Culver City : Artworks for City Hall

History and the movies are among the themes for public artworks that will grace Culver City’s new City Hall.

Proposals by four artists were approved Monday by the City Council, acting as the Redevelopment Agency. The projects total $300,000, slightly more than 1% of the $25-million cost of City Hall. The city’s Arts in Public Places program requires that at least 1% of the cost of such buildings be spent on artworks.

Redondo Beach artist Blue McRight will install a series of oil paintings on the curved wall of the council chamber lobby. The paintings, arranged in a grid pattern, will feature old rancho maps that accompanied petitions to the Mexican government for land grants in the mid-1800s.

Los Angeles artist May Sun will focus on the Gabrielino Indians, who lived on the banks of La Ballona Creek until the 18th Century. She will embed stainless steel replicas of Gabrielino fishing hooks along the bottom of an indigo-blue reflecting pool. Gabrielino charm stones and effigies, such as a whale amulet used to change weather, will be installed in series of short walls, accompanied by folk tales and historical descriptions.

Culver City artist Barbara McCarren plans to build an old-fashioned, crank-turned movie camera through which visitors can view snapshots of historical Culver City.

Oregon artists Ed Carpenter will create handblown glass wind screens for the third-floor atrium. The screens will have a hanging garden motif.

Construction on the Mission-style City Hall, to be located at Culver Boulevard and Duquesne Avenue, is scheduled to begin in the spring of 1995.