Arts & Entertainment Community Government

Harbor Arbor Art may grow beyond Grandview Forest

The Gig Harbor Arts Commission may recommend that the city expand the kind of art featured in its Harbor Arbor Art project, as well as where the art will be located.

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Last year, the commission put out a new call for art after its selected grantee submitted an application the city felt was not in keeping with the spirit of the grant.

The original idea was that an artist would create art in Grandview Forest on dead tree stumps, also called snags. But the artist whom the commission chose last year proposed carving the wood off-site, then hauling it to the forest.

The commission re-issued a call for art in March, but so far, no one has applied.

Grandview and elsewhere?

While commissioners were open to the idea of including more than just carvings as part of the art call — Chair Sonja Johnson noted that the call only said “embellishments,” which could be widely defined — they also discussed broadening the possible locations for these pieces.

“I just think putting a bunch of other art pieces in Grandview just kind of mucks [it] up,” Commissioner Carolyn Vranjes said, at the commission’s May 19 meeting.

“Maybe not a mosaic, but even if there were some trunk and somebody could nail something on it,” Johnson said. “I could see how you could have some sort of art still on the tree snag without being not true to the character of the piece.”

Commissioner Robin Avni said she has seen installations that featured flower arrangements, like flowers in trees, which could be a good opportunity for flower farmers in the area.

“There’s lots of resources to do something like that in the summer,” she said. “You just leave them there and let them decay.”

Low maintenance

Depending on the kind of art, the artist would have to consider what to do and use, especially if the city is not going to be involved in its upkeep. Materials could deteriorate over time, Assistant City Clerk Tiffany Aliment said, and fall off the tree.

For something like a mosaic, Commissioner Nora Eckstein said, artists could use stones instead of glass, which, Johnson noted, would “as it naturally deteriorated, you’re back to your natural elements, so you don’t have shards of glass or anything like that that people would have to walk on.”