APP News and Information
Franklin Boulevard Urban Plein Air Project
The Blue Trees Temporary Public Art Project
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REPAIRING "SOJOURNER" BY ELIZABETH CATLETT
In early January this year, a much beloved and very important public artwork at the Convention Center Sculpture Garden was vandalized. “Sojourner”, by Elizabeth Catlett, who passed away in 2012 at the age of 96, was knocked off of its base and broken into several pieces. Staff has just confirmed that insurance will fund the repair and approval has been obtained to contract with a nationally known conservator to head up the restoration project. A new indoor public location,
yet to be identified, will be required for “Sojourner” once it is restored. The restoration project will include multiple consultants and contracts and a time table has not yet been established.
Elizabeth Catlett was commissioned by the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission in 1998
for $67,500 to create a figurative public artwork for the Sculpture Garden. The 7’ high, Mexican Limestone sculpture of a woman with crossed arms, a flowing skirt and gazing upwards is a wonderful example of Catlett’s work which celebrates the heroic strength and endurance of African-American and Mexican working-class women. Critics have said that her simple, clean shapes evoke both the physical and spiritual essence of her subjects and this is clearly the case with “Sojourner”. In addition to drawing from her own experience as a young woman growing up during an era of widespread segregation and racism, her artwork, including “Sojourner”, was influenced by pre-Columbian sculpture and Diego Rivera political murals.
Historically, “Sojourner” is a reference to Sojourner Truth, the self-given name of Isabella Baumfree, an African-American abolitionist and women's rights activist born into slavery in New York. She escaped with her infant daughter to freedom in 1826 and after going to court to recover her son, she became the first black woman to win such a case against a white man.
Elizabeth Catlett Mora (April 15, 1915 – April 2, 2012) was an American-born Mexican sculptor and printmaker whose remarkable career as an artist and activist was groundbreaking and significant.
Art historian Melanie Herzog describes Catlett as “the foremost African American woman artist of
her generation.” Her long career spanned several political and social movements including the Chicago Renaissance of the 1940s, the Black Power and Black Arts movements of the 1960s, the Mexican Public Art Movement, and feminism, all of which influenced her art. Perhaps Catlett’s most widely recognized print is “Sharecropper” 1952, printed in 1970, shown below on the left. In the 1960s and 1970s her posters of Harriet Tubman, Angela Davis, and Malcolm X were widely distributed. In 1968 her life-sized redwood sculpture “Homage to My Young Back Sisters”, shown below, second image from the left, sold at auction in New York City for $288,000.
The third image from the left is “Woman Fixing Hair”, redwood, 1993, and the image on the far right is “Three Women of America”, serigraph, 1990.
Catlett earned a degree from Howard University in 1935 and was the first student to earn an MFA from the School of Art and Art History at the University of Iowa in 1940. Catlett also studied ceramics at the Chicago Art Institute in 1941 and lithography at the Art Students League of New York in 1942-1943. She was the first woman professor of sculpture at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. In addition to her numerous outdoor sculptures across the country, Catlett's work is represented in permanent collections including The Art Institute of Chicago; Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; Smithsonian American Art Museum; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Library of Congress, and Howard University Art Collection in Washington D.C.; The Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia; Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock; Fogg Museum, Harvard University Art, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois; University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City; Philadelphia Museum of Art and Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Harford, Connecticut; and Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, Kansas; Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, and the National Institute of Fine Arts, Mexico City; and the National Gallery in Prague, Czech Republic
Catlett has received numerous awards including the Women’s Caucus for Art in 1981. In 2003 she was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award from Sculpture Magazine and in 2008 she was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts by Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. An Elizabeth Catlett Week was proclaimed in Berkeley, California, and in Cleveland Ohio they celebrate an annual Elizabeth Catlett Day.
Elizabeth Catlett Mora will be remembered for being a fascinating and pivotal intercultural figure more concerned with the social dimension of her art than its novelty or originality. She firmly believed that the visual arts can play a role in the construction of meaningful identity, and can be both transnational and ethnically grounded.
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ROBERT T. MATSUI GALLERY at City Hall
Sacramento City Hall
915 I St (North Entrance)
Sacramento, CA 95814
BEST DRESSED: An exhibition featuring costumes from Sacramento’s leading performing arts groups. February 12, 2013 – May, 2013
Presented by the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission in participation with the Sacramento Opera, Sacramento Ballet, California Musical Theater, and Sacramento Theater Company.
Photo copyrighted by Keith Sutter Photography
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SMUD GALLERY:
SENSORY PERCEPTION: an exhibition of mosaics by deafblind artist Mary Dignan
March 4, 2013 through May 8, 2013
The Gallery is located inside SMUD's Customer Service Center, 6301 S Street in Sacramento.
Upcoming SMUD Exhibition: Drawing the Line: An exhibition of drawings by Sacramento area artists, features the work of 22 Sacramento area artists and opens at the SMUD Art Gallery, 6301 S Street, Sacramento on Friday, May 10, 2013 and will be on display through July 10, 2013. The public is invited to meet the artists and view their work at a FREE reception on Friday, May 10, 2013, from 4 to 6 p.m.
The exhibition includes drawings by Roma Devanbu, Ianna Frisby,Mahsan Ghazianzad, Chelsea Greninger, Phyllis Hayes, Jeff King, Sarma Karsiere,Linda Katzdorn, Jeffrey Kimbler, S.S. Solis, Cherilyn Naughton, Phoenix O’Shaughnessy, Patris, Noël Sandino, Susan J. Silvester, Florence Skiadas, Victoria Smith, Craig N. Smith, Jennifer Tachera, S.Z. Tailor, Bob Thompson, and Tedd VallanceThe drawings showcase the vastly different techniques, drawing media, and subject matter being explored by emerging, as well as established Sacramento area artists.
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FRED BALL'S MURAL, "THE WAY HOME", WILL BE RESTORED IN 2013
In 1977 Fred Ball was commissioned by the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency (SHRA) through the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission (SMAC) to create a mural for the facade of the Downtown Plaza West parking garage. One of the largest enamel murals in the world at the time, it took Fred Ball 3 years to complete the commission that consisted of 1,488 one-foot square, vitreous enamel plates, and he installed the mural in October of 1980. Over the past 32 years, moisture and exposure to the extreme variation in Sacramento’s temperatures have taken a toll on the mural. It underwent a restoration in the 1990s, and on June 4, 2012, it will undergo its second restoration. The enamel plates will be removed, cleaned, restored, and reinstalled after the backing and trim-work have been replaced. Completion is estimated for Spring 2013.
Fred Uhl Ball, renowned international artist, was considered to be one of the top artists in his field when he passed away in1985 at age 40. His mural, “The Way Home” has become a beloved Sacramento landmark and was one of the first public artworks to be commissioned by the City under the percent for art ordinance. According to Shelly Willis, Art in Public Places Director for SMAC, “The artist’s reputation, the quality of the art, and the historic significance, all play a role in why it is so vital to restore this important mural.”
The highly acclaimed mural, located at 3rd and L Streets, faces I-5 and the Tower Bridge, and can be viewed from many of the nearby high-rise buildings. Arranged in four horizontal sections, each 6-feet high, by 62-feet wide, the row after row of enameled plates create a quilt-like landscape of colors. Ball intended his mural to be an interpretation of aerial views of the Sacramento River Delta, with winding river tributaries and cropland patterns combined with cityscapes. The colors would reflect seasonal changes, and while retaining their basic color values, the enamels would reflect the environmental light, changing constantly with the passage of clouds, sun overhead, or the angle from which they were viewed. Fred Ball’s hope was that the mural’s images would remind viewers of the ongoing joy of life.
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"LEAP" WINS PAN AWARD!
Americans for the Art’s Public Art Network recently awarded outstanding public art projects in their annual “Year in Review” competition. Argent’s piece at the Sacramento International Airport was chosen as one of fifty winners out of nearly 500 entries. The award winners are determined in an open competition by three art professionals—this year, Jean Greer, Daniel Mihalyo, and Celia Munoz—evaluating entries and ultimately choosing 50 projects which exemplify significant contributions to the public art field. Projects varied greatly in medium as well as budget, with the majority of them made possible through municipal divisions of art and culture. The Public Art Network is the only professional network in the country dedicated to advancing the tradition of public art.
“Leap”—or the “red rabbit” as it is more commonly known to Sacramentans and visitors to the airport—is one of several major projects commissioned by the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission during last year’s “Big Build” expansion of the Sacramento International Airport. The aluminum rabbit is suspended by cables leaping into a granite suitcase below in the baggage claim area. “Leap” is the most well known of the pieces, as its monumental scale (56’L x 11’W x 24’H) and central location has caused many to playfully refer to the renovation as the “Hareport.” The artist intended the leaping rabbit to emulate the fast pace that people seem to move in the airport, as well as a way of bringing the green space around Terminal B inside.
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CALL FOR ARTISTS
The Art in Public Places Program invite artists residing in Northern California (any city north of and including, San Jose) to apply for the North Natomas Regional Park (NNRP) Public Art Project.
- Budget $128,000
- Submission Deadline: Friday, May 17, 2013
- For a pdf application click here.
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ART IN PUBLIC PLACES DIGITAL BANK APPLICATION
The Art in Public Places (APP) Program maintains a digital bank of images of artists' work to be used as a resource for public art commissions. If you would like to have your work considered for future projects, please download an APP ARTIST APPLICATION to complete and mail it to our office at 300 Richards Blvd, 2nd Floor, Sacramento, CA 95811. Applications will remain on file for 3 years. If you would like to update your artist information, please complete an APP ARTIST APPLICATION and just indicate you are updating your information.
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Art in Public Places Contract Requirements
SUMMARY OF DETAILS FOR ARTISTS AND CONTRACTORS: Click here
W9: Click here
Form 590: Click here
BUSINESS OPERATIONS TAX (BOT ) Identification number: Click here
RISK MANAGEMENT REQUIREMENTS FOR INSURANCE: Click here
INSURANCE EXCERPT FROM THE STANDARD CONTRACT: Click here
ADDITIONAL INSURED ENDORSEMENT EXAMPLE: Click here
INVOICE TEMPLATE:Click here
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Sacramento International Airport Big Build Public Art Program
View images of the design, fabrication, and installation of these 12 works here. Download a PDF of descriptions of the art & artists' biographical information here. See an album of photos of the completed artworks here.
Upcoming events at the Airport:
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Currently there are no upcoming events. Please check back.
Press about the Big Build: Link to Articles
ARTWORK DESCRIPTIONS & INFORMATION ABOUT THE ARTISTS
FAQ ABOUT THE AIRPORT ART (PDF file)
ART PLAN (PDF file)
AIRPORT ART PROGRAM FACTS (PDF file)
Press release: Twelve soaring works of art take flight as the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission announces the arrival of art at the airport
The process for selecting artists and designing artworks for the Sacramento International Airport began when the airport art budget was established and an Art Plan for the project was approved by the County Board of Supervisors. But its parameters were set up more than three decades ago by a County Law that in a sense set up “the bones” for the Airport's artist selection and design approval process. The law recommends that 2% of County construction projects be spent on art. It also requires that this work be selected and approved in a public process.
The artwork for the airport was selected, reviewed, and influenced by more than 30 curators, art historians, and critics, in addition to county and airport staff, the airport’s principal architect, Corgan and Associates, and members of the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission. These individuals were divided up into groups or “panels” of between 7 - 13 members who then selected the art and made recommendations to the artists. They forwarded their recommendations to the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission (who sometimes made further recommendations) and then, in some cases, were reviewed by the County Board of Supervisors. The entire process resulted in the approval of 12 artworks for the new terminal. Eleven of these artworks were fabricated and installed in conjunction with the Airport’s opening in October 2011. One artwork is in the final design and fabrication phase.
