Unbeknownst to many Richmonders, the city has a Public Art Commission, a group responsible for plotting art around Richmond.
Unbeknownst to many Richmonders, the city has a Public Art Commission, a group responsible for plotting art around Richmond.
Comprised of architects, visual artists, art designers, designers and other types of artists, the Commission is a blend of local creators who are handed down project ideas, which they then put in action.
“They (the city) want people with different specialty experiences. That’s where each of us can bring our own areas of expertise to the Commission,” said Susan Reed, Chair of the Commission and architect at Commonwealth Architects.
The PAC acts as a medium through which the City puts art on the street, but they don’t have the freedom or flexibility to hatch their own ideas and subsequently act on them.
“We’re given one percent (of the city’s budget) which is set aside for art. So we’re told what the projects are, and then we manage the process to implement,” said Reed. Logistical decisions like finding an artist to create the piece and finding an apt location each piece are the toughest decisions they face.
Ever wonder how the giant metal bust of a policeman’s head which hangs from the side of the Police Headquarters at Grace and Jefferson got there? “The Thin Blue Line” was put up by the PAC nearly a decade ago.
Just south of VCU’s campus is Oregon Hill Linear Park, and towering over it is the “Park Guardian” a tall metal sculpture erected by the PAC in 1993.
Nowadays, the project closest to completion is the re-erection of Richmond’s unusually-beloved Mr. Smedley statue. A sculpture of a street performer was taken down from the 6th Street marketplace about two years ago, entered purgatory in a City of Richmond storage unit, and is being brought back to the public thanks to the PAC.
“He has been restored and is waiting for his base to be constructed in Jefferson Park. We did a public call for different neighborhood groups and said, ‘Who wants Mr. Smedley? Let’s find a home for him’ and in the end Jefferson Park was selected. And the sculptor (Jack Witt) made it for his son, so he was thrilled since kids will get to see it,” Reed said. Mr. Smedley should be back on his feet in early spring.
Not far behind Mr. Smedley is a Maggie Walker memorial.
“It’s a commemorative piece of art and the reason why we’re not using the term ‘statue’ is because at the end of the day, once we go through our site selection team process and the community engagement process, what we’ve said is we want each person coming into this process to come in with an open mind,” Douglas Dunlap of the Commission said.
“We have two locations that we’re looking at right now. We know that at the end of the day, it’ll probably be located in the Jackson Ward neighborhood. It could be located at Abner Clay Park. We’ve even discussed the possibility of having something at both locations and we’re not ruling that out at this point. But we want to again – as relation to the piece of art and the location – come into this with an open mind and leave those possibilities available to us.”
Also in the works is a sculpture to be put in near Fire Station 17. Reed said the project is progressing nicely and the artwork itself will be a “portal” citizens will be able to walk through. It’s currently preparing to be put into fabrication and has a bit of an unclear timeline, but should be a fascinating and interactive part of Semmes Avenue.
About a year ago, we snooped around what was going on with the PAC because A) they had recently received $1.3 million, their largest budget ever and B) information about what they were doing was difficult to find. They’re changing that.
“The city’s website has a link to the rest of our projects and basic information’s there. But our Facebook page is something we’re trying to ramp up now,” Reed said.
They’ve opened the door to citizen interaction with all of this, and they still want more.
“(Citizens reaching out to the PAC daily) isn’t typically the case,” Dunlap said. “What we really want to do is educating the community about who we are, what we do, and also the importance of public art.”
“We would like to have more individuals stopping in at our meetings – that’d be great. I think as we take on the two projects before us right now (Maggie Walker memorial and Riverfront), in our team meetings those would be opportunities to engage the community.”
The aforementioned Riverfront project is still very early in its development but I’m rapt about what it could entail. Former information about the plan is still being drawn up, and Dunlap said the Dam Walk will be the first pedestrian link between the river’s North bank and South bank.
Richmonders love the river, and the Public Art Commission is working to bring new art to one of the City’s best and most popular natural resources.
Not often do government bodies deliberately ask for more citizen input and genuinely mean it, but the Public Art Commission is. The Commission’s next meeting is on April 8th at 9:15am in the 5th floor conference room of City Hall, and their doors will most certainly be open.
