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? Will someone make a motion to? I will make a motion to approve the minutes from the May 14th board meeting. I will second it. We have a motion and a second. All in favor? 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 project's 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, they're 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 of weeks if you haven't seen it yet. It's getting good reviews. And we had a lovely video on the news. Maybe Amber, you can show that if you haven't already. But 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 D.A.R., Daughters of the American Revolution, wanted to do something honoring America's 250 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 decoration 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. So we had a real nice crowd with 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've got, 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. So 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 Galban, 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, you know, 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. 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. So 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's a UV tinting on all of the windows. So you cannot see inside the building in the daytime. Like it is it's reflective. You can't really see it. So 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 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 service's 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. The lobby there is really neat. It's a little, it's a blank canvas. It's very white. Yes. A lot of white walls. Right. And when you walk in, you want, you know, you want to get a different impression. Everything's all white, pristine and clear. But I think that, because I know that building, it's where the building department is. So when you walk in, you know, the stairs in front, the wall behind, in my opinion. And those, the different stairwells that come down, that kind of seems to ask for a treatment that makes some use of that. Uh, you mean at the municipal services? Yes. Straight on. This, 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 upgrades or anything. Well, what I mean was that I don't think you can ignore, I guess you could just put a mural behind it. Yeah. And call it good. But then you're talking about like the cutout part of like under the railings. Is that what you're just talking about? Right. Right. The, the sides of the stairs, as it were. Um, I would think it would be, uh, maybe a good idea to ask some of the artists, um, if they, if there's anything they would want to make use of. That's a good idea. So it's not just a white line. Right. In front of their design. Let's say if, if the, if the mural were birds and things like that, or if it was, uh, underwater, would you want to have, you know, maybe they would have fish going up or birds flying down. I don't know. No, that's a very good point. And I, I will definitely look at that for sure. I don't think it would change the cost very much. So I mean, maybe they would do it and paint the railings somehow. I don't know. We'll see. We'll see what I can get permission to do. I think if you, 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. Yeah. Yeah. I need an opportunity there. No, I agree. That's a, 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. This is the front building. Right. And we're not going to do anything in the closed stairwells of this building. Correct. 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? Yeah. Like I'm open to all suggestions. Can you show us that stairwell, the stairwell again? Back. I mean, I'm somebody, I end up using stairwells a lot. I get impressed when they're just like. But if you're visiting city hall, you're going to go up the grand staircase to the, the dais to the chambers. And that's kind of, that's meant for the public use. So this was, this is the south side. Is that the one you wanted to see? Because I didn't even show you the north side. Do you want to see the north side? Sure. 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 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-wide or gray or beige. Or 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. We 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 or just, and that's like, you know, a hundred dollars or a thousand dollars versus tens of thousands of dollars. I agree. 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 that'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 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 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, because you're not going to get any nobody's going to be able to see it except for the folks that work there. Yeah. Do we have to take a vote on this or is it just a recommendation? Just a recommendation. Um, and is everybody in favor of doing the municipal services stairwell? Yes. Yes. Okay. So then the next part of this would be an artist. Floating totem. Um, 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 whoever, whichever artist we pick, just because now there's two faces to the wall that we'll be doing. And let's say, so I will say that overall the Heron design was the favorite from, 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. Um, the second option that you all picked was, um, 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, whichever artists we don't pick, I'm going to offer them the wall at Coachman, or one of the walls at Coachman Park, because they've been waiting and they've been very patient. And both of these artists are very talented, so I'd like to give them an opportunity either way. So I, 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 has the orange blossoms and the hibiscus flowers. And then artist one has more of that, um, geometric kind of shapes that it turns into a design. So the other one was the water, which wasn't as highly voted for. I still like the, the herrings and I will just send it back to the artists 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 the, just the water pattern. And that could be kind of cool. Yeah. 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 with to him and say, you know, what do you, 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 that I'm, I, this is one of my favorite things. The only thing I'm, I'm missing from this that you do get in the pelicans, which I wasn't really a fan of the pelican ones, what is just movement with 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, 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 the, send it back to him asking for re-imagining 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. Aye. Opposed? All in favor. Okay. Uh, Herring design is. Artist one. Artist one is moved. Art of Annon, I think is his name. What was his name again? Art of Annon, A-N-O-N is the, the moniker . Annon is anonymous. Okay. Thank you all for going down that rabbit hole with me. Um. Sorry. My brain is not in my head today. here 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 fourth 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 ingress um he scored very high in our last call to artist 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 blue at the bottom as opposed to like the stairs the stars in that original design so this is how it turned out um unfortunately he had a lot less time to work on this than he thought he would so he didn't complete um the other part with the kid he only got about a third of the way through um so he went he's going to take that home he's going to 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 and it was very hot i felt bad for him yeah is there any discussion with that item number 4.3 discuss city branded art sign in coachman park so this is more of a brainstorming discussion item um so staff is looking for feedback on the idea of installing a decorative metal photo op sign in coachman park um so these designs were sent to me by sharp metal studios so it is an artist that creates these um 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 clear water 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 so um 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 clear water 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 clear water right i mean because it's going to people coming from all over the state other places right they're taking pictures in front of this you wanted to to market right kind of like south beach i mean i know there's a brick avenue too um you know it's it's a it's an icon piece right it's there to be there for several years take family pictures and you know it's the 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 it says clear water boom you know it's a great marketing piece for that yeah i like the full name spelled out yeah i also like the colorful one more than the polished one i think that's kind of a yeah 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 um so that would be my question to the fabricators are you know what material is being used and what is like the warranty and upkeep and stuff like that on the colored surfaces 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 redempt the hoa just to see what the maintenance was like and how it's held up but i wasn't able to get you know hear back from anyone yet i was just in lake nana a month or so ago i wish i had known to look for this i would have checked it out for you is it there a is there a possibility with um 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 in this end and you're going to come in every year or every two years or whatever and you'll come and do whatever maintenance is required and make sure it still looks good so in their uh contract they usually submit a keep the word i'm looking for like a maintenance uh 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 you know they're out of state so it doesn't make sense for them to have to come in every year to do this um so if it's just pressure washing that can be anybody that does that um so but we do ask for the maintenance plan okay 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 um 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 clear water where people could they had their pictures taken they'd be like we were there that 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 like a pumpkin for halloween yeah like something like that the duck christmas tree for christmas or something where are we thinking about what location was um 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 um but we've also said the same thing for the iconic art piece so i don't i don't know which one will get the the top spot right i'm thinking i i understand having clear water spelled all the way out a brand of perspective i do like the initial clw from a photograph perspective just because there's less space they 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 milan 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 i mean if we did and that's a very good point but if we did something like this like 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 it's more compact it's spelled out but it's more compact so it's not the whole yeah i think whatever you can do to compress a little bit so you can stand in front of it or you can you can get a selfie in front of it and it's not part of a letter yes i understand would you like a hashtag better than the axon 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 so i yes because even with the ad i think that was at one point in time that was the that was the instagram handle and i think people have just stopped using that so i agree yeah but whatever we can do to that 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 yeah because then you just see like clw or clear water stacked like that clear water 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 part is the biggest part of this whole thing will there 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 but um i'm not sure we're very early in this discussion so i 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 um 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 this substrate looks easier to clean to than the lake nona 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 then 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 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 we're all in agreement on more colorful we're all in agreement spelling it out spelling it out for sure i think that's going to help you take it on i'm serious that's clear water and coachman park because they still are there are some artists out there like clear water where's that you know and then i'll take your feedback about more maybe more compact or fit it into a photo has the marketing department do they have ideas about this or i haven't run this by them yet so this is you know public communications but they're they're not artists or they do more like signage and social media and things like that so 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 use deco lettering they've squeezed it in yeah and that's their logo on the front door so i mean just different text or whatever it could try yeah need a discussion item five director's report i don't have anything that was my whole report item number six are there any board members to be heard did we follow up at all on the um 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 uh we brought it up at their last uh board meeting they were all in favor of it um we're talking about putting out a um info who who would be interested like an interest form right now um 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 or for it um 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 um yeah i think we're going to move forward with it so i'm excited about that since there already are a couple examples out there there's a signal box that actually has a worker in the gladio field that was you know 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 the your purposeful inclusion of it in the the mural that's right here behind the library there were choices amongst the um samples that that artist gave and you you know you landed on the one that incorporated the gladiolas 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 you know 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 you know the orange or whatever it would you know allow them to have some choices and you know maybe have three different local artists that i did the purple one and i'm the pink person or i'm the yellow person whatever anyway that's what we talked about and we thought it would probably get some interest and and it would be great if we had a couple public buildings you know 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 in maybe yeah some raps of gladiolas on the stairwell you know only because i got back up here i some time ago there was 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 at the fire station i mean there are very you know it was supposed to be in 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 off the bay as you go out to the beach and everything well none of that worked out you know that there were all kind 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 like thank you save some money and make something else repurpose anybody else thank you great for coming through with the comments as always that was good yeah always has the last minute comments i love it um if there's nothing else our meeting is adjourned