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Takoma is about to get a new “welcome sign” to the community. No one knows yet what it will look like. It could be abstract, mosaic, nostalgic, polypropylene, acrylic or stone.
City arts agencies teamed up with Metro and community advocates to create a public art space at the Metrorail underpass at Fourth and Cedar streets.
Dan Turbitt chairs the Takoma Mural Committee. (Its antiquated name suggests the smaller scope of the initial vision of the project. Now that the budget is set at a quarter of a million dollars, the sky’s the limit – it doesn’t have to be “just” a mural.) Turbitt says the project’s goal is to “connect the two neighborhoods that have been split apart by the railroad.” He hopes it will bring business to Takoma DC and Takoma Park, Maryland. “And we want to have a beautiful welcome sign to our great diverse neighborhood.”
The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, together with Metro, has chosen five semi-finalists out of more than a hundred applicants. Each of the five will be paid $1,200 to come up with a proposal for a public art installation (including details about lighting and a graffiti removal plan.) Three of the five are local artists.
DC’s own Sam Gilliam is an “abstract expressionist” whose works hang in the Corcoran and Phillips museums and in museums all over the world. City Arts Inc. is a DC collaborative that brings adult professionals and students together for neighborhood-oriented projects, like the Duke Ellington mural on U Street. The third DC artist is Cheryl Foster, who created the sea life mosaic along the staircase leading to the water at National Harbor.
Two groups from outside the area are also in the running. Mixed Up Mosaics, a New York collaborative with more than 50 installations all over the world, does everything from apartment building interiors to picture frames to animal sculptures. And Myklebust & Sears is a Wisconsin group that makes large sculptures and “gateway designs” of stone, metal and glass for public spaces, including the Minnesota World War II Memorial.
At a public meeting Sept. 30, community members had a chance to talk to the artists about what they wanted from the space. So far, there is no thematic limitation. The installation can refer specifically to the Takoma community, though it doesn’t have to. Community members will have their final say Nov. 5 at an open house at the Takoma Public Library, 416 Cedar St. NW. There, residents can view the proposals prepared by the five semi-finalists.
The art should be installed in the spring or summer of next year. |
