Group proposes bayfront diversity artwork

Ken Shelin is a fan of public art, but he thinks there’s something missing from the city’s collection.

For more than a year, Shelin’s been thinking about the most effective way to fill the void he sees. A former city commissioner, he’s helped convene a committee of leaders in Sarasota’s arts and civic communities to pursue this mission. And, on Monday, he outlined his desires to the City Commission, asking for its endorsement as a first official step toward making the project a reality.

The goal: building a monument that commemorates and celebrates Sarasota’s commitment to diversity.

Although art can lend itself to abstraction and invite the viewer to forge his or her own interpretation of the piece’s intent, Shelin wants to create something that sends a clear message.

“When people walk away from this, I don’t want there to be any doubt in their mind what it represents,” Shelin said. “I want them to understand it represents diversity, and that it’s important in this city.”

As he told the commission Monday, Shelin and his fellow committee members have already settled on an ideal location: Bayfront Park. He went to the commission seeking the board’s approval for that site, which Shelin wanted to secure before beginning fundraising for the monument.

Although the commission was open to the idea, the board was hesitant to offer a firm commitment, expressing a desire to gather more information before deciding if Bayfront Park was the best fit. Shelin proposed a specific location within the park near the water to place the artwork, but the commission said it was unaware of that level of detail ahead of the meeting.

As some commissioners expressed concern about the lack of advance information, others questioned whether a monument would enhance a grassy section of a public park.

“There are so many places where art could go,” Commissioner Hagen Brody said. “I’m uncomfortable putting it right in the middle of one of our few open green spaces.”

The board voted unanimously to postpone any decision on the location until its March 18 meeting. Still, a majority of the board indicated some level of comfort with the concept of a monument somewhere on the bayfront, exact placement notwithstanding.

As for the specifics of what a diversity monument looks like, exactly? That’s still to be determined, Shelin said. City staff offered some outline of the potential scope of the monument, comparing it to the Embracing our Differences sculpture in the center of the roundabout at Main Street and Orange Avenue. That sculpture is 20 feet tall and 5 feet wide.

Shelin said his committee intended to work with the city’s Public Art Committee on developing a search process for finding an artist for the project. Shelin’s estimates for the cost of the project were between $250,000 and $500,000. Although he asked the city to help pay for the infrastructure associated with stationing the artwork along the bayfront, Shelin said the committee intended to fund the rest of the project.

“We’re going to raise the money,” Shelin said. “We’re going to find the artists. We’re going to make sure it represents what we want it to represent. We’re going to make sure it’s high quality, and we’re going to do it at no expense to the public.”

In addition to serving as a testament to the city’s commitment to diversity, Shelin said he hoped the monument could become a community gathering place, pointing to Unconditional Surrender as an example of what he imagined. He envisioned it as something that drew in curious visitors, or a point of reference residents used when meeting up along the water.

“I want people to be attracted to it,” Shelin said. “There’s a lot of public art in cities that sits in corners nobody notices.”