Library - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Thank you.

Let us come to order. Today we are at the Public Art and Design Board. Today is Thursday, July 9th, 2026. I thank everyone for attending. Our first order of business is to approve the minutes. Has everyone had a chance to read the minutes? All right. Will someone make a motion to approve the minutes?

I will make a motion to approve the minutes from the May 14th board meeting. I would second it.

We have a motion and a second. All in favor?

Aye.

All opposed? Minutes approved. Our second order of business is citizens to be heard. Good afternoon.

For those of you that don't know me, I'm Beth Daniels, and I'm currently the president of the board of the Clearwater Arts Alliance. So we usually try to come to your meetings and give you a heads up on what we're doing. Betsy, also our projects manager directors, is here with us. We've been busy doing some things that are definitely public art oriented. Among other things, the lovely display that's in the library, which is Pinellas County Teachers artwork so they're obviously artists themselves and they often need a place or want a place to display their works and that is up until July 24th so you still have a couple weeks if you haven't seen it yet. It's getting good reviews and we had a lovely video on the news just We can maybe Amber, you can show that if you haven't already, but there was one of the reporters came and did a nice story about it. She talked to some of the artists and showed the gallery. It was very lovely. Just before the fourth, we also unveiled a new signal box, which is done by a Clearwater artist, Heather Rippert. So it was an original piece, the DAR Daughters of the American Revolution. wanted to do something honoring America's 250th birthday. And so she did, and coincidentally she happens to have been born and raised in Philadelphia. So she did a piece that emphasized Constitution Hall where the Declaration was signed and stuff. And also five significant women who were meaningful participants in the revolutionary effort And there's a cue code to the story about who they are and why they're important and everything. So it's really kind of interesting. And that's going to also be available to acquire prints of it. We had a real nice crowd with the help of Parks and Rec and Amber and everything getting a good crowd out there for the unveiling, which was about two weeks ago. It's lovely. We also are in the middle of a call to artists in June for new signal boxes. Our board has decided that, I mean, we have to find locations for them, but we want to get some new artists we pay them for the right to use their image. And so we want to get some more in our inventory, so to speak, so that when we find a good spot, we can just go ahead and do the installation. So we have 50 now within the city limits of Clearwater and working on more. that's coming along nicely and we get a lot of public comment about that. And we are also soon to put out another call for sculpture artists because the three that are in Cleveland in the block by the Capitol Theater and the next two blocks going east, those have been in just over a year and we got a grant from Pinellas Community Foundation to do another round of those so we want to get the call out, make some decisions, and then do a swap out and hopefully an event that would feature, you know, some kind of a nice unveiling and party that would feature those 3D items. So anything else, Betsy? You sure? Okay. Any questions? There's a lot going on. Actually, there's also a beautiful art exhibit on right now that's tied to the 100th anniversary of the death of the famous architect Gaudi. who they just completed the building of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain, and pictures, paintings, I should really say, paintings by Galvan, who's a local St. Petersburg painter, are on display at Peace Memorial through this Sunday. They've been up a month. But it's free to the public to come in, and it's a lovely exhibit. If you haven't seen it yet, Sunday's your last chance because it comes down after that. So lots going on. Thank you.

Any questions? Thank you.

All right. Item 4.1, select and approve final art design for new City Hall staircase.

Good afternoon. Amber Bryce, Arts and Cultural Affairs Manager. So for this item, we want to discuss selecting the final artwork for the City Hall staircase. But we need to have a different discussion today, a little different discussion. So I sent some updated pictures of the new city hall. I was a little concerned with the way that the staircases look, because they don't look like the original renderings that I was given for a mural. So I actually went there today. I took some pictures so that you guys can see. I personally do not think it is worth city funds to do the north side of the building. I don't think it will have a public art impact that we want it to have. It's just not going to be very visible. I would prefer to spend those funds elsewhere in the city that will have a better impact. We can have the discussion if we should do the south side of the staircase. So I'll show you the stairwell that I saw today. This is unlike the midsection. So the south side has these windows up top, and then they also have windows off to the side. So it's a little brighter. You can see into the building from different angles. And then also from this side is where the new PSTA station is being built. So you can see it out that window there. There'll be more foot traffic. There'll be more. traffic in general coming in on this street. Another part of this that was not really discussed was there is a UV tinting on all of the windows. So you cannot see inside the building in the daytime. It's reflective. You can't really see it. Nighttime would be the only time you could see these murals or when you're actually in the stairwell. So if we did do the south side, I would think we'd just want to do the top portion instead of going all the way down because when you're in the bottom floor, when you look in, all you can see is stairs. You can't actually see the wall where the mural will be. Same with driving on the road. So maybe like these top two or three panels right here. That's kind of the first discussion point. As a kind of alternative, I've reached, I asked Assistant City Manager Slaughter about potentially painting the Municipal Services building and staircase instead. So this building, open to the public. So this is a stairwell that is open. You see it when you walk in, it's visual to everybody that works there. If you're going to pay your utility bill, things like that, when you show up to the building, you'll be able to see this staircase. So we could paint the side kind of off to the side and you know, two sides of the building. That's the front of the building. You can see all the windows that face the parking lot and the different levels already has lighting. So you can paint this like right side and the front portion while you're walking down the steps. So that would be either in addition to the south side or instead of the stairwells altogether. So that's the first point of discussion I think we should just talk about and how, what do you guys think? How do you feel? You can disagree with me, whatever you, Whatever you want to discuss.

Well, the lobby there really needs a little attention. It's a blank canvas.

It's very white, yes. A lot of white walls, yeah.

Right. And when you walk in, you want to get a different impression. Everything's all white. pristine and clear. But I think that when you walk in the, because I know that building, that's where the building department is. So when you walk in, the stairs in front, but the wall behind would be a good opportunity, in my opinion. I agree.

And those, the different stairwells that come down, that kind of seems to ask for a treatment that makes some use of that.

You mean at the municipal services?

Yes, straight on.

Like this kind of shot right here? Mm-hmm. Well, this is bright. They just redid this building, so I'm not sure I can ask for any upgrades to anything in the stairs.

Well, what I mean was that I don't think you can ignore – I guess you could just put a – a mural behind it and call it good, but then... You're talking about like the cutout part of like under the railings.

Is that what you're talking about?

Right, right. The sides of the stairs, as it were. I would think it would be maybe a good idea to ask some of the artists if there's anything they would want to make use of

That's a good idea. So it's not just a white line in front of their design.

Let's say if the mural were birds and things like that, or if it was underwater, would you want to have, you know, maybe they would have fish going up or birds flying down, or I don't know.

No, that's a very good point, and I will... definitely look at that for sure. I don't think it would change the cost very much.

So if it's doable, then paint the railings somehow to make use of that. I don't know. We'll see.

We'll see what I can get permission to do.

I think if we're considering putting a mural on that wall, then whatever that artwork just comes forward out of the mural into the pieces of the stairwell or those little strips whether it's just color or design or pattern opportunity there no i agree that's a very good point so but i would put it definitely on the south wall not the east wall so so we're going back to so this is this is municipal services and we're not going to do anything i'm

the closed stairwells of this building so then the other conversation is the city hall stairwells do we spend the money and hire an artist to do this outside or do we not do any stairwells at all in city hall that's kind of the we have a sculpture going in that's technically the art piece in city hall the architects are the ones that said well here's a mural opportunity for the stairs but now that i've actually seen the stairs and it's

You can't see anything?

I just really can't. Yeah, I just don't know. I just don't know. It's up to you guys, kind of.

How many people use the stairs up and down that area?

So this one is used a lot. And also this building has a lot more employees that work in it. City Hall is going to have a lot less people that work in it. And City Hall has a front staircase. That's like a grand staircase that you would go up to. The stairwells are more for employees or emergency exits and things like that.

Does this maybe call for a different, suggest maybe we ask for some other treatments for those lesser used stairwells?

I'm open to all suggestions.

Can you show us that stairwell again?

I end up using stairwells a lot. I get depressed when they're just like...

But if you're visiting City Hall, you're going to go up the grand staircase to the dais, to the chambers, and that's meant for the public use. So this is the south side. Is that the one you wanted to see? I didn't even show you the north side. Do you want to see the north side?

Sure.

Let me get there. So the north side is, that's pretty much the only windows in the place. So there's more of a wall, as you can see here, kind of separating. There's not those windows up top that bring in all that light. And this is from the outside. So really the only windows in the stairwell are kind of above the doors. It's not.

Who uses the stairwell?

Well, we don't know because we haven't opened the building yet. So we're not really sure how many people would use it. But you're not like as a public person wouldn't be able to access the stairwell from the outside.

It's a security issue. So they'll be locked down.

Correct.

Okay.

So maybe the company. maybe a good compromise would be to do the mural in the municipal building and then activate these spaces with just some like colorful paint that's not you know industry white or gray or a decal or you know like decal art or something like that that's less expensive that's not also my concern

I mean, they have to paint it anyways, right? Scaffolding and things like that. Well, they're painting it white. That's what this guy's doing right here. He's just painting it white. So that's what it's going to be right now. You could put, you know, like colorful decals or things like that on there.

Yeah, you can do wraps and they come off easily. Right. Yeah. Without.

And that's like, you know, a couple hundred dollars or a thousand dollars versus tens of thousands of dollars. Yes, I agree. Plus the scaffolding and things.

If nobody's going to see it. Yeah, I don't.

We're not going to get our bang for our buck.

Yeah, I don't think any of us realized that it's in a kind of sealed off space.

Right. The UV windows that you mentioned that have the UV coating that are kind of blocking that area, is it possible to make those a piece of artwork? Is there...

something that anybody can do with like the perforated with different uv coatings or something that would well they make a vinyl it's perforated you can see out of it we have a printer for it at work we've been talking about this but um and you you know squeegee it on you do a wet application so like on one side it's just you can see right out of it right and then the other side it has whatever graphic as a pattern i just think because it's in brand new building and they're going to open it and they they

want it to be the building is the art i'm not sure i could ask for anything like that right now maybe in a year or two when it's not so shiny and new that'd be a different conversation but i just have a feeling the answer is probably going to be no but i can't always ask right right um so board recommendation is to not go forward with any city hall stairwell murals is that what i'm hearing

That would be my opinion, if you guys agree. Nobody's going to be able to see it, except for the folks that work there.

Do we have to take a vote on this, or is it just a recommendation?

Just a recommendation. And is everybody in favor of doing the municipal services stairwell instead of? Yes. OK. So then the next part of this would be art and artist. So now that the stairwell has changed, I do think we'll have to go back to the drawing board a little bit on design with whichever artist we pick, just because now there's two faces to the wall that we'll be doing. So I will say that overall, the Heron design was the favorite from the board and from city staff. I even asked for their opinion as well. This was the favorite. but breaking this down into now three floors instead of two floors like I don't know what that looks like if this is the direction we want to go so I guess what I would want from you all is which artist would you want to go with and then if we want to kind of stick with this theme maybe he can create a new design that encompasses both walls I don't know if you want. The second option that you all picked was the Pelican. So it was same artist, no, sorry, different artist. Artist two with the Pelican was this one. It was the second most voted number one piece. And I will say, let me throw this out there as well, whatever artists we don't pick, I'm going to offer them the wall at Coachman Park, one of the walls at Coachman Park, because they've been waiting and they've been very patient, and both these artists are very talented, so I'd like to give them an opportunity either way.

So I like that the pelicans perched on the stairs, and since there's, I guess, three sets of stairs now, there could maybe be another pelican on the next set of stairs that aren't visible.

Well, this wasn't the favorite design. So really, it's kind of, this is artist two. And artist two had the orange blossoms and the hibiscus flowers. And then artist one has more of that geometric kind of shapes that he turns into a design. So the other one was the water, which wasn't as highly voted for.

I still like the herrings. And I would just...

send it back to the artist to see if they can accommodate for the extra staircase maybe they could even incorporate their second design onto the stairs because it's like just the water pattern and that could be kind of cool and i don't i was wondering would they want to do with that work as a single large mural or would they be looking at it as like a

Like the staircase is completely different, the wall size is different, so I think this is something I definitely just have to go back to him and say, you know, what do you want to do?

Yeah, I would definitely propose it back to them to come up with updated artwork. And the other thing, really, this is one of my favorite things. The only thing I'm missing from this that you do get in the Pelicans, which I wasn't really a fan of the Pelican ones, is just movement and movement. the pelican that was flying just some kind of movement but that's the only my only observation other than it just needs to be resized or re-imagined for the third staircase so is everybody in favor i guess i would want to vote for which artist you want to move forward with with the municipal services staircase yeah

I would move that we go with the Heron artist and send it back to him asking for a reimagining for the three staircases placement. Do you have a second?

I'll second that.

We have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Herring Design is... Artist 1. Artist 1 is moved.

Art of Anon, I think, is his name.

What was his name again?

Art of Anon, A-N-O-N is the moniker. Thank you all for going down that rabbit hole with me. Sorry, go ahead.

Sorry, my brain is not in my head today. Item number 4.2, discuss live painting at Clearwater Celebrates America 250 event.

So we had a big Clearwater Celebrates America 250 last weekend for 4th of July. We had a live painting demonstration that was incorporated into the event. Parks and Rec had approached me about doing some sort of visual art component, so I recommended a live artist painting. So we selected Isaac Gress. He scored very high in our last call to artists. He's known for his hyper-realistic work. So these are the designs that he sent And then these are how the designs turned out. I asked for more red, white, and blue at the bottom as opposed to the stars in that original design. So this is how it turned out. Unfortunately, he had a lot less time to work on this than he thought he would. So he didn't complete the other part with the kid. He only got about a third of the way through. He's gonna take that home, he's gonna complete it, and then that is being donated to the Arts Alliance to then they can auction that off at their either annual fundraising dinner or on their website to kind of be a fundraiser for them, but then it's also a piece of artwork that was created. So I hope we can work with this artist again in the future. He's very, very talented.

The life painting is hard. Yeah.

And it was very hot. I felt bad for him, yeah.

Very hot. All right, moving on. Is there any discussion with that, by the way? Item number 4.3, discuss city-branded art signs in Coastal Park.

This is more of a brainstorming discussion item. So staff is looking for feedback on the idea of installing a decorative metal photo op sign in Coachman Park. So these designs were sent to me by Sharp Metal Studios. So it is an artist that creates these. I also shared these with the Arts Alliance to get some more feedback. Um, the feedback for them was this kind of wave sign is more on brand with Clearwater, but then we'd want something colorful like this one. Um, and so I asked this sign, um, goes for about $35,000, which is less than I thought it would be. So, um, this wouldn't take the place of the iconic art piece. This would be an addition to. So there would still be some iconic art piece that we're putting in Coachman Park, but then this would be more of like a signage picture photo op. So here's some of their work they did. I asked if we can do it without the at symbol. They said yes. I don't think we would put a call to artists out. I think we would just bid this out to probably three different artists or companies that do work like this and see what designs they come up with, and then we just come back to the board. So interested in your thoughts on this, if you think we should go with Clearwater spelled out, CLW, I heart CLW, do you like the colors, we like the metal, all the thoughts, all the things.

Well, for marketing, I mean, you probably should say Clearwater, right? I mean... because it's got people coming from all over the state, other places, right, and they're taking pictures in front of this. You want it to market, right, kind of like South Beach. I mean, I know there's a Brickwell Avenue, too. It's an icon piece, right? It's there to be there for several years, take family pictures, and it's the backdrop. But I think that as we try to promote Coachman Park to other areas outside our community, if they're promoting that and it says Clearwater, boom. It's a great marketing piece for that.

Yeah, I like the full name spelled out. I also like the colorful one more than the The polished one, I think that's going to be kind of a, yeah. I think the polished one is going to be kind of a maintenance nightmare. My concern about the colorful one is, of course, the sculpture that's at the East Library that's chalky. So that would be my question to the fabricators are, you know, what material is being used and what is, like, warranty and upkeep and stuff like that on on the colored surfaces i actually did reach out yeah it's like oxidized i mean it's been there for 10 years yeah and i think it's painted i think they painted on metal i think this would be acrylic i'm not sure um i did reach out to the city of orlando which is where this is

And they're like, that's not us. That's an HOA. So I tried to reach out to the HOA just to see what the maintenance was like and how it's held up. But I wasn't able to hear back from anyone yet.

I was just in Lake Nona a month or so ago. I wish I had known to look for this. I would have checked it out for you.

Is there a possibility with the artists, makers of things like this, that we would budget for maintenance from them rather than kind of looking forward saying, oh, at some point we're going to need an issue, there's going to be an issue, that maybe as part of the contract would be, We're working at this end, and you're going to come in every year or every two years or whenever, and you'll come and do whatever maintenance is required and make sure it still looks good.

So in their contract, they usually submit a maintenance packet. So what do we have to do? How often do we have to do it? Not necessarily it has to be. me that does it, because I think sometimes they're out of state. So it doesn't make sense for them to have to come in every year to do this. So if it's just pressure washing, that can be anybody that does that. But we do ask for the maintenance plan. OK.

The other thought I had was we have the big at sign there that you were.

That would be gone. I asked.

But I wonder about a possibility with something with that, with maybe something that can be swapped out. at different times for seasonal things or like we've got the America 250, you know, if we had, there was something that could be put there, America 250 Clearwater where people could, they had their pictures taken, they'd be like, we were there that year or whatever we wanted to do if there was like a space as part of it that something could be added or removed at different times.

Like a pumpkin for Halloween? Yeah, probably. Something like that. The duck.

Christmas tree for Christmas or something. Where are we thinking about location-wise?

Not sure yet. I think we'd want it to be somewhere on the water. Like when you're taking a photo of it, you get a view of the water and the bridge and something like that. We've also said the same thing for the iconic art piece, so I don't know which one will get the top spot.

Right, right. I'm thinking, I understand having Clearwater spelled all the way out from a brand new perspective. the initial clw from a photograph perspective just because there's less space to have to you can get in front of three letters you can still add clear water underneath it to to spell it out so clw then clear water underneath it there's just less space almost like lake nona you can actually stand in front of that and have to be so far back to take a picture from it but that was just like a selfie perspective Self-perspective, or even if someone's taking a picture of you, they have to stand. Pretty far back to get the whole word clear water inside the shot.

I mean, if we did, and that's a very good point, but if we did something like this, so let's take the at symbol out and we just, we do clear water, but it's all colorful this way so that it's more compact. It's spelled out, but it's more compact, so it's not the whole thing.

Yeah, I think whatever you can do to truncate it and compress it a little bit so you can stand in front of it, or you can get a selfie in front of it and it's not... A part of a letter.

Yes, I understand. Would you like a hashtag better than the at sign?

I mean, I'm not in the Gen Z, but I feel like they don't use hashtags anymore. I think they're getting away from hashtags. Because even with the ad, I think that was, at one point in time, that was the Instagram handle, and I think people have just stopped using that.

I agree. But whatever we can do, whatever the artist can do to shrink it down, not really shrink it down, still make it prominent, but...

easy to photograph yeah that's a good point i like the south beach one like that how compact that one was and like how it was more solid colors because you just see like clw or clear water stacked like that and i like the choice of like block text instead of the one that's in jacksonville that says derp or whatever it's like a big script it's pretty awful

And the app part is the biggest part of this whole thing.

Does this include lighting?

I mean, I'm not sure if it would just go on the surface that is already there. Because you can kind of see this is just a metal plate that's bolted in. And they clearly built this riser out of something. I'm not sure. We're very early in this discussion, so I think it would just depend on placement and what's possible. So we also have that dock that's in front of the dock master's office that goes all the way out that I think is also a perfect location for a sign or something because it's on the water. I'm not sure we could build something concrete there, but we could just maybe put it right there.

yeah well whatever material we use it has to be able to handle the salt air right and this and the heat of the sun because it'll just eat it alive yeah yeah this substrate looks easier to clean too than the lake nono one as well for south beach i mean i don't know i'm just like looking at the picture it kind of looks like aluminum almost

Are we looking at all at any sort of intersection or complementary design with the iconic piece?

Not at the moment, just because that one is... way far down the line like we don't we haven't even put out the call yet so by the time we put out the call and get to science and they get proposals and i mean we're talking probably a year before that even i mean should these connect at all if they're going to be nearby i don't know color or i i think that staff wants to move forward like admin wants to move forward with something like this sooner than later just because it is a place making thing and it's a photo opportunity um and then the piece we pick maybe like a mosaic or something i don't know i don't know i don't know the answer to that but the answer is probably we will make them separate things

I like it. Color, more color is always necessary.

So we're all in agreement on more colorful. We're all in agreement spelling it out.

Spelling it out for sure. Because I think that's going to help you take a call on the market of Clearwater and Coachman Park. Because there are some artists out there like, Clearwater, where's that?

And then I'll take your feedback about maybe more compact or fit it into a photo.

Has the marketing department, do they have ideas about this?

I haven't run this by them yet. So this is public communications. But they're not artists. They do more like signage and social media and things like that.

Yeah, I mean, you can change the text. I mean, it's kind of like the Clevelander on Miami Beach, right? Clevelander is a long word, right? But they used deco lettering. They squeezed it in. And that's their logo on the front door. So, I mean, just... Different text or whatever.

Good try.

Item five, direct this report.

I don't have anything. That was my whole report.

Item number six, are there any board members to be heard? Good today.

Did we follow up at all on the flower idea? And I don't know if that was something we were going to ask Clearwater Arts Alliance about or?

So we did, we brought it up at their last board meeting. They were all in favor of it. We're talking about putting out a info, who would be interested, like an interest form right now, to just see which businesses and houses and who would be interested in actually having this. And then I think... They're going to take the lead on the project, but it'll be whether or not they fund it, they fundraise for it, maybe get a sponsor, not really sure, and then they'll probably have a panel, like do a call to artist, and either pick either one artist or maybe three artists that do different colors and that's their specialty or something like that. So we did have a discussion there in favor. I'm sure they can speak to it if they'd like to come up and talk about it. But yeah, I think we're going to move forward with it. So I'm excited about that.

Well, since there was a couple of questions. Since there already are a couple examples out there, there's a signal box that actually has a worker in the gladiol field that was painted by a local artist in response to photographs that are actually from the historical museum. So black and white photographs from back then. So there's that example already there. And of course, your purposeful inclusion of it in the mural that's right here behind the library, there were choices amongst the samples that that artist gave. And you landed on the one that incorporated the gladiolas. And one of the things that we were talking about was because they came in so many colors, at least that's the way we remember them, was that a building owner would have some choices. Oh, the purple one or the pink one or the yellow one would really look cool on my building. It would be a little different than just the orange or whatever. It would allow them to have some choices and maybe have three different local artists that I did the purple one and I'm the pink person. person, whatever. Anyway, that's what we talked about, and we thought it would probably get some interest. And it would be great if we had a couple of public buildings that we could start on, because then you could start the buzz and the talk about it, and people would get the idea, I think, pretty quick. I think it would be fun.

I wonder if that could also be something with those stairwells that aren't going to be seen a whole lot, maybe a low-cost kind of Easter egg or something that the, you know, especially the city employees want to feel. It's not public art so much, but want to feel involved.

Maybe, yeah, some wraps of gladiolas on the stairwell. Only because I –

got back up here. Some time ago, this goes back years, there was a lot of hoo-ha about the fact that, and it's a beautiful piece, the big hanging piece that's at the fire station. I mean, there are very, you know, it was supposed to be in a glass lobby that was going to be very visible from the street. And I mean, that's, you know, you're going right by on Gulf to Bay as you go out to the beach and everything. Well, none of that worked out. You know, there were all kinds of legal problems with the way that a building got oriented and everything else. I said, if you want to do something exciting in the atrium at the municipal services building, which is three or four stories high, pick that thing up and hang it in there. Everybody can see it. And a ton of people are coming in and out of there. And then it's something you've already got that nobody is seeing. Just my two cents.

Thank you.

Save some money and make something else.

Repurpose.

Anybody else? Thank you, Greg, for coming through with the comments, as always. If there's nothing else, our meeting is adjourned.