The Beverly Hills Arts and Culture Commission at its Aug. 12 meeting discussed how its work plan items fit into City Council priorities for the 2025-26 fiscal year.
These work plan items include Fine Art Acquisition, Festival Beverly Hills, Artwalk, Concerts on Canon Performer Selection Criteria, Developer-Owned Art, Inspect Developer-Owned Art, Art Acquisition, Arts Education and Programming for the World Cup and Olympics.
Earlier this year, City Council revised the process for commissions with discretionary responsibilities, which includes the Arts and Culture Commission, as a way to align their work plans with the city’s priorities. The process now involves presenting proposed commission work plans alongside the council’s priorities, allowing the city manager to make recommendations and have the council provide direction and feedback. Following input from City Council, liaisons will meet with commission chairs in June/July to convey priorities, commissions will work with staff to execute the work plans and liaisons will conduct progress check-ins in December/January.
Following the conclusion of that discussion, Assistant Director of Community Services Patty Acuna provided an update on Yayoi Kusama’s Hymn of Life: Tulips sculpture and flower restoration project. The City Council recently approved the deaccession and destruction of the artwork. The decision came as a requirement to allow for the agreement with the New York Botanical Garden to continue.
The sculpture, which was installed in Beverly Gardens Park in 2007 as Kusama’s first U.S. public art commission, sustained irreparable damage by 2012 from weather and public interaction. This prompted the Arts and Culture Commission to recommend refabrication of the sculpture in stainless steel, which City Council approved in 2019. In the same year, City Council approved loaning the original Kusama sculpture to the New York Botanical Garden for the “Kusama’s Cosmic NATURE” exhibit for 2020. After delays in refabrication due to the COVID-19 pandemic and closure of the foundry that was in charge of that process, the sculpture eventually was taken into the hands of The Big New foundry. Currently, the artwork is undergoing the final stages of refabrication before approval by Kusama’s representatives.
City Council, at its Aug. 5 meeting, approved the deaccession of the artwork as required by the Fine Art Ordinance in order to destroy the piece and authenticate the newly installed artwork for the New York Botanical Gardens.
Finally, the commission debriefed the recent Great Elephant Art Migration installation, which was held at Beverly Gardens Park in the month of July. Commissioners expressed their joy for the exhibit, praised the quick turnaround time for the installation and gave “kudos” to the Great Elephant Art Migration team.
“If we had turned it away and not had that, it would have been a terrific loss to the city. I don’t think we’ve had a more successful event than that,” said Commissioner Maralee Beck about the Great Elephant Art Migration.
According to Matthew Brown, the city’s recreation services manager, a majority of the elephant sculptures have been sold. Funds from the sale of the elephants will go toward causes that protect biodiversity and support the coexistence of humans and animals. Brown said that the Great Elephant Art Migration team is currently getting a slew of inquiries from the public and is pending a decision on what comes next.
