In the 70s, the Bellevue, Washington Arts Commission found a widespread demand to express community identity, history, and culture. In response, the city adopted a public art program; however, it was not until 1986, when they went to the lengths of dedicating a fixed amount of the annual capital budget for art, that the program truly began to take shape. Now, a recently adopted art plan guides priorities citywide and identifies opportunities and strategies for locating future art projects

Today the City of Bellevue Arts Commission sees the success of public art as based not only on artistic merit but also on its acceptance over time by the community. The means used to acquire public art has a real impact on this acceptance. One of the obstacles encountered in building support for public art was that public art's vocabulary is a foreign language to many people. Selection panels have been established and consist of equal numbers of arts professionals (artists, curators, etc.) and citizens.

To create more familiarity with the range of expression possible in outdoor sculpture and have some fun in the process, the commission inaugurated the Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition in 1992. The biennial exhibition is now a successful collaboration between the City's Parks Department and the Arts Commission.

Up to fifteen sculptures are selected every other year for the exhibition through an open competition for professional sculptors. In 1994, the commission invited an additional five sculptors who are at the top of the field nationally to show their work. George Tsutakawa, Phil McCracken, Deborah Butterfield, John Buck, and George Baker each loaned a sculpture to the City for the exhibition. All of the sculptors receive an honorarium and are responsible for installing and removing their work. The City selects the site, provides security, publicizes the event, and insures the art work.

The "gallery" for the exhibition is the $24 million Downtown Park, a key urban design element of Bellevue's Central Business District. In an area increasingly dominated by high rises, the park provides 20 acres of open space boasting gracious overlooks, broad expanses of green, formal gardens and a 400+ foot waterfall. A 1200 foot canal rings a meadow. A 20-foot wide promenade along the canal is lined with London plane trees, benches, and classic obelisk light standards.

The commission selected the Downtown Park as the site due to the range of open space provided. They found that they could show everything from massive, large scale works, to intimate, human scale pieces. For example, a wide circular granite path lined with benches, light standards, and London Plane trees created a series of perfectly framed "windows" for sculpture. Broad lawn areas backed by pine and cedar trees showed off sculptures 12 and 17 feet tall. Edges of native shrubs and ground cover made ideal settings for an art bench and a small sandstone sculpture of a bird family. In 1994, the lawn itself was even used as sculpture at the proposal of Canadian artist Karl Ciesluk.

The partnership with the Parks Department Landscape Architects and maintenance operations is critical to the success of the project. Details such as positioning the work so that irrigation spray would not "sandblast" the finishes were critical to the site plan. In addition, irrigation and power lines had to be identified and protected from both the 18" deep concrete footings installed with the works and the height of some sculptures, respectively.

The plan also is sensitive about integrating the sculptures with other activities the commission knew happen at the park. Therefore, the plan stayed out of the center of the circular field where soccer camps and volleyball games take place, and they spaced the sculpture so vendors at the city-wide festival (held during the exhibition's run) could put their booths close to power sources and close to crowd attraction areas.

Landscape Architects are making solid contributions to the art selection process as well. Matt Mathes, ASLA, of Richard Carothers Associates and a member of Bellebue's Park Board, serves as a liason to the Arts Commission. In this capacity, he often serves is a juror on public art projects.

Artists are enthusiastic about showing their work in this urbane, beautifully designed setting. Maps locating the work and explaining the pieces are placed at entrances to the park, and the general public was very pleased with this change of pace. Each map also contains "People's Review" survey forms, giving the community the opportunity to review the exhibit. The results of the survey reveal that the Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition has been a real success in terms of meeting its goals of education and enjoyment, and it will be back by popular demand in the Summer of 1996. LASN