Art competition announced for Napa's future garage

Napa’s new downtown garage will not only be the biggest in town, but will have something that the other three don’t have: art.

The city and county will spend $25,000 from the project’s $15.2 million budget to commission a work of art for the Main Street frontage.

Only artists who live in Napa County or have a studio here are eligible for consideration. The Napa Community Redevelopment Agency has issued a request for qualifications, with a deadline of Sept. 28.

The last time that a local public agency commissioned a work of art was in the mid-1970s when the city’s redevelopment program selected multiple sculptures for the downtown urban renewal project, officials said.

The art will occupy a niche that is nearly seven feet wide, 19 feet tall and four inches deep. The winning entry can extend beyond the garage’s brick facade 12 inches.

A mosaic, a sculpture and a work that incorporates water are among the possibilities, said Jennifer LaLiberté, the redevelopment agency’s senior project coordinator.

The four-story garage will have 484 parking spaces. It will serve county government and shoppers and employees at riverfront commercial developments.

For more information, visit www.cityofnapanews.com or the Arts Council of Napa Valley’s Web site, www.acnv.org. To request a mailed copy, call the redevelopment agency at 257-9502./Register

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