It won’t be known what it will be for at least a year, but the final stretch of the process to commission art for the Duval County Courthouse began Tuesday.
Legislation was introduced to City Council to transfer nearly $729,000 from the Better Jacksonville Plan’s Art in Public Places Project to the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville.
The funds will be used to select an artist and then fabricate and install the public art project with the largest budget in Duval County history.
“We’ll see work from all over the world,” said Cultural Council Executive Director Tony Allegretti. “I hope it makes international headlines.”
The selection committee — comprising Cultural Council board members, local art professionals and residents representing the city’s six planning districts — will issue within days of the transfer of funds a call to artists.
Allegretti expects at least 100 artists will respond. That group will be narrowed to about three candidates, who will be brought to Jacksonville to tour the site and participate in public planning sessions.
Each finalist will submit a design proposal and one will be contracted to fabricate and install their work.
“It will be a very transparent process and we want people to get involved,” said Allegretti.
He predicted Tuesday the final selection will be the largest piece of art in the public collection of more than 70 objects at about 30 sites in the county.
Since 1997, 3/4 of 1 percent of the design and construction budget for all city-owned vertical construction projects has been earmarked for public art. Five percent from each budget is set aside for the long-term maintenance of each installation.
Art in Public Places Director Christie Holechek said the courthouse art will be the first large-scale project since “Showing the Way,” a sculpture by Brower Howard that is a memorial to Tillie Fowler. It was installed in 2009 along the Northbank Riverwalk between The Haskell Co. and The St. Joe building in Brooklyn.
Whatever it turns out to be will be the most costly commission since “Talking Continents,” sculptor Jauma Plensa’s $477,000 collection of six illuminated fiberglass and steel human figures, debuted in 2003 on the grounds around Veterans Memorial Arena.
“It’s quite a commitment from the city to the community,” said Holechek.
To view the public’s collection of art, visit culturalcouncil.org.
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