CSS 2020-02-24 Item 1D - Public Safety Plan - Fire Station Murals and Process Moving Forward

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INFORMATIONAL MEMO Page 2 Fire Station Murals At the January 27 Committee of the Whole meeting the architects associated with the Justice Center and Fire Stations presented on the Public Safety Plan's art program and how the City is achieving the 1 % for art mandate. Concerns around gender and racial representation were raised about the murals designed for the two fire stations. At the subsequent February 3 Regular Council meeting, additional concerns regarding these murals were voiced by residents and a City staff member. Staff recommends that the mural program be sent to the Tukwila Arts Commission for discussion and ultimate decision on whether to accept or reject the mural program. This type of decision is within the purview of the Commission. Due to timing, with the Arts Commission meeting two days after this committee meeting, staff has already scheduled this item on the Commission's agenda. Should the Committee not concur with this approach, staff will pull the item from the Commission's agenda. In order to ensure transparency, the interested parties who testified on this issue, as well as representatives from the Fire Department, have been notified that the mural program is a likely agenda item for the Arts Commission at their February 26 meeting. Staff will follow up to let the interested parties know of the Committee's decision. There is precedent of public agencies in the region rejecting a commissioned piece of art for a variety of reasons. Accepting or rejecting an art concept, versus trying to make modifications to the concept, is best practice. Staff does not recommend trying to alter the current concept of the artwork. Honorina Indiaenous Cultures At the January 27 Committee of the Whole meeting, questions were asked about how the City should appropriately recognize indigenous cultures. While not explicit in the arts presentation, all three projects will contain recognition of the indigenous cultures that were in the area prior to white settlers. At the Justice Center, such recognition will be integrated into the large maple slab at the front door. At Fire Station 51, it will be included in the front lobby mural and in the plaza area at Fire Station 52. Programming Public Safety Plan Art Performances and Events As stated above, one of the main approaches that the team took to the Public Safety Plan Art program was to: • Identify ways to maximize art opportunities that can be community -led for the long term: o Create spaces for physical art displays o Create spaces for experiential art and events As the buildings come online and this approach is operationalized, policies will be critical to ensure that art, performances and events located at the sites are inclusive. As such, staff is currently developing policies on how the City selects art, vendors, performers and artists in an equitable fashion. These policies are in draft form and the Arts Commission will be involved in their review. As a result of the questions raised about the Fire Stations murals, staff now recommends that once that policy has been drafted and reviewed by the Arts Commission that it also go to the Equity and Social Justice Commission for review and comment. Additionally, as a part of implementing the City's adopted Equity Policy, one of the four priorities for 2020 is the development of an Equitable Outreach Toolkit. Goal 2 of the adopted Equity Policy reads: 24