By Tom Morphet
Assisted by a facilitator, the school district’s art selection
committee changed some earlier decisions on locations and choices of commissioned artwork
to make its final recommendations to the school board. The board unanimously approved the
recommendations Tuesday.
The district paid travel expenses for Norm Campbell of Sitka, a painter
and former board member of the state council on the arts, to assist the group. Campbell
served previously on art selection committees and has been awarded commissions for public
art, including a whimsical Southeast landscape painting at Sitka High School.
He helped convince the group to eliminate art locations above entrances
to the high school from the combined school’s foyer area.
Those locations would conflict with two large pieces for the school
foyer favored by the group. Those pieces were a 36-foot-long, six-foot-high acrylic
painting of two bears in front of Davidson Glacier and its adjoining lake, to go on the
arched wall above the office, and glass etchings of eagles and trees in the library’s
interior windows, above a long bench straddling the two entrances.
"They decided there was a lot of art in that space and it might be
best to disperse some of it into other areas of the building," said superintendent
Michael Byer.
The group will ask Donna Cattoti to incorporate some totemic designs in
the glass and to eliminate a fish mural that was to go on the wall behind the bench. The
original cost of the piece was $16,000.
The bear painting, by Rob Goldberg of Haines, will be on bent plywood
panels and cost $12,000.
One of the biggest changes from previous discussions was to request
artist D.K. Skains for a piece to fit a 15-foot-wide, seven-foot-high space below
vault-ceiling windows in the school’s junior commons area.
The committee had previously bypassed Skains’ work, but changed
its mind after seeing slides of previous creations. Skains has major pieces in Anchorage.
"Everyone really liked her work," said facilitator Campbell. "That spot
seemed like a natural. It’s got really soft, nice light and it needs something
there." The district will offer Skains $10,000 to fill the space.
For the school cafeteria, the group agreed to add a Native carving in
the Northwest Coast style of totemic killer whale fins breaking the surface of the water.
The piece, by local artists Jim Heaton and Jones Hotch Jr., will measure roughly six feet
wide and three feet high and be carved of yellow cedar. It will cost $6,500 and go into a
south-facing alcove, a location that had not been previously proposed.
The piece hadn’t been selected in the first round, but found
support among committee members who wanted Native representation in the school.
"Given the large Native population in Haines, it would seem appropriate that they be
represented," Campbell said.
Above the nearby entrance to the elementary school, the group chose a
stained glass mosaic by John and Sharon Svenson of Haines. The 56-square-foot piece
features a yellow-brick road and the Cat in the Hat and is themed as a journey of
exploration. Its cost is $19,250. The piece may require permission to use copyrighted
images.
With $4,000 remaining to spend, members of the group agreed to ask
alumna Sarah Cohen to use that money to create a piece. Cohen and Chorus Bishop submitted
four proposals not chosen by the committee, but members said they liked Cohen’s work
and wanted to honor a graduate.
"One reason the process was so successful is the artworks the
committee chose were very reasonably priced. That left us with a lot of options
open," Campbell said.
Committee member Lenise Henderson said she was happy with the selection
process, which included giving weight to comments from student member Tia Heywood.
"I’m happy with how it went. It wasn’t wrought with conflict."
The selection committee found middle ground, she said. "Not only
is (the art) a big purchase, it’s a big public space. You have to think of something
most people will find pleasing, but also something that will have some longevity."
