Public Art Commission - March 20, 2025

King Plaza artwork wins conceptual approval

The Public Art Commission approved Alma Landeta’s conceptual design for a temporary King Plaza artwork with five recorded yes votes. The commission generally supported the project’s focus on LGBTQ+ community stories while asking staff and the artist to address safety, privacy and operational concerns during detailed design.

The approximately 7-foot-tall and 8-foot-wide polished stainless-steel sculpture would form a spiral featuring contour drawings informed by archival images and community portraits. A nonfunctioning pay phone inside would play screened, anonymized recordings collected through interviews and a hotline. Staff presented the proposal as the culmination of a year-long artist residency and community-input process; $50,000 had previously been approved for the residency.

Commissioners raised concerns about hot metal surfaces, vandalism, hostile hotline submissions, access by children and whether listeners could skip difficult audio. They also requested privacy safeguards, content warnings, nearby support resources and clear plans for maintenance and audio controls. The artist reported having about an hour of unedited recordings and said technical details for updating the hotline audio remained unresolved. Staff and the artist will consider the feedback as the design is developed.

Commission approves up to $37,000 to restore Albuquerque

The commission voted 6-0 to allocate up to $37,000 for conservation treatment and repainting of Albuquerque, Gale Wagner’s galvanized-steel sculpture at the Palo Alto Art Center.

Staff reported corrosion, cracking paint and paint loss that require a complete refurbishment. Agenda materials listed treatment estimates of $35,000 to $40,000, while staff described a preliminary estimate of just over $34,000; the commission set the spending cap at $37,000. A previous refurbishment in 2017 cost approximately $11,000.

Conservators recommended completing the work on site in a fenced and tented environment, with supervision of surface preparation and coating application. Staff said it planned the treatment for September through October and would stagger funding across two fiscal years. The next fiscal year’s annual maintenance budget was reported as $39,000.

Restoration of two Greg Brown murals is complete

Staff reported that restoration work on Greg Brown’s Garbage Collector mural had been completed, along with minor touch-ups to Boy Fishing. No commission action was required.

Primary sources

Watch the meeting on YouTube · Read the official meeting packet