The City of Santa Clarita has big bucks to spend on a public art project at the entrance to Canyon Country Park.  Arts and Events office staff are hoping to take an unsightly, boring plot and make it just slightly more sightly through the commission of a $30,000 piece of art.  The proposed site sits next to a very plain stretch of Soledad Canyon Road, which parallels Highway 14, and while the work would be fairly visible to passing motorists, it would rarely be viewed up close by the public.

Artists must use the funds to design, fabricate, transport and install the work.  Spread the word – the application deadline is March 16th.  Find the PDF here.

That was really very confusing.  I’m talking about the Santa Clarita City Council meeting tonight, not the headline of this post which is also somewhat confusing if you haven’t been paying attention to what has been going on between the City and Colllege of the Canyons regarding the Performing Arts Center Memorandum of Understanding.  What the dickens went wrong?  The City Manager and the folks at COC had a little talk a while back, and even though Ken Pulskamp had already basically changed the city’s relationship status to ‘single,’ apparently the COC Board of Trustees does not feel like breaking up just yet.  So for now, lets just say ‘it’s complicated.’  

The City Council decided to delay the decision to end the MOU so that the City Manager and COC can resume negotiations and come to an agreement.  Stay tuned.

On the first floor of City Hall there is a hallway.  Pretty, stale photos of city facilities had adorned the walls of the hallway for a long time, and for a long time there was a promise of turning the hall into an art exhibition space.  Finally, finally the “First Floor Gallery” is a reality, and the first exhibition of work is a collection of Japanese kites which have been meticulously crafted and decorated with colorful designs.  You can decide for yourself if the kites are art or not, but if you feel like viewing the show called ”The Kites of Kyushu,” visit city hall at 23920 Valencia Boulevard.  Photos of these works of kite are below, so click on.

Photos by Scott Groller

Artists of the Santa Clarita Valley are invited to submit work for an upcoming exhibit in City Hall.  The show is titled “Visions of Santa Clarita: Where the Good Life Takes You,” (Say, does anyone actually know what that tagline means?) and will be installed in the hallway of the ground floor – a.k.a. the “First Floor Gallery.”  This is the very first time the hallway has been opened up for the display of artwork by local artists, and the community will see many more exhibits as Jeff Barber at the City works to fill the space in coming months.  The PDF is not on their site, but you can grab one here.