Public Art Director Has Mastered Art of Mediation

Jessica Cusick’s resume says she speaks French, Italian and Spanish. But Cusick and those who have worked with her say she is equally fluent in the languages of the artist, the architect, the engineer and the politician.

As Ventura’s public art supervisor, and in similar positions she has held in Los Angeles and Houston, Cusick has built a reputation as an expert on public art and art policy, and as a mediator who can translate among several--sometimes competing--groups and have everyone leave the table happy.

In simple terms, “I’m a very good listener,” Cusick said.

In more complex language, “Jessica has a great ability of bringing things to a level that is very understandable by a broad range of people representing different disciplines,” said John Sedlak, an architect and planner with Houston’s Metropolitan Transit Authority who has worked with Cusick.

Cusick started work in Ventura last October but will continue to travel to Houston every few weeks this spring to finish her work there. Her one-year contract with Ventura pays her about $50,000 to work 32 hours a week, leaving time for trips to Texas, teaching at USC, doing consulting work, lecturing and writing a book.

“I’m a self-admitted workaholic,” Cusick said.

And a globe-trotter. With a diplomat for a father, Cusick, 46, grew up all over the world. Her high school diploma is from Morocco. She majored in art history and Egyptology at the Sorbonne in Paris. She has a master’s in French literature from New York University.

“I grew up being a gypsy,” she said. “I like being a gypsy.”

Indeed, Cusick’s colorful clothes and bold jewelry suggest a life of gypsying. In a recent interview, she wore purple velvet, and icons of the Virgin Mary surrounded by purple beads dangled from her ears.

“She looks like an arts person. She doesn’t look like a bureaucrat,” said Debbie McNulty, Cusick’s assistant in Houston. “She doesn’t feel like she has to conform to be convincing to politicians and city officials.”

But putting art on public display involves more than wearing costumes and getting away with it. It’s about finding the balance between good art and good taste, about creating good work with little money and about working around building codes that can stifle creativity.

On Cusick’s watch, Venturans can expect to see art popping up all over town, said Metro Art Director Maya Emsden, who worked with Cusick in Los Angeles for three years.

“She’s such a strong advocate for having artists involved in a wide range of [projects],” Emsden said. “Anything--a chair, a window, a walking surface, an intercom system--anything becomes an opportunity.”

Cusick wants the projects she supervises here to appeal to the art critic as well as the tourist who just pulled off the freeway for lunch.

“I think successful public art is really about works of art that are many-layered in their potential interpretation,” she said.

Creating public art can involve a United Nations-like cast of characters--from the artist with the wild hair and ripped jeans to the engineer in the gray suit.

“The inspiration can always come from any of the participants,” she said. “It’s always miraculous when it gels and you never really know how it happened.”

But after 20 years in public art, Cusick has seen the miracle happen time and time again, most recently in Houston. Before that she worked for the Art for Rail Transit Program in Los Angeles, now called Metro Art.

From 1989 to 1994, Cusick directed the nation’s largest public art program, working to integrate aesthetic elements into L.A.’s subway and light-rail system. But after creating the program’s guidelines and overseeing most of its commissions, she sensed she had made her contribution and left for Houston.

Planning and policy are what Cusick enjoys most; being there for the art’s unveiling is just icing.

“I’m more interested in the shaping of the programs than in the administration of them,” she said.

Houston presented a new challenge--a large city but a small budget. Unlike Ventura, which sets aside 2% of its annual construction budget for public art, Houston had no allowance at all. Administrative budget cuts eventually forced Cusick to solicit private donations to pay herself and her staff.

Still, Cusick led a group that established a framework for civic art and design, and the funding outlook is improving. Feeling that she was close to meeting her goals in Houston, Cusick wanted to move back to California.

“I love living in California. Having lived all around the world, I have to say it’s my favorite place,” she said.

She wasn’t thinking Ventura in particular, but “the position in Ventura was open, and it seemed to me it had incredible potential.”

Cusick concedes that coming to Ventura from the nation’s fourth largest city and before that the nation’s largest public art program might look a little odd on a resume.

“If you look at my career, it’s not a logical career path,” she said. “It’s always been about going after things that intrigued me.”

Working 32 hours a week in Ventura--and living in Los Angeles--allows Cusick the gypsy to remain in public art administration while trying on other hats.

“Every step shouldn’t be bigger,” she added. “What every step should do is present new opportunities, and I don’t think opportunities are an issue of scale.”

For Cusick, the most intriguing opportunities right now are in America’s smaller cities.

“The big cities have sort of hit the wall,” and are struggling to revive their decaying downtowns, she said. “And at the same time, you’re looking at small and mid-size cities kind of presenting a perfect opportunity for balancing the benefits of urban life with other benefits that we’re looking for.”

In a field known for slowness, Cusick believes that in her five months she has already made some strides in this “fabulous community.”

“What’s great about Ventura is it has resources,” she said. “It combines what you would want to have access to with a scale that’s so manageable.”

Two major projects--at the E.P. Foster Library and the bus stop at the Buenaventura Mall--are in the design stages, and a series of lectures on public art will culminate in a design competition for local artists.

Sonia Tower, Ventura’s director of cultural affairs and Cusick’s boss, said Cusick combines a strong background in visual arts--from her degrees and work at New York galleries and museums--with a practical understanding of bureaucracy.

“It does nobody any good if you understand these sorts of projects . . . [but] aren’t also a pragmatist,” Tower said.

Between the city’s downtown and midtown redevelopment and its “visioning” process, “Ventura is poised at a critical moment of expansion,” Cusick said.

“There’s a lot of things to do here,” she said, “and it’s a good time to be doing them.”