from these partnerships as well. Two years ago Studley, a Del Mar-based consulting firm, donated 25 new Dell computers to ARTS for use in their administrative offices and media arts lab.

"We bought these computers to use at our annual company meeting and were hoping to identify an organization in San Diego that could truly benefit from receiving them as a donation," said Michael Colacino, the president of Studley, in an interview with the San Diego Business Journal.

Having this kind of assistance from community businesses allows ARTS to put a greater percentage of the funds raised on Saturday to good use.

ARTS anticipates over 300 guests at Saturday’s event, much like last year, and hopes to raise $100,000. Tickets for ARTSea Café are $150 per person and can be purchased at www.artsurvive.org.