Ventura Advisory Panel Reacts Warily to Plan to Have Wyland Do Mural

A municipal arts panel reacted warily Tuesday to a proposal that would have acclaimed marine artist Wyland paint huge gray whales on a downtown freeway wall.

Bill Clawson, executive director of the Ventura Visitors & Convention Bureau, described the proposed 11,000-square-foot mural as a combined piece of pop art and public relations.

He argued that the mural would bring visitors and publicity, replace “an eyesore with an icon” and help connect Ventura to the ocean with its representation of marine life in the Santa Barbara Channel.

But some members of the Art in Public Places Advisory Committee wondered whether $125,000 of public money should be spent on a Wyland mural without considering other proposals first.

“Even if Michelangelo were doing this for free, we should put it out for public discussion,” committee member Glen Morris said after Clawson compared Wyland to the painter of the Sistine Chapel. “We’re looking for something with a little more depth, and maybe our local community can give us that.”

The year-old committee, which includes seven members from the community, was established to advise the city on how best to spend $800,000 set aside for public art the last five years. The city has already agreed to spend $148,000 for several pieces of art that will be displayed along a six-mile portion of the Ventura River Trail that has yet to be built.

Clawson described Tuesday’s meeting as a sharing of dialogue rather than an effort to lobby for money or support.

“I saw it as a cautionary reaction on their part, but not a rejection of the idea,” he said. “My hope is there will be enough public support for the Wyland mural project that they will side with that support and want to be a part of it. . . . We are really trying to work with this committee; we’re not trying to go around anybody.”

Clawson plans to establish a committee, which would include at least three City Council members, to raise at least half the estimated $250,000 cost of the mural. Clawson concedes that he may have to ask the city to pick up the other half.

Committee members said that to ensure fairness, monetary support for a project can only be allocated in an open selection process.

Whether the committee will revisit the issue is unclear, officials said.

“We’re not trying to put the kibosh on this project,” said Jennifer Easton, public art program coordinator. “[But] we don’t change a process to fit a project.”