Art Funds Sought for Offramp Project

The Ventura City Council today will consider setting aside $143,000 worth of art funds and amending this year’s public arts project list to initiate a project near the California Street offramp.

If approved, the city would open the project to local artists to submit proposals that could cost up to $125,000, while $18,750 would be set aside for administration of the project.

The city decided to consider the additional project after Bill Clawson, executive director of the Ventura Visitors and Convention Bureau, proposed having marine artist Robert Wyland paint giant whales on 552 feet of freeway wall near the California Street offramp.

Clawson persuaded Wyland--who has painted marine murals from New London, Conn., to Japan--to paint a mural in Ventura in 1998 for $250,000.

Clawson said he would raise half the money privately. The other $125,000, he proposed, should come from the city’s $800,000 in public arts funds.

Initially, the city’s public arts committee recoiled at the idea of a commercial artist such as Wyland taking his brush to local cement. They said any public art project should also be open to bids from local artists. But on Sept. 2, the Art in Public Places Advisory Committee recommended that the 1996-97 project include an art project at the California Street offramp, provided local artists can compete for the project.

Clawson, who will attend Monday night’s meeting, said that even if the council approves the project, the Wyland project is by no means a done deal.

“If the council approves it, it will definitely be a step in the right direction,” Clawson said. “Not just for Wyland, but also for local artists, who will show what they can do with that same stretch of freeway.”

Councilman Jim Friedman said he expected the council to add the project to this year’s list.

“I think it certainly has merit,” Friedman said. “It sure is an uglier part of the city that can stand some beautification, along with the railroad crossing . . . it looks like an erector set.”