Boulder Arts Commission adopts four transportation artworks and advances three Western City Campus commissions

The Boulder Arts Commission on Wednesday approved adding four artworks from the Transportation Department into the city's permanent Public Art Collection and advanced three finalist public-art commissions for the Western City Campus for final approval by the city manager.

The four works identified through an audit and recommended for accession are Current by Karen Yang, Fortieth Parallel Prism Tower by Christian Mueller, Hex Totems by Christian Mueller and Lighthouse by Ken Bernstein. Commissioners also voted to forward the plaza, pavilion/atrium and garage-stairwell projects at the Western City Campus to the city manager with recommended artists and design feedback.

Commissioners and staff said the moves were aimed at better documenting and caring for artworks that currently sit in other departments' inventories, but several commissioners raised concerns about where long-term maintenance money will come from as the collection grows.

Public art staff presented the audit and the four Transportation Department pieces for accession, saying the artworks met the commission's adoption criteria and that Transportation leadership had provided a memo agreeing that those four pieces fit the criteria. Staff noted that none of the four are in obvious disrepair and that the city will perform a collection-wide maintenance assessment this fall.

Commissioners then considered three separate selection rounds for the Western City Campus…