January 12, 2023 - The Mariposa Arts Council and the County Planning Department invite the public to review and share feedback on initial concepts for Mariposa County’s Caltrans’ Clean California public art project. Located in the town of Mariposa, this project entails two gateway features located at the southern and northern intersections of Highway 140 and Highway 49 and two murals. 

The proposed gateway features and murals will explore Mariposa’s native ecological systems and the connection between people and place. This project is in alignment with the Mariposa County’s Creative Placemaking Strategy and directly supports priority recommendations in the plan. 

To execute this project, the County has engaged Atlas Lab Inc., a landscape architecture, urban design and public art practice firm who have previously worked with both the County and the Arts Council to develop the County’s Creative Placemaking Strategy. Atlas Lab will be designing the gateway features and managing the project’s team and timeline. Ink Dwell Studio, an renowned studio located in Half Moon Bay known for its murals that explore the beauty and complexity of nature, has been hired to develop and install the murals. Engineering firm Provost and Pritchard is overseeing the project’s technical aspects, including issues associated with highway safety and permitting, and the Arts Council is facilitating stakeholder engagement.

Because these projects will exist in the public realm, public investment in the project is critical and the artists and designers are seeking robust feedback from the community to inform their final designs. To facilitate public stakeholder engagement, between January 18 and February 17, 2023, the Arts Council has developed a variety of in-person and online opportunities for people to submit feedback. These opportunities are as follows:

Visit the Arts Council or Mariposa Public Library, between January 18 and February 17, 2023, at your convenience:

• Stop by the Arts Council where preliminary draft concepts and explanatory text will be on physical display. The public is encouraged to visit the Arts Council to talk with staff about the project and provide in-person feedback. The Arts Council is open Monday-Friday from 10:00 A.M. – 4:00 P.M. and is located at 5009 Highway 140, above Chocolate Soup. 

• Stop by the Mariposa Public Library - where preliminary draft concepts and explanatory text will be on physical display. Library staff will be available to talk about the project on Thursday afternoons. The Library is open Tuesday-Thursday from 9:00 A.M. – 7:00 P.M. and Friday-Monday from 9:00 A.M. – 4:00 P.M. and is located at 4978 10^th St. 

Stop by one of our pop-up events happening in downtown Mariposa (near the sites for the gateway features and murals) and talk with Arts Council staff about the project and offer in-person feedback.

• The Grove House (4993 5^th Street) - Thursday, February 2, 5:00 P.M. – 7:00 P.M.
• Sticks Coffee (4993 7^th Street) - Saturday, February 4, 9:00 A.M. – 11:30 A.M.
• Pioneer Market (5034 Coakley Circle) - Saturday, February 4, 1:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M.
• The Alley (5027 Highway 140) - Tuesday, February 7, 5:00 P.M. – 7:00 P.M.

Attend special programming with opportunities for in depth discussion of this project by Arts Council staff.

• Miwumati Healing Center - Wednesday, January 25 from 11:00 A.M. – 4:00 P.M. (specific for tribal stakeholder engagement)
• Mariposa County Library (4978 10^th Street)  - Special presentation on Thursday, February 9 at 5:30 P.M.

Visit the Arts Council website and browse the digital gallery and take the online survey, www.mariposaartscouncil.org.

Additional information about project context, funding and team:

Mariposa County Planning Department - Caltrans Clean CA Initiative funding recipient and project lead.

Mariposa County Creative Placemaking Strategy - Adopted by the Mariposa County Board of Supervisors in 2021, the Mariposa County’s Creative Placemaking Strategy promotes the county’s economic, ecological, social, and cultural vitality, balancing historic narratives with contemporary ones and reflects the community’s richness and diversity. By engaging artists and embedding artistic practice into the community experience, the Strategy will support a culture of creativity that contributes to livability in Mariposa County. The Mariposa County Creative Placemaking Strategy recommends specific artistic interventions that adhere to and honor the following creative placemaking and placekeeping values: 

• Articulate and deepen the connections that Mariposa County residents feel to each other and their community;
• Reflect the county’s diverse range of perspectives and experiences;
• Inspire interaction, curiosity and inquiry;
• Expand our community’s comfort with and capacity for creativity and expression

Caltrans Clean California Initiative - Clean California provides funds to clean and beautify public spaces in underserved communities by providing financial support to local and regional public agencies, transit agencies, tribal governments and nonprofit organizations.

Atlas Lab Inc. - Atlas Lab’s mission is to design, build and advocate for conscious change in the built environment to make accessible, positive and progressive impacts on communities. They create with purpose and build progressive change within communities. The way people understand their environment and interact in a space is the foundation for everything they do. They are extremely passionate about making healthy environments accessible to all and bringing humanistic and artistic design solutions to communities that are historically, culturally and ecologically responsive.

Ink Dwell Studio - Ink Dwell studio creates art that explores the beauty and complexity of nature. Merging classical techniques of science illustration with modern fine art to create public and private commissions, paintings, visual art, illustrations, exhibitions and much more. Ink Dwell makes everyday places special and enhances iconic locations with wondrous imagery. Ink Dwell’s co-founder and principal artist is Jane Kim, who received a  BFA in Printmaking from RISD and then attended California State University Monterey Bay, where she received a master’s certificate in science illustration. She has created large-scale public art across the country, including the Wall of Birds at The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and produced works for the National Aquarium, the de Young Museum, Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, and more. She is the creator of the Migrating Mural campaign, a series of public installations that highlight wildlife along migration corridors it shares with people.

Provost and Pritchard - Provost & Pritchard in an engineering consulting group, working to transform concepts into livable, workable solutions that ultimately improve the infrastructure for the lands and communities throughout California in the field of: civil and agricultural engineering, environmental engineering, hydrogeology, planning, and construction management.

Mariposa Arts Council - The Mariposa County Arts Council, Inc. (Arts Council) is honored to serve as Mariposa County’s local arts agency and its designated State Local Partner to the California Arts Council. The Arts Council’s mission is to promote and support all forms of the cultural arts, for all ages, throughout Mariposa County and their work is situated at the intersection of cultural and civic life. Specifically, the Arts Council works to inclusively support the social, cultural, ecological, and economic vitality of Mariposa County through the arts.

Source: Mariposa County Arts Council