Cactus-inspired roundabout public art proposal to go before Napa City Council | Local News | #citycouncil

Specifically, the council is being asked to authorize a $300,000 contract for the proposal with artist Ana Teresa Fernández and manufacturer Priority Architectural Graphics, which will allow the final design, fabrication and installation of the project to move forward. 

If approved, the piece will be the city’s largest public art project to date. Its budget — which included an additional $75,000 for administrative fees — comes out of the city’s dedicated Public Art Fund. The artist is only allowed to use 20% of the $300,000 for their fee, and the rest is reserved for fabrication costs, according to city recreation manager Katrina Gregory.

The money for that fund, which currently has a balance of roughly $2 million, comes through the city’s public art ordinance, which requires commercial developers of large projects to either provide public art with their project or pay 1% of the total project cost into the public art fund. 

According to the proposal, “Circulation” would be fabricated from aluminum. The finished piece would consist of seven interconnecting circles, each with neon green lines painted across them. 

That green lines evoke vineyards, as the green is the same color vineyard workers wear as safety gear, and the way the circles hang together represents the interconnection of life, according to the project description. The Opuntia Prickly Pear Cactus was chosen as a model for the shape of the piece because the plant migrated naturally north from Baja California, and is now part of Napa’s landscape, the description says. 

“Napa exists and thrives because work visas allow migrants access to come from afar and work the land,” the description says “Many hands from all walks of life are imperative in braiding this connection.”

“Circulation” was previously selected from three final proposals — with four finalists selected from 204 applications — by a panel of Bay Area art professionals and a representative from the city’s Public Art Steering Committee. That panel was organized by Artsource Consulting, which the city began working with on an outreach effort in July 2021. 

The steering committee affirmed the panel’s choice in July, voting 4-1 to recommend the City Council give final approval to the proposal.

Throughout the process, Napa community members have provided a variety of feedback on the public art proposal. Though some have praised the selection, others have disagreed with it, and others have also raised concerns about safety and funding among a variety of other criticisms. 

The city previously responded to criticism in a staff report attached to the July Public Art Steering Committee meeting agenda. The report notes, for example, that the project isn’t being funded by city tax dollars, that there will always be some resistance to the artistic merits of a public art proposal, and that the piece will be adequately set back from the roadway and sidewalk. 

Attached to the council meeting agenda, a technical memorandum from GHD — a contractor that worked with the city on the roundabouts — goes further into detail on the safety component. The memo notes an area for public art was deliberately constructed in the southeast corner of the First Street and California Boulevard intersection — on a concrete slab behind the sidewalk — because “it provides an opportunity to welcome all roadway users (vehicles, cyclists, and pedestrians) to downtown Napa.”

The memo also notes that studies of the impact of public art on transportation safety are minimal. But it links a recent Asphalt Art Safety Study by Sam Schwartz Consulting — focusing, notably, on art that’s painted on the asphalt — that found the art encouraged drivers to slow down.