Committee formed to select from 26 proposals for art in city parks as commissioners debate using city money for art outside Indio

Indio artist Patrick Barwinski designed his “Garden of Life” concept to capture the “flourishing spirit of Indio.” His mural in the same style, “Desi Memorial”, adorns the Loma Linda Children’s Hospital in Indio. (*Rendering: Patrick Barwinski*)

The Indio Public Arts Commission received 26 proposals for a new public art project to brighten up local parks, and at Tuesday’s meeting they decided how they were going to sort through the applicants.

Two commissioners and a city staffer will select up to eight finalists to paint park bathrooms from among the 26 artists who applied, the city’s Public Arts Commission decided Tuesday. The chosen artists will enfold bathroom exteriors with selected murals at Jackson, Miles Avenue, and Dr. Carreon Parks.

Final picks could come back to the commission in April to recommend winners for the city council’s final approval.

“If you have the opportunity to go through the 26 projects that were submitted, please do, because they are really beautiful,” said Armenta to fellow commissioners.

Artists were invited in January to submit proposals to cover three Indio city parks bathrooms in order to deter graffiti on what are currently large, plain white walls on the bathrooms’ exteriors. City staff said the murals would reduce maintenance costs associated with graffiti removal.

Twenty-six artists submitted designs tailored to the city’s criteria of “playful, detailed, and visually complete compositions” that would fully cover the bathroom exteriors. Selected designs will receive up to $10,000 per site from the city’s Arts Fund and are expected to last 15 years.

Though the staff report containing the project applications said the murals would “provide a meaningful opportunity for local and regional artists,” there were no requirements for artists to be residents of Indio or the Coachella Valley. City-approved selection criteria give an edge to Indio artists, but only one application listed Indio as a residence and two others were from artists living in the Coachella Valley.

Separately, the commission voted 4-1 to deny a proposal by the City Manager to allocate Arts in Public Places program funds to projects outside the city limits. City law requires developers pay a public art fee in lieu of including artwork on their buildings, and the city uses these funds to create art projects such as the city’s bathroom murals and larger projects such as the viral Fred Waring Avenue mural.

The proposal was brought to the commission to support projects in contexts such as the Desert Jet Center near the Jacqueline Cochran Regional Airport in Thermal which staff said could feature local artists for the purposes of promoting tourism in Indio.

“As an artist doing work all around the world, I want my tax money to stay in my city” said Prudhomme, a sentiment echoed by other commissioners.