Santa Rosa Mural Society

Santa Rosa Mural Society
Project Proposal & Information Sheet

The Scope:

The Santa Rosa Mural Society Project will make an immediate contribution to the revitalization of downtown Santa Rosa, helping to make it a viable, exciting, pedestrian-friendly cultural center. By facilitating the creation of fine art murals in outdoor settings throughout the downtown corridor, the program will further strengthen the linkages between Railroad Square, the Santa Rosa Plaza, Courthouse Square, and eastward. Cities throughout the country--and the West in particular--have found that fine art mural projects are a cost effective means of boosting tourism, pedestrianism, and community pride. Downtown Santa Rosa, with its wide variety of buildings, has tremendous potential for murals of all sizes and types.

Theme:

All murals will relate to Sonoma County: whether they be landscapes depicting our rich natural, agricultural, and urban environments; or whether looking to our past, present, or the future.The guidelines should be ambiguous enough to encourage different ideas and artistic styles, yet stiil lend the project as a whole sufficient continuity. Oftentimes, the individual wall spaces themselves might suggest appropriate themes.

Sites:

A walk-through of the downtown presents quite a few large and small scale sites for murals. These areas include all our public parking structures, the Santa Rosa Plaza parking structure, the walls of buildings surrounding parking lots (such as the "B" Street lot, whose many walls could function as an outdoor gallery), pedestrian walkways,the third Street and freeway underpasses,and so on. Particular attention should be paid to sites that could function as gateways, help provide Iinkage within downtown, or lie within view corridors.

Selection Of Work:

As a wall space became available and the funding developed, there would be a call for artists to submit designs. Three artists would be selected out of the open call, and be paid a small stipend for submitting finished maquettes. In this way, the eventual design would have been reworked at least twice before the actual mural was begun. A selection panel consisting of representatives from property owners, business, the arts, and the public would be assembled to review design submissions. The program would follow all zoning and review procedures, and public art policies.

Costs:

Fine Art Murals represent a real value in public art and for each dollar spent, give maximum exposure. Professional murals would be paid roughly $10 per square foot, which would include materials, preparation of the wall, scaffolding, insurance, etc. There are also companies such as GannettOutdoor, whose Master Painters can paint a mural from an existing maquette, photo, or other image for $5 per square foot. In certain instances, this contracting of the final mural painting could not only save money, but also ensure the timely completion of a particular mural. It has the added benefit that it would allow artists without any mural painting experience to compete in the project, as Gannett could paint the mural from the artists maquette. Any artist painting a mural would be required to carry a minimum of $1,000,000 liability insurance, and payment would be contingent upon degrees of completion of the mural.

Funding:

Funding for the project would come from a variety of sources. The property owner, who must paint the building from time to time anyway, would be expected to contribute one-third or more of the cost. The tenant or tenants, who would also stand to benefit, would be recruited as well. There may be City, County, or other public funding sources such as redevelopment money, facade grants, and other public art funds. Other businesses in and outside the downtown will be solicited, and their sponsorship acknowledged on the walls. A trust could be established and an "Adopt-A-Wall" program created to channel private donations, sales of the artists maquettes, mural postcards, booklets, t-shirts, and so on.

What Next?

The project has received initial conceptual support from downtown property owners and business people, representatives from downtown groups including arts organizations, as well as input from city staff and council members. Several sites have been selected and preliminary design and fundraising begun. In the meantime, the Society will continue to seek support and funding in order to proceed with the project. The Society's first mural, "Locomotive #10," located at Whistlestop Antiques in Old Railroad Square, was completed in early January. Anyone interested in the Santa Rosa Mural Society should contact Dave Gordon, at (707) 823-7215, or Greg Sabourin, at (707) 576-1795, with their questions, comments, potential mural sites, fundraising ideas, and volunteer help.

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