People urged to vote for best public art in the world, featuring Bay Area nominees
Vote for the best public art in the world - including four Bay Area sites
Four Bay Area public art projects are among 100 nominees in an international public art and design contest run by CodaWorx
Oakland, Calif. - An international contest for the best public art and design in the world has narrowed its field to 100 nominees, and four of them are located in the Bay Area.
Toni Sikes, CEO of CodaWorx, which hosts a directory of public art from around the world and runs the contest, said the public can vote online to help determine the winner.
Among the Bay Area nominees is the Naga Dragon Sculpture in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, which Sikes said was the result of a large collaborative effort.
"Hundreds and hundreds of volunteers worked on it for months," Sikes said. "I do believe it's the largest sculpture in that area. It's the brainstorm of an amazing artist, and she brought all of these volunteers together for this, what I think is a real engineering feat."
Another nominee, a light sculpture called the Hypercube, is located in the engineering building on the UC Berkeley campus. Sikes said it was created by Los Angeles artist Susan R. Dooley.
"It's a total immersive environment in their new engineering school," Sikes said. "It was created to inspire innovation by engineering students and all of the people who come into this amazing building."
A third Bay Area nominee, a mushroom-themed treehouse-style sculpture built in the woods in Ross in Marin County, was created by the engineering and art company Ubu. Sikes said it stood out to the contest's jurors.
"It is an incredible engineering feat," Sikes said. "They've created an entire architectural environment" in the trees.
The fourth Bay Area nominee is the Point of Infinty spire on Yerba Buena Island, overlooking the Bay Bridge.
Sikes said the contest includes 12 categories, each juried by a panel of experts in art, architecture and design. The top 100 scoring projects across those categories are then posted online for a public vote to determine a "people's choice" winner.
Sikes also highlighted international entries that caught her attention, including a music festival installation in Albania made from colored string, and a massive transit station in Beijing featuring a metal ceiling screen that she said extends nearly a mile underground.
Sikes said being selected as a finalist carries real value for the artists involved.
"It is bragging rights," she said. "The way artists market their work is to be able to go out to the world and say, hey, we've been selected as one of the tops."
Voting is open now at codaworx.com.
The Source: Interview with Codaworx CEO, UC Berkeley website