San Jos Public Art 
  The Online Newsletter of the City of San Jos Public Art Program 
December 2008  Volume 1, Issue 12
Greetings

With the December issue of San Jos� Public Art we are celebrating the completion of our first year of electronic newsletters as well as an extraordinarily busy year for the San Jos� Public Art Program.  2008 saw the completion of a large number of notable public art projects located across San Jos�: at Evergreen Park on Yerba Buena Road, at Fire Stations 12 and 17; at Joyce Ellington, Willow Glen and Pearl Avenue branch libraries, at Roosevelt Community Center, Padre Mateo Sheedy Park, The 88 in downtown, and a series of temporary artworks on the Downtown Transit Corridor.  We also initiated a comprehensive maintenance and conservation program to ensure the upkeep of the City's artworks.
 
In 2008 we also initiated many new projects throughout San Jos�, selecting artists and meeting with community members.  We continued development of public art and artist selection for our Art & Technology program at the Norman Y Mineta International Airport.  Finally, we created public exhibitons at City Hall, and hosted two public art bus tours, events we hope to continue in 2009.
 
During 2009 you will have the opportunity to learn more about our upcoming public artworks and to participate in community meetings, dedications and public art tours.  We urge you to keep reading San Jos� Public Art and to join us in future community meetings, events and tours
 
Happy New Year from San Jos� Public Art!
 
Barbara Goldstein
Public Art Director
In This Issue
New Roosevelt Community Center Features Works by Two Artists
Conti's New Artwork at The 88 Lights Up The Night
Public Art Committee Meeting - December 16, 2008
Public Events: December 2008 - January 2009
Two Fun Ways to Explore Public Art!
View Past Issues of San Jose Public Art
Quick Links
Join Our List
Join Our Mailing List
NEW ROOSEVELT COMMUNITY CENTER OPENS FEATURING WORKS BY TWO ARTISTS

One artwork impacts the eco-system, the other highlights urban themes

 

The celebration of the opening of the new Roosevelt Community Center will include two significant public art projects. 
 
Touching The Earth, Touching The River is Jackie Brookner's site-integrated artwork which serves as a Roosevelt Filter Wallfunctional filtration system to help diminish the center's environmental impact on nearby Coyote Creek. The artwork, which consists of multiple elements, detains and filters storm water run-off from the building's roof.
 
At the South entry to the building, storm water run-off is channeled into a translucent vertical storm water filtration element made of vibrant yellow glass, etched with an image of the creek system and lined with white pumice stone. The artwork creates a colorful, attractive, entry marker for the building's Santa Clara Street fa�ade where the water infiltration process, normally underground and invisible, can be seen.
 
Roosevelt Filter WallAt the North entry, a steel cascade sculpture,  visible from inside through the lobby windows, transports roof rainwater to a rock bed filter and pool which incorporates a flat spiral metal element inspired by the form of a fingerprint. The pool captures and detains rainwater before it flows to the nearby bio-swale. In dry weather, this piece functions as a rock garden/sculpture and as a casual seating for the Community Center's entrance court. 
 
The City's Environmental Services Department has planned monitoring systems that will help measure the effectiveness of the filtration elements. Educational signage will accompany the artwork and building, highlighting the storm-water treatment and other sustainable qualities of the project. 
 
Site-integrated murals are a primary element of Edward Scape Martinez's artwork. Martinez designed the murals as large volumes of color, light and geometric forms that purposefully interact with the building's architecture. Some of the imagery is based on abstracted images drawn from his photographs of the old Roosevelt Community Center.

Roosevelt Filter Wall


Spiritual Stonehenge is a vibrant, colorful vinyl mural on the ground floor that wraps around the Center's juice bar, extending into the community room.  Spiritual Stonehenge is highly visible from outside the building as visitors approach the north entrance, providing colorful interplay with artist Jackie Brookner's exterior public art elements. 
 
Roosevelt Filter WallShapeshifters 1, 2, & 3 are a trio of hand-painted murals on the 2nd floor. The rich colors, lines and forms in these murals flow up the stairway and wrap around corners, providing interplay with the archtectural lines and fields of light.
 
Martinez's untitled chromed and painted steel sculpture is located on the wall of the 2nd floor art room. The artist intended for this artwork to suggest elements of the history of the park, the area, and the street culture of the area's youth so that the artwork might function as a new type of urban folk art.  
 
The new Roosevelt Community Center is at 901 E. Santa Clara Street, San Jos� 95116. The Grand Opening Celebration is Saturday, December 13, 10:00 AM - 12:00 Noon; the official program and ribbon-cutting starts at 10:00 AM) The artists will be present to discuss their work following the program.

Free. Please join us. Everyone is welcome!
SHOW YOUR STRIPES LIGHTS UP THE NIGHT AT THE 88 IN DOWNTOWN
Artwork's unique interactive feature enables viewers to activate it via telephone
 
Jim Conti's new artwork Show Your Stripes at The 88, San Jos�'s new high rise residences at 88 E. San Fernando, enlivens downtown with its colorful and intriguing cascade of light patterns. 
 
Contipink-orangestripesThe artwork is created through an interplay of LED lights and stainless steel fluted columns attached to the north and west fa�ades of the corner of the building at N. 2nd and E. San Fernando Streets. The piece illuminates from sunset to 3 a.m. with a wide array of light patterns that only change at the when requested by a viewer. Anyone with a telephone can change the pattern from anywhere in the world. 
 
 
 
Roosevelt Filter WallCall (408) 287-0128 after sundown. After you hear the tone, enter any three numbers, which can include # or *, from your telephone keypad, and then enter zero and hang-up. If the number sequence is programmed, then the colors should change in about 10 seconds. (Note: Not ALL 3 number combinations have been programmed yet, so if one you try doesn't work, please try another.)  Some fun ones to try include *25 for Christmas, or *14 for Valentine's Day.
 
Show Your Stripes was commissioned by WMS Partners, the developer of The 88, as part of the San Jos� Art in Private Development program in conjunction with the San Jos� Redevelopment Agency.The San Jos� Public Art Program facilitated the project implementation.
PUBLIC ART COMMITTEE MEETING

Next Meeting:  December 16, 2008 - 5:30 PM. 

The Public Art Committee 's regular monthly meeting is Tuesday, December 16 at 5:30 PM. The following action and discussion items are on the meeting agenda:

  • Bascom Community Center and Branch Library: Approval of concept proposal by Ron Baron for a public art project for Bascom Community Center & Branch Library. (Council District 6)  
The Public Art Committee, a sub-committee of the Arts Commission, is advisory to the Commission and to San Jos� City Council. The Public Art Committee monitors and provides oversight in the artist selection, development and design review of public art projects throughout the City.

The Public Art Committee meeting is in City Hall, 200 E. Santa Clara Street, Council Wing Room W-119. The meeting is open to the public.
 
To view a printable copy of the full, detailed meeting agenda and related documents, please go to: www.sanjoseculture.org
PUBLIC EVENTS 

Meetings, Dedications, Celebrations, Lectures, Exhibits & More  

 Current listings for mid-December 2008 - January 2009 as of newsletter distribution  

DECEMBER 2008

GRAND OPENING: New ROOSEVELT COMMUNITY CENTER  featuring an external public art project by Jackie Brookner and interior projects by Scape Martinez. 
 
Don't miss the exciting Grand Opening of San Jos�'s newest community center. Highlights of the public art include an environmental project by artist Jackie Brookener that helps to filter storm water from the facility's roof. Scape Martinez, a San Jose-based urban artist has enlivened the building's interior with mural and sculpture work.
 
DATE/TIME: Saturday, December 13, 10:00 AM - 12:00 Noon (Official program and ribbon-cutting starts at 10:00 AM)
 
LOCATION: 901 E. Santa Clara Street, San Jos� 95116   
Free. Please join us. Everyone is welcome!


 
GRAND OPENING - FIRE STATION #12 featuring
Spring-Tailed Dalamatian, an artwork by Gerald Heffernon, a lively, whimsical colored bronze fire dog. (For more artwork details, please see the October issue of San Jose Public Art, which featured this project. The link to the archived October issue is in Quick Links in the left column, above.) 
 
DATE/TIME: Friday, December 19, 3:00 - 4:00 PM
 
LOCATION: Calero Avenue at CahalanAvenue, San Jos� 95123.
 

NOTE: SHOW YOUR STRIPES ARTWORK DEDICATION EVENT POSTPONED.
 
The dedication of SHOW YOUR STRIPES, a new artwork by Jim Conti at The 88, downtown San Jos�'s new luxury residential highrise at S. 2nd and San Fernando Streets that was announced previously announced as scheduled for Wednesday, November 19 has been postponed. Please watch future issues of San Jos� Public Art for when this event is rescheduled.
 
 
JANUARY 2009 
 
GRAND OPENING - MAYFAIR COMMUNITY CENTER
featuring artworks by Fernanda d"Agostino. 
 
Don't miss the exciting Grand Opening of this beautiful community center in the Mayfair neighborhood. Highlights of the public art include art glass windows in the main entry, stone sculptures in the courtyard, and a rich array of artwork elements in the facility's tower.

DATE/TIME: Saturday, January 17; the Grand Opening Program is at 11:00 AM with other site activities ongoing throughout the day. 
 
LOCATION: 2039 Kammerer Avenue, San Jos� 95116
 
Free. Please join us. Everyone is welcome!
 
 
 
For additional art activities that you can enjoy in December and January, please see "ONGOING EXHIBTIONS" listings, below.

 
ONGOING EXHIBITIONS
 

 CITY WINDOWS GALLERY
OUT OF THE FIRE, in City Windows Gallery, the exhibit space located in the windows along the S. 4th Street fa�ade of City Hall .  Out of the Fire features the work of artists from the Bay Area Glass Institute in San Jos�.  Curated by Kathryn Funk. On display through the year end.
 
CITY HALL EXHIBITION PROGRAM - 3 NEW EXHIBITS

SPEED CITY - FROM CIVIL RIGHTS TO BLACK POWER: an exhibition presented in conjunction with History San Jos� that presents a broad view of context of the runners, their lives and their controversial actions during the 1968 Olympics, curated by Urla Hill. On exhibit in the Council Wing 1st Floor Corridor Gallery through March 30, 2009.

SHIFTING PERSPECTIVES - PUBLIC ART IN SAN JOSE: An exhibition highlighting a range of aspects of public art in San Jos�, many of which are usually not seen. On exhibit in the City Hall Tower Foyer Gallery through February 2009.  

 POSTCARDS FROM LAKE CUNNINGHAM: Vintage images from a beloved historic San Jos� location, on display in the 18th Floor Lobby Gallery (Tower) through July 2009.  
 

WHO'S ON 1ST/WHAT'S ON 2ND:

Profiled in the June '08 Special Edition of SJ Public Art News, some of the temporary exhibitions in Who's On 1st/What's On 2nd continue thru the Fall/early Winter along the Downtown San Jos� Transit Mall:  

Hector Dio Mendoza's Cultural Citizen multimedia project explores what it means to be a "cultural citizen" in San Jos�. The work includes a website, posters and banners along 1st & 2nd Streets. A major new element, the "Cultural Citizen Tree" was installed in St. James Park in July, 2008. For more information and inter-active elements of the project go to the Cultural Citizen website at www.culturalcitizen.org. Ongoing through the year's end. 

Bill Fontana's Sonic Cascades broadcasts the live sounds of the bells of Trinity Cathedral, 81 N. 2nd, creating a sound sculpture that interacts with the urban landscape. It can be heard along N. Second Street and features combination of some traditional bell music and minimalist composition by Fontana.  Sonic Cascades will be featured on a continuing basis.   

JD Beltran's Downtown Mirror features four video projections within storefronts and building windows reflecting both the local environment and the rich demographic and historical atmosphere of the downtown. Text from recent interviews and historic texts are superimposed on the videos revealing a fascinating time-spanning portrait of the downtown. Continuing thru the end of the year, Downtown Mirror video projections can be viewed in the following locations: in two storefront windows adjacent to Zanotto's at The Globe Residential Community located at 25 S. 3rd Street, at 38 2nd Street, and in a small storefront window on the Paseo De San Antonio, adjacent to Camera 12 Cinemas.     
  
                             
Please go to
www.w1w2.org  for more details about these projects.

TWO FUN WAYS TO EXPLORE PUBLIC ART IN DOWNTOWN SAN JOSE

Create your own walking tour!

Here are two ways you can enjoy public art in Downtown San Jos�.
 
DOWNTOWN PUBLIC ART MAP
The San Jos� Public Art Program publishes a colorful, informative map of public art projects in downtown San Jos�. The Downtown Public Art Map is a fun and easy ways to see public in downtown San Jos�. You can create your own walking tour and include opportunities to stop and enjoy other features in the district including museums, galleries and restaurants.  
 
 
RECOLECCIONES: THE MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. LIBRARY PUBLIC ART COLLECTION
The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library includes an award-winning collection of more than 34 site-specific public artworks in locations throughout the library. Finding them is a process of exploration, discovery and is filled with surprises! A free colorful detailed brochure is available from the San Jos� Public Art Program that will help you appreciate this extraordinary collection.  
 
You can request a free copy of the Downtown Public Art Map or the Recolecciones - Library Art Collection brochure. Please e-mail your request to  [email protected], and include your mailing address.
 
You can also access a printable pdf version of the Downtown Public Art Map on the Public Art webpage of the Office of Cultural Affairs website at
San Jose Downtown Public Art Map.
MISS AN ISSUE OF SAN JOSE PUBLIC ART?  FIND IT NOW ONLINE!
Visit the online archive to view past issues! 
  
Current and past issues of San Jose Public Art can now be viewed on the Office of Cultural Affairs website on the Public Art webpages.
 
Go to www.sanjoseculture.org
 
MORE TO COME IN SAN JOSE PUBLIC ART!
 
 
 
 
San Jos� Public Art is the way to keep connected and informed. Please stay with us for future editions.

We welcome your comments, ideas and suggestions. You can e-mail us at [email protected].
 
Please forward this to people you know who might like to keep informed about public art in San Jos.