Port District Votes to Think Big on Artwork

The San Diego Unified Port District on Tuesday approved a revised policy on the selection of major art projects on the waterfront, which it immediately put into practice by approving $450,000 for two art pieces this year in the Harbor Island area.

The decision to pursue a large-scale art program comes five months after New York artist Ellsworth Kelly, an internationally acclaimed sculptor, refused to proceed with his $450,000, 65-foot stainless steel sculpture in Embarcadero Park, near Seaport Village, because of controversy over its design.

Kelly’s withdrawal had been considered a setback to the fledging waterfront art program and to the Port District’s Art Advisory Board, a five-member volunteer group that screens artists and makes recommendations on art to the Port Commission.

But Tuesday’s actions indicate that art is again alive on the waterfront. Some Port Commission members have adamantly stated that it is better to embrace controversial art than to select something mediocre to avoid criticism. Commissioner William Rick said Tuesday that the art program is so young “I suspect there will continue to be an evolution . . . as long as it (art) is not a crime against nature.”

“It is the desire of the board (of port commissioners) that available funds be expended on a few major pieces of art rather than spent upon a greater number of minor or relatively insignificant works,” reads a portion of the revised policy approved Tuesday.

The new policy defines major art as permanent works such as paintings, sculpture, bas-relief, mosaics, frescoes, murals, stained glass and foundations. There is, however, a limitation on such works.

“Objects which aggrandize persons or which are funerary in appearance shall not be considered,” reads the policy.

The two art projects approved by the Port Commission for this year include $100,000 for a sculpture on Harbor Island. The work would be selected for an open competition among “regional” artists, though the region is yet to be defined.

The second project is for $350,000 for a work on Spanish Landing, a park area area across the channel from the Harbor Island marina and next to Harbor Drive. Unlike the open competition in the first proposal, the Spanish Landing project will be open only to artists invited to submit proposals by the Art Advisory Board.

A third proposal, for a $250,000 art piece on San Diego Bay near Lubach’s Restaurant on Harbor Drive, was delayed until the Port Commission reviews the progress of the first two projects.