Manhattan Beach will add two temporary pieces of art to its civic plaza, the City Council decided on Tuesday with a 4-1 vote. Councilmember David Lesser cast the dissenting vote.
In September, the council directed city staff to research the feasibility of and safety issues behind installing Believe, Green and Not A Step in the civic plaza, as part of the third annual Manhattan Beach sculpture garden installation funded by the Public Art Trust.
Jason Manley’s Believe, Green is a 17-by-15-foot sculpture with solar panels and a neon green letters that light up to spell ‘BELIEVE.’ The size of the piece can be altered, according to a city staff report. The lighting timing, color and tone of the letters can be controlled, said Richard Gill, director of parks and recreation. Christian Tedeschi’s Not a Step is a 27-foot-wide frame of wooden ladders.
Lesser worried about the safety hazards the pieces could provoke if children were to climb on the artwork. Gill said Not A Step will be covered by plants to deter climbers.
Lesser also opposed the proposed location of Believe, Green and the mixed messages behind the word, “believe.” “I see a need to approach public art very carefully to build trust in our community, so then we can move forward and have more aggressive pieces,” he said.
Councilmember Amy Howorth thought the word “believe” would spark conversations among community members. “I really thought about, is there a religious message? Are we treading on dangerous ground there?” Howorth said, adding, “I’m not afraid of that.”
In other news, the council unanimously agreed that the $10,000 in seed money the city lent to the Centennial Committee does not need to be repaid. The $10,000 went toward newspaper ads, fireworks, t-shirts for the Hometown Fair and the centennial website, according to the committee’s minutes.
