Planned police wall mosaic to ‘add zip’ to Civic Center
Artists Debbie Collette and Patti Linnett have designs on placing a mosaic mural outside of the Redondo Beach Police Station. Image courtesy Friends of Redondo Beach Arts
A pair of Redondo Beach artists is planning to adorn one of City Hall’s blank canvases in a mosaic that celebrates an iconic South Bay pastime.
Patti Linnett and Debbie Collette are on a final funding push to install a surfing-themed mosaic at the Redondo Beach Police Station. The five foot tall, 35-foot long mosaic mural would cover most of a wall that was completed last year, built to close around the station’s southern end.
Linnett and Collette are the artists behind many mosaics across the city, including the Ocean Steps above Redondo’s International Boardwalk, mosaic-covered bollards along the Esplanade and a series of harbor and boating mosaics on Harbor Drive.
“The Police Chief is a surfer, and so is a lot of the council; everybody seems to be surfing in the community,” Collette said. “And when you’re facing the wall from Pacific Coast Highway, looking beyond it you’re basically looking at the harbor. It’s a great gateway.”
The project was born when Collette and Linnett were approached by Maria Temprano, a police department employee and one-time colleague of Linnett. They took a series of designs to RBPD Chief Keith Kauffman, got his approval and moved forward from there.
The project was awarded $35,000 in funding from the Redondo Beach Public Arts Commission at its July meeting. However, it needs to raise about $10,000 more to be fully funded. The Friends of Redondo Beach Arts have stepped in to support the project.
The mosaic wall would also go a long way toward beautifying the city’s Civic Center, said Chantal Toporow, President of FRBA and former Public Art Commissioner.
“We need more beauty in our city and the civic center needs some zip to it, something quite beautiful,” Toporow said. “It’s just a no-brainer, the right thing for the community.”
FRBA is collecting donations for commemorative bricks, costing $200 apiece. For more information, visit friendsofredondobeacharts.com.