Alameda art project gets a fresh start

New artists and all-new art: that’s the compromise reached for the Alameda Art Project.

The decision comes more than a month after some city representatives and members of the community expressed concerns about proposed artwork for the city.

“We’re not going to be transferring the art, just the artists to that new location,” Museum and Cultural Affairs Department (MCAD) Executive Director Sean McGlynn told ABC-7.

Last week, city representative Emma Acosta proposed firing the Seattle artists who were contracted to work on the Alameda project.

“The artwork is not reflective of the missions. I don’t believe pears were ever grown in the valley. In many Latin cultures, the eye, it’s an evil eye. There were others that really just didn’t make a lot of sense to me,” Acosta said at last week’s council meeting.

McGlynn said they’re taking the middle ground by transferring the artists to the project on Dyer Street instead.

They’re starting the process over and taking public comments before any art is produced.

“We’re going to work with the representatives’ offices to get in front of community members like we typically do and really make sure that input is heard,” McGlynn said.

The city is hiring all new artists for the Alameda project with the help of city representatives.

“The project is going to try to interact with all those 29 stations and give us a really great vision for that corridor,” McGlynn said.

The new artists will design art pieces to go in 29 bus stops that run along Alameda.

McGlynn hopes the end result will be a beautiful addition to the city.

“The ability of us to go back and recalibrate on the Alameda and really find an artist team that really has an aesthetic that the community is really comfortable working with and is an expression of Alameda and what it is to live along that corridor,” McGlynn said.

Officials will look for artists from all over the country, including El Paso.

McGlynn said he hopes this time they can work closer with the community and find the balance of respecting the artists and making the community proud.

He told ABC-7 there is no set completion date for either the Dyer or the Alameda arts projects. He said both projects are tied to a renovation project for the bus stops on those corridors.