Mountain View Visual Arts Committee Meeting on Public Safety Building Art - September 10, 2026
Mountain View Visual Arts Committee Meeting on Public Safety Building Art - September 10, 2026
The Visual Arts Committee (VAC) met on September 10, 2026, at 6:02 PM to discuss the public art component of the new Public Safety Building at 1000 Villa Street. The meeting introduced the project, the artist selection panel, and sought feedback on art locations, themes, and artist eligibility. The building construction is expected from late 2026 through 2031, with art installation targeted for mid-2029. The public art budget is $400,000.
Discussion Items
- Project Overview: The new public safety building will house police and fire headquarters, emergency communication center, and EOC. It features an oak tree motif on windows and a historical display in the lobby. The existing clock face will be preserved.
- Artist Selection Panel: Introduced members including community representative Emil Sheikh, retired police officer Max Bosal, fire representative Dale Kirsten, public art manager Kristen Dance (Sunnyvale), and architect Nathan Heraro. A VAC subcommittee (Cliff Bryan, Joe Medwood, Jesse Rath) will support the process.
- Art Locations: Three proposed sites: (1) exterior plaza on Franklin Street (ideal for a memorial or sculpture, 6x6 ft footprint), (2) rear of building on Villa Street (three wall-mounted art panels and landscaping), (3) artistic bicycle racks at the front entrance. Discussion included visibility, seating, and potential future art on the parking garage (separate budget).
- Site Constraints: Art cannot obstruct sightlines, must be weather-resistant, anti-graffiti, safe (no climbable elements), and accessible.
- Themes and Memorial: Themes of guardianship, partnership, community resilience, protection, safety, collaboration, and historical legacy were discussed. The public safety chiefs supported a joint memorial honoring fallen officers and firefighters, depicting collaboration between police and fire.
- Artist Eligibility: The committee agreed to open the call for qualifications to Western states (CA, OR, WA, etc.) to attract more applicants, especially for a memorial. Artists will be evaluated on experience and ability to work with project teams. The call will be posted on CallForEntry.org and other platforms.
Key Outcomes
- Approved Minutes: Minutes from July 8, 2026, were approved with a correction to the meeting location.
- Art Locations: All three proposed locations will remain as opportunities for artists to respond to. The memorial is prioritized for Location 1.
- Themes: Finalized themes include protection, safety, collaboration, partnership, community support, and historical legacy.
- Artist Eligibility: Call for qualifications will be open to artists from Western states (California, Oregon, Washington, etc.) with a preference for California-based artists if desired.
- Timeline: The RFQ will be issued within the next week, closing in late October 2026. The artist selection panel will review qualifications and shortlist artists by end of 2026. Final proposals will be presented to VAC in spring 2027.
- Next Steps: Staff will finalize the RFQ document incorporating committee feedback and begin outreach to artist networks.
Note: No public comments were received during the meeting.
Meeting Transcript
DM bus coming. Oh, is it four of us? I think it may just be the four. I hadn't heard from teacher. Stephanie was amazing. Oh, that's right. Hey, I think all the two, right? So I call the meeting to order at 602. And we saw with roll call. Ice Chair Club Brian. Lacey Rathbunny. Susie Merhar, Stephanie Spade, and Chuchu South. Let's move to point three approved minutes. Oh hello. I'm in the I had part of the conference for everyone, so I didn't have the question. Okay. So for the motion, um, I'm just asked that we have to change that. So minutes from July 8, 2026. Oh my god. Correcting the location to the interview. Oh, second. All in favor. Okay. And do we have any oral communications from the public? No. So we move to five upcoming agenda topics. No. All right. Number six, unfinished business. You don't have any hair. Oh, we'll be really let's go to seven new business, 7.1 public art public safety building project 2049. So our single agenda item tonight is introducing the public safety building project 2049. Uh for public art component. So this is uh I'm introducing the the brand new public safety that's going into thousand 1000 streets. Um and tonight we're going to be talking about um we're getting feedback and discussing the public art locations, um, prioritizing locations, uh getting feedback on the contract names, and uh and parameters for artists of the company criteria. Uh and before we get um further in discussion, I do want to introduce some of our uh we have a lot of people here. So um first I'll start with the public safety team. Um so maybe Chief Canfield will start with you and then go into the project team and then we'll start introducing the artist selection panel. Hello everyone, uh some familiar faces but some new faces, Mike Campbell, not using for having us. Evening, Brian Jones, Matt's fire chief. Um we can go over to Naveen and David. It's uh Navine Government, senior project manager with public works city module. Project manager project. And I'm David Printy, uh principal project manager of the public works. Thank you. Uh and just as a reminder, July uh the July uh visual ex community um recommended to move forward with piloting and artist selection panel process. Um and uh the the purpose of the artist selection process is really to help foster more community investment um get more professional oversight and selecting public art. This this um panel is a temporary advisory body um that's specific to this project. Um and they'll help the the panel will help evaluate artist submissions and recommend artist proposals. So we'll introduce all of our members.
openpublica.com