BENTONVILLE -- The Advertising and Promotions Commission has agreed for Visit Bentonville to pay for the city's next selection of public art.
Commissioners approved 5-0 at their meeting Thursday to spend $8,000 for four art pieces to be displayed in pedestrian tunnels. Commissioners Chris Sooter and Lee Culpepper were absent.
Approval process
The Parks Advisory Board approved the four pieces of public art slated for pedestrian tunnels during a special meeting Wednesday. The art selections will go before City Council for approval before being installed.
Source: Staff Report
The project is called "Tunnel Vision." It will include art in four of the city's seven pedestrian tunnels. Two are on the North Walton Trail -- at North Walton Boulevard and at Ridgefield. The other tunnels are on the Crystal Bridges Trail at Northeast A Street, and the South Bentonville Trail at Southeast Walton Boulevard.
All four pieces capture the theme of "Walk, Run, Bike, Play."
Always a Pupil will use recycled material, including old and broken bicycle reflectors, to create two large eyes. It was created by Denver-based artist Amanda Willshire and will be in the tunnel on the North Walton Trail at North Walton Boulevard.
"Giant eyes playfully twinkle as you walk, bike or run past," she wrote in her proposal.
Hole in the Wall was designed by Joann Lacey of Cassville, Mo. It will use different shades of paint to give figures who are running, biking, walking, etc. a three-dimensional effect as though they were cutout holes in the wall. This piece will go on the North Walton Trail tunnel at Ridgefield.
Energy Flow incorporates a silhouette of a young soccer player in the middle of a footprint on top of a bike tire track pattern. The piece, designed by Adam Campbell of Fayetteville, will be vinyl-based and on display at the Crystal Bridges Trail tunnel.
"The tire treads in the background represent zipping down the trail on a bicycle," Campbell wrote in his proposal. "The footprint reminds us of our most basic connection to the earth while the silhouette of the child chasing the soccer ball conveys the joy of play."
Aura Activity will be in the tunnel on the South Bentonville Trail under Southeast Walton Boulevard. The piece is a collaborative effort by Eric Williams and Joann Lacey of Cassville, Mo.
The whimsical painting includes lots of bold, round lines of simple figures of people, a bike and a kite. The submitted concept is in bright orange, yellow and green colors, but the colors can be different than those, according to the proposal.
Visit Bentonville has $62,000 in this year's budget for public art, Kalene Griffith, president and CEO, told commissioners.
She said she liked that the project spans four locations stretching across the city.
"It's not just in one area," she said.
The three art pieces Visit Bentonville placed on the North Bentonville Trail in the fall of 2014 were each within a quarter mile of each other on the north side of town. The tourism bureau bought two of the three pieces after they were leased for a year.
One is Sunkissed, which can be seen by motorists on North Walton Boulevard, and the other is Pac-Man, which is further along the North Bentonville Trail.
NW News on 07/01/2016