Hermiston Council OKs Public Art Master Plan

The Hermiston City Council unanimously voted to approve a Public Art Master Plan for the city during Monday’s meeting.

The proposed plan, available for review on the City of Hermiston website, establishes five general themes and values which should be represented through the community’s public art to reinforce a cohesive sense of place.

The five themes and values are Water, Agriculture, Watermelons, Transportation, and Heritage.

The plan also identifies 37 general areas in Hermiston where public art could logically be placed. Finally, the plan incorporates a set of policies for the city to follow when accepting, maintaining, re-locating, or disposing of public art. The plan does not directly call for city funds to be used for developing public art, but does create a streamlined approval system that interested community members can use in order to raise donations for public art installations.

“This plan is really to inspire philanthropic groups to get involved,” said Hermiston Assistant City Manager Mark Morgan.

Among the city’s role in developing public art for the city would be for it to create a special revenue fund for donations for art projects, use the donations to leverage grant funding, and to help install the art in public spaces throughout the city.

One idea talked about was to install uplighting at the old Armand Larive archway. Morgan said the Hermiston Breakfast Kiwanis Club has already expressed an interest in spearheading that project.

Creating a Public Art Master Plan was first recommended by the city council in early 2014. The Community Enhancement Committee (CEC) then put out a Request for Proposals for plan development in late 2015, and chose consultant Rebecca Couch, who was instrumental in developing the Public Art Master Plan for Moscow, Idaho. Couch met with city staff and toured the community earlier this year and presented a large list of potential sites for public art to the CEC for review and comment.

The proposals in the plan do not identify specific art, such as, “place a painting of a watermelon at this corner,” but instead generally identify items like, “a large sculpture,” to be placed in a general area. Once the CEC’s comments were incorporated, Couch and city staff hosted three public involvement sessions to get community feedback about the proposed locations, as well as about what types of art the community would like to see.

Morgan said that a Public Art Master Plan not only increases the city’s aesthetic beauty, it can also, to a smaller extent, be a boost to the area’s economy by attracting more people and businesses to the area.

“It’s exciting to have a process in place,” said Hermiston Mayor Dave Drotzmann Monday night. Previously, Drotzmann said having a plan in place will help the community develop public art that reflects the values of the city.

“This plan is a proactive approach to head off the challenges that can come up when someone proposes placing art in our public spaces,” he said. “My hope is that by going through this extensive process now, it will be much easier to install public art that the entire community is proud of.”