Bainbridge city council expands public art program

By Brian Kelly • March 8, 2019 10:00 am
Three pieces were installed on bases in downtown Winslow last summer in the pilot year for the “Something New” public art project. (Photo courtesy of the city of Bainbridge Island)
Three pieces were installed on bases in downtown Winslow last summer in the pilot year for the “Something New” public art project. (Photo courtesy of the city of Bainbridge Island)

The Bainbridge Island City Council unanimously agreed to expand Bainbridge Island’s public art project “Something New” from three sites for the sculptures to six.

At its workstudy session Tuesday, the council also agreed to extend the project for another five years, through 2023.

Something New began as a pilot project last year, and the city paid for three bases in Winslow that are used to display artwork on a one-year rotating schedule.

The project has been shepherded by Arts and Humanities Bainbridge and its board’s Public Art Committee. Artists were chosen and the committee, through a juried process, searched for and selected the three pieces that were installed last summer.

Arts and Humanities Bainbridge is asking the city for additional funding for the project to continue into a Phase Two.

AHB has identified three locations for new pieces — two at Waterfront Park and one in front of city hall.

The piece at city hall would replace part of the Gayle Bard artwork on the outside of Bainbridge Island City Hall that the city bought in 1998. Another site is next to the playground area at Waterfront Park, with the third on the main lawn hillside near the existing “Hand in Hand” sculpture by Will Robinson, one of the three artworks installed last year for Something New.

The city approved $26,000 of funding for Something New in its pilot year, plus the city’s costs for project construction management and installation of the bases. Three permanent bases (called plinths) were set; across from the entrance of Waterfront Park Community Center in Waterfront Park, on the south side of Winslow Way at Ericksen Avenue, and at the southern end of Madison Avenue.

AHB had hoped to have two new bases installed this year, with a call for new art going out later this month.

That timeline also included selecting new pieces of art in April, with council approval and the art selections presented to the city council in May and installation of the art in June.

But at Tuesday’s council meeting, City Manager Morgan Smith said the city wouldn’t be able to meet the proposed timeline, since it would take time for Public Works to make and place the bases.

Smith said it wouldn’t be possible to have the sites ready by summer.

“We don’t think we could build new sites in time for the art turnover this year,” she said.

The sites could be ready for the spring changeover of the rotating artworks, Smith added.