Public Invited to View Arts Proposal Judging

The public is invited to attend the jurying process, being held today and Thursday, for the first of seven proposed, city-sponsored $100,000 artworks.

Titled City Gates, the art-in-public-places project was conceived by the City of San Diego’s Public Arts Advisory Board. The program is designed to “strengthen San Diego’s cultural identity . . . through neighborhood art” in the form of seven large-scale, freeway-related artworks.

A competition among North American artists for the first two projects drew 83 submissions for the North Gate, scheduled for a site near Interstate 5 and Ardath Road. Thirty-seven entries were received for the South Gate, planned for a site near I-5, Chicano Park and the Coronado Bridge.

Artists’ conceptions for the North Gate project will be reviewed by jurors from 2-6 p.m. today in the 12th floor Council Chambers at City Hall. Submittals for the South Gate project will be screened from 1-5 p.m. Thursday in Room 1200 at City Hall.

In this first stage of the judging, jurors will select the top three to five proposals for each gate. The winners of the initial jurying process will receive $5,000 to refine their designs through drawings, a maquette and three slides of the maquette. Stage II jurying will be held Sept. 19, and the winners will be announced Sept. 20. The final two artists will be awarded a $12,000 commission to develop final plans.

Jurors are Helen Harrison, a local artist, internationally recognized for her large-scale environmental artworks; Al Nodal, director of exhibitions of Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design in Los Angeles, and Sally Yard, an art historian and curator of contemporary art who lives in San Diego.