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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-09-18 Public Art Commission Summary Minutes IS POSTED IN ACCORDANCE WITH GOVERNMENT CODE SECTION 54954.2(a) OR SECTION 54956 PUBLIC ART COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING MINUTES Thursday, September 18, 2025 Community Meeting Room & Virtual 7:00 p.m. Commissioners Participating: Hsinya Shen, Harriet Stern, Amber Smith, Loren Gordon, Lisa Waltuch, Tara de la Garza, Ben Miyaji Commissioners Absent: None City Council Participating: None Staff Present: Elise DeMarzo, Public Art Program Director, CSD Nadya Chuprina, Public Art Program Coordinator, CSD Amanda Deml, Assistant Director, CSD CALL TO ORDER –Chair Shen called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. AGENDA CHANGES, REQUESTS, DELETIONS – None. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS – None. APPROVAL OF MINUTES – June 19, 2025 PAC Regular Meeting Minutes: Moved by Vice Chair Waltuch Second by Commissioner Miyaji; All in Favor. STAFF COMMENTS –. Staff announced upcoming community workshops with King Resident Artist Kiana Honarmand held in partnership with Palo Alto Libraries on 9/25 at College Terrace, 10/3 at Mitchell Park Library, October 22 at the Downtown branch, and October 24 at Rinconada Library. Staff also made an announcement for a free public tour of recently restored frescoes by artist Victor Arnautoff held on 10/1 at the Palo Alto History Museum. Staff provided detailed for the current recruitment for volunteers to serve on the City’s boards and commissions, including 3 positions for HRC, 3 positions for PAC, and 3 positions for PRC with the application due on 9/24. ACTION: 1. Roth Building Frescoes – Staff provided an informational update about a grant opportunity from the County of Santa Clara Historic Heritage Grant Program. This opportunity will allow the City to complete an essential restoration of the Roth Building frescoes, including restoration of eight grisaille frescoes in the lower register and four sepia medallions. The applications are due on October 23, 2025. Should the City be successful in securing a grant award, the conservation work would take place in 2027. Staff requested that the PAC approve staff proceeding with the grant application process for the Roth Building Frescoes Restoration (Phase II). Motion: Commissioner Gordon moved to approve proceeding with the grant application for the County of Santa Clara Historic Heritage Preservation Program grant. Second: Commissioner Smith. All in Favor. 2. De-accession of Artwork – Staff provided an overview of commissioning process, conceptual development, physical build, and maintenance history and challenges of a digital media artwork titled Conversation by Susan Narduli installed at the Palo Alto City Hall lobby. The artwork was commissioned through a percent for art allocation as part of the city hall renovation project in 2014. As a result of an open artist selection process, artist Susan Narduli was awarded $174,477 to create a site-specific, interactive media artwork. Conversation was installed and unveiled in early 2016 on a video wall supplied and installed by the city as part of the renovation project, integrated into an entrance facing wall in the lobby. The video monitors displaying the artwork were also utilized on a set weekly schedule to display city content. Conceptually, Conversation, an ever-changing visual narrative of the faces, places, and discussions taking place in Palo Alto and beyond, was designed to celebrate an open discourse in the civic space of City Hall. Color coded Twitter feeds from local (green circles), national (blue), and global news (lavender) feeds populate the screens of the video wall along with comments and images submitted by the public from the adjacent kiosk, online at www.conversationpaloalto.org, or via Twitter. The background images of Palo Alto appear and change throughout the day, and the input cells had different behaviors with each background, offering a unique experience for each visitor. The artwork was recognized in 2017 by the Americans for the Arts by the Public Art Network Year in Review as one of the most notable recent public art projects. Staff provided an overview of various challenges with displaying Conversation, and its behavior observed and addressed over time. Some technical challenges were based on issues with monitor connectivity and the monitors themselves, others on the settings switching between City mode and the Art mode. Multiple monitors required replacement and routine monitoring by staff. The artwork program also started having issues, causing the artwork to freeze, requiring staff to manually reboot the artwork onsite. The Public Art team worked closely with the artist team to resolve hardware issues. Despite collaborative efforts with Narduli Studio to implement fixes and updates, the artwork’s aging code and obsolete hardware have made it increasingly difficult to maintain functionality and preserve artistic intent. Staff and Narduli Studio acknowledged the artwork’s increasing instability and obsolete equipment. With no viable replacements for the monitors and the likelihood of needing a full video wall redesign in the near future, staff have come to a decision to initiate the deaccession evaluation process. Based on the deaccession criteria outlined in the Deaccession of Artwork Policy, staff recommended that the PAC consider the deaccession of Conversation from the City’s permanent art collection for the following reasons: The Artwork has exceeded its expected lifespan; The Artwork requires excessive maintenance or has faults in design, materials, or workmanship, and repair or remedy is impractical or unfeasible; The Artwork has deteriorated, and repair is impractical or unfeasible. Staff also clarified to the commissioners that in case the artwork should be deaccessioned, the current video monitors will remain in place to display city content. Staff also provided a clarification on the total maintenance cost over the years (excluding staff time) being $20, 644. Motion: Commissioner Miyaji moved to initiate the deaccessioning evaluation process for Conversation, a digital media artwork by artist Susan Narduli, in accordance with the reasons and procedures, as stated in the Deaccession of Artwork Policy. Second: Commissioner Stern. All in Favor. NON-ACTION 3. Code:ART 2025 – Staff provided a status update on the production efforts of Code:ART staring on October 16 at 6 pm, and featuring interactive installations nightly between 6 – 10 pm, Oct 16 -18 across five various locations in downtown, and projection mapping artworks displayed on City Hall facade nightly between Oct 16 – 25, at 7-10 pm and live performances 6-7 pm on King Plaza. Staff showed video teasers for various installations and projection mapping artworks. Staff and commissioners shared an update on the status of business outreach efforts to recruit more Code:ART business partners offering special experiences and promotions for Code:ART goers and discussed which businesses to be reached out and followed up by which commissioners. Additionally, staff passed around a sign-up form for commissioner volunteer shifts during Code:ART. COMMISSIONER QUESTIONS, ANNOUNCEMENTS, OR FUTURE ITEMS: None CALENDAR: PAC Regular Meeting – November 20 2025, at 7 pm. The October 16 PAC to be cancelled due to Code:ART opening on Oct 16 at 6 pm. MEETING ADJOURNED: at 7:46 pm by Chair Shen.